Week 30 - Merry Christmas!

Where do I even begin?  It’s been quite the 2 weeks with Christmas and the Holidays. It’s been so much fun. Being here for Christmas has been an amazing experience.

Splits with Sister Williams

Love this! (notice no bike lanes😓)

Some exciting news. Lazara is getting baptized!!!  We were on exchanges (meaning I go with one of the OU sisters and the other OU Sister goes with Sister Kresge) I was with Sister Williams this week and we did a 2 day exchange, we did Wednesday and Thursday. Exchanges bring miracles, its crazy how cool exchanges can be. I love exchanges and Sister Williams has taught me so much. First of all, it was bike week, and for those who don’t know what bike week is, our Mission President decided that once a transfer we have a week we can’t touch our cars. And since Sis. Kresge can’t bike that means that we are either walking or asking members for rides.  We accomplished that and we saw so many miracles it was so cool! Sister Williams and I were on our way to see Lazara and hopped on our bikes. (Note: I hadn’t been on a bike for a really long time because I haven’t been in biking areas for the past 4 transfers) Our apartment is in Norman which is just outside of Noble and this bike ride is literally a hill down and a hill up and a hill back down . . . and I thought I was going to die.  Sis. Williams assured me we could do it. There’s a bike lane for as far as you could see but you get to the bottom of the hill and there’s no more bike lane.  Luckily it’s a highway and the cars would just pass us quickly but it was the craziest bike ride of my life!  So I get down the first hill, piece of cake and I get up the second hill and I’m dying and hurting. I can’t move anymore and I can’t understand why it’s so hard to pedal. So I get off my bike and Sis. Williams is way ahead of me and she looks back and says I had this face that said, “I am going to kill you for making us ride this route.” I really wasn’t mad I was just trying to focus and see how much farther I had. So she comes back down and discovers that I had the gears set at a 1 and a 7. She said “You’re not supposed to ride a bike up a hill with a 1 gear and a 7. That is the hardest besides an 8.” So I switched the gears and it made such a difference and I got up that hill, piece of cake. On the way we got another call from Lazara who said she had another appointment but she would be at the library soon, so we headed to the library, locked them up, and walked around that neighborhood. After we went inside to get warm, because this week was freezing cold! There were signs everywhere that said “Freeze warnings. Take Precautions.”  But they don’t tell you what the precautions are.  It’s been down to about 6 degrees, with humidity.  We were in the gym one day and saw the news and it said it was 95% humidity and 5 degrees. It was really cold this week and we still biked and it brought so many miracles!

Love these Sisters!

One of those miracles was when we met with Lazara at the library. There were a bunch of skate boarders in the library keeping warm and they were pointing at us and making comments, so we decided to go talk to them. They were young kids and we were having a friendly conversation with them.

Sis. Kresge & Walker 

One of the kids told his story about being kicked out of home after home after home, just living a rough life. Sis. Williams bore testimony to him and whether he wanted to hear it or not it was super cool, and then they started asking us why we were out on bikes, “you biked up Classen from Norman? That’s crazy!” We responded, “Yea, it’s the best thing ever.” One of them asked our names and we identified ourselves as Sis. Williams and Sis. Walker. Another asked, “What’s with this Sister business?”  “OK I’m going to be brother Frog,”  because that’s what everyone calls him. LOL Awesome kids, hope we run into them again.

Christmas Morning at OU Institute (sisters Lewis, Walker, Williams, Kresge)

So we finally have our lesson with Lazara and it took patience and diligence to have that lesson. So she met us again and it was pretty cool. She is now moving because she’s in a really bad living situation and we are really excited for her. Someone in the ward is helping her move. I love the Noble ward so much because they’re amazing at fellowshipping and they make sure everyone of our investigators is taken care of. They always ask, “What do your investigators need?  We want to help strengthen their testimony.”  That just makes us so happy when we hear that and it makes our investigators happy that they feel welcome into the ward not just as a newby and what do I do next?  Our lesson with Lazara was 3 hours long and I was so sad Sister Kresge wasn’t there to experience it but it was incredible. We talked a lot about faith and she said she was having a hard time at home living with her nieces and nephews, and her sister and her brother in law.  hey mistreat her all the time and don’t treat her like family so she wants to get out. We reminded her that Christ loves everyone and asked her how much love He has for her family she’s living with right now?  So we talked about that for awhile and it was hard for her to comprehend that because she’s grown up with them not being the greatest of kids. They’ve had a rough life. It finally got quiet in the room and the Spirit filled the room and she realized that Christ does love them even though they’re difficult. We were talking to her a lot about faith and how faith just comes. Then we shared personal experiences on how we were converted to the gospel, because Sis. Williams and I weren’t converted like the flip of a switch. It was a process.  Christ said line upon line, precept upon precept. There was one point in my life when I did not like reading the Book of Mormon. I thought it was boring and I’d rather be listening to music or something else. So I bore testimony of my conversion point in my life and how the atonement strengthened me.  Sis. Williams bore testimony of how she came closer to Christ. 

Christmas Dinner with
Eric & Kimberly Olesen Family
Noble, OK

Something Sis. Williams said hit Lazara so hard that she stopped us and acknowledged that she needed to have faith and she needed to be baptized. WE just sat there with the biggest smiles on our faces. We were getting worried that Lazara wasn’t progressing toward baptism and then we heard her words of, “this is what I want to do.” We were so excited and we didn’t quite know what to do. The Spirit was in the room. The room was like 100 degrees and we were dying but it was amazing and she’s sitting there and then she said, “Did I just say that?”  We were like, “Yeh, you’re getting baptized girl.” And she was seriously glowing with an aura around her. She proceeded to set a date of January 14, 2018, right before transfers. So we immediately called Sis. Kresge and she freaked out and everyone in the church is so excited for her. We have 3 baptism dates. Stephanie is progressing real well. In all humility, we have the most ready people who want to learn, who want to grow, who want to change. Sometimes that’s hard. 

Sister Kresge & Walker
Dinner with Bishop & Sis. Nabors
Noble, OK

When we met with Stephanie we knew something was going on and she told us she smoked another cigarette (like 2 or 3 in a week). She said that she felt so ashamed that she threw the cigarettes out her sister’s window. We reminded her that she did something hard - in a week – seven days. But she kept saying that she messed up. We told her she doesn’t understand the atonement, that what she needs to do is get on her knees and pray for help because she had succeeded for one week with the Lord’s help and she came closer to Christ than she realized. We reminded her of the three things she needed to be doing so as to not fall back into those habits and that’s C P R.  Church, Pray, Read.  CPR is vital for life especially if you stop breathing so in this situation where Stephanie has this urge to smoke, CPR is going to save her life and allow her to not smoke. Because when you’re going to church every Sunday, when you’re reading your scriptures everyday, and when you’re praying to your Heavenly Father everyday Satan is not going to be able to get in. So she set a goal to not smoke all the way up to her baptism and then they would set another goal to not smoke for a month, & so we just kept setting goals with her and it was real cool to see her progression. She’s getting baptized on Saturday and we’re ecstatic. There are so many people who want to be there for her.

Chelsey is also getting baptized, her little daughter. She is so cute. I love her. She is a truth seeker. We helped her with her baptismal interview questions and she is just excited.

We are so excited for them.

Challenge: CPR daily

Love ya'll,
Sister Walker

Zone P-day Winter Olympics - It was so much fun!!!

Week 29 - Merry Christmas Ya'll

HELLO from Oklahoma! Where when you don’t like the weather one minute, just wait for 5 minutes, because it’s going to change.  Like 70 degrees to 40 degrees.  It was really nice earlier and now tonight it’s super foggy and cold and wet and probably going to be the rest of the week.  But some exciting news . . . There’s a 40% chance of snow on Christmas.  Everyone’s talking about it.  It never snows here. Never!  Maybe a little bit and then they cancel church because it’s an inch and no one can drive in it.

Just thought it was in the most random
spot in the town...it deserved a picture

So we’re counting down, 19 days until Stephanie and her daughter Chelsie get baptized. We are so pumped, the ward is pumped and everyone is finding out about it. We are so excited for her. . . she’s progressing so well.  Every time we see her she has a question and she just wants to know more and do better. We don’t even have to worry about anything we tell her because she knows it’s true and she wants to change.  It’s really cool how close she has become to Jesus Christ, but she has the craziest back story.  You would never have thought 20 years ago that she would be a member of the Church but you can’t look on the outside.  You’ve got to look on the inside. It was a miracle how the missionaries found her and we are just so excited for her right now. 

Also, there are only 13 days until Marilyn gets baptized and we are so excited for her. She wants baptism so much. I just love our investigators right now and they’re just doing so well. They touch us when we go and see them. They strengthen us.  We might help bring the Spirit and have the Spirit touch them but they bring the Spirit into our lives and its really humbling to teach them and then have them strengthen us so much.

Sistrict Unity! (Walker, Lewis, Williams, Kresge)

Lazara is doing great too. Last week there was a play that our Stake put on called Hosanna.  There were a lot of pieces that were sung that were absolutely beautiful.  We got to come and listen and bring our investigators and enjoy it.  Most of the music was about the Savior, the songs in the Hymn Book and songs like What Child is This? and O Come, O Come, Immanuel.  They are just beautiful arrangements about our Savior, Jesus Christ.  So Lazara came to that and loved it so much. One of the things she has touched us with is her ability to feel through music and through performing. She is very expressive and loves to talk so she was just talking it up with us about how she felt about this performance and it was just really really cool. Music is one of my favorite things about Christmas.  It is so crazy how fast Christmas has come. This is mission life. Things just go by so fast…. first Thanksgiving and now Christmas is already here.

District Unity!

So our mission president also came to this performance and he got to meet Lazara.  She’ll say anything and her goal is to be a director (of plays) for a career. So she’s putting on this play but as missionaries we wouldn’t normally be able to go.  So Lazara goes up to our mission president  and they made a deal.  I’m not sure about the details of the deal but he said we could go to the play.  So we ended up going to this play and it was really cute.  It was the best Christmas Pageant ever, if you remember that book and movie.  I remember reading it in 5^th grade.  It’s all about this church that puts on a pageant every year and usually it’s the same kids year after year.  There is the Herdman family and no one likes them.  But the moral of the story is that you have to treat everyone with kindness and you can’t look on the outside. 

We were drowning in puppies!!! And it was too cute!<3

Most of our investigators are like this.  You can’t look on the outside because you can’t know what’s in their heart.  You have to look in their eyes and find the glimmer of light in their eyes and there is so much that they have.  So this play really touched me.  You can’t judge other people, but accept them for who they are.  The Savior can help touch their hearts and help them change.  We are so glad we got to go and support her and she was so happy we were there.  We actually got a little shout out from her and there were a bunch of non-members there and so that was real good.  She said, “and so my Sisters have been helping me to come closer to God.”  We got a lot of smiles and we said hi to a lot of people.  We were fulfilling our purpose in that moment.

Just giving members heart attacks :)

Something else that happened with Lazara, happened today during Sunday School and Relief Society.  Lazara was having a real hard time with the Plan of Salvation because she has a strong foundation in reincarnation.  It was something that she had come to love and it is something that gives her hope.  So when the Sisters taught her about the Plan of Salvation she didn’t want to hear it because it destroyed everything that she thought was true.  When we talked to the mission president he said she eventually would gain a stronger testimony of the Plan of Salvation and to just move on because she is going to progress in other places and she’ll realize that it’s true eventually.  So we dropped the Plan of Salvation, mentioning on occasion like “you are a daughter of God” and “God has a plan for you” but we wouldn’t go over the details.  So today during Sunday School it got brought up and the teacher was talking about the Plan of Salvation, and Lazara perked up and was asking questions and he said he’d talk about it next week.  But she’s the kind who wants answers now.  Sister Kresge and I are just grinning ear to ear in the Sunday School class because Lazara is engaged.  Then during Relief Society she leans over to us and wrote a note on Sister Kresge’s note book, “I want to learn more about the Plan of Salvation.”  And we were so excited.  We have a lesson with her tomorrow and realize that as missionaries we find different ways to teach and we improve every time we teach because we are not perfect.  We realize that we need to teach to her needs and not to what we thought she needed to learn so we’re hoping to have her ask lots of questions this time, and we’re really excited to see how it goes tomorrow.  So wish us luck.  It’s going to go awesome.

Beauty of Oklahoma <3

So last night we got a text from our Mission President asking if we were up.  Then he calls us and informed us he was coming to our Sacrament Meeting tomorrow.  He does that from time to time.  Elder Bednar did that when he visited our mission, and just showed up at a ward council meeting.  Our Mission President is so inspired.  I know that all mission presidents are called of God and they are there to support the missionaries and lead and guide them.  I’m so grateful for the inspiration and the worthiness President Mansell has to hold this calling because he does receive inspiration from the Lord and he knows what the mission needs.  I’m so grateful to be in this mission because I need Pres. Mansell and I need this mission too.  It all works hand in hand and there’s a reason why I’m here. I’m just so grateful for someone who holds a calling so well and that calls leaders throughout the mission to also lead and guide us.  He’s so close to the Savior and I’m glad he represents the Savior so well.

OklaHOMEa

So your challenge this week is based off of something I heard in Sacrament Meeting today and it really stood out to me.  Have you ever had a talent before that you use but sometimes say, I don’t want to use it right now even when you’re really good at it?  Remember the scripture, “Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put in under a bushel but on a candle stick.  Let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.” I relate that to talents.  You have talents, and are so gifted.  Those gifts are from Heavenly Father and you should be using them always, because you wouldn’t have them if the Lord didn’t have something great for you to do with them.  I realized that with certain talents that I have, like music, sometimes I hide it under a bushel because I’m scared to let it out, like playing the piano or singing.  Sometimes I get nervous and I fear instead of have faith.  This sister said today, “willingness trumps talent.”  As I thought about it I decided that your willingness to do something, trumps the talent. So your willingness to do it means more than just having it.  It stood out to me so much. 

So your challenge specifically is to find a talent that you haven’t been using very much lately, and pray about how you can share it more…even if it’s a talent you already use.  Also, read your patriarchal blessing because sometimes it mentions talents in there.  Find out what the Lord would want you to do with your talent.  Talents are to be used for good and to serve and to cheer people up.  I’ve noticed that when I sing or play the piano, it always makes me happy and other people happy and it brings the Spirit and a good feeling in the room.  Find that talent and use it in a good way, and then develop it because if we just do the bare minimum, we’re not fulfilling the full potential the Lord has for that talent.  Let me know how your challenge goes this week and I also want to know how your last challenge went.  So email me and tell me about it.  I hope you have a wonderful week.  I miss ya and I love ya.

...Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS Ya'll!!!!!  Sister Walker

Week 28 "Dad, the Mothers are here!"

Hey Yall!

Sis. Walker, Williams, Pres. & Sis Mansell,
Sis. Lewis, Kresge

This is transfer 2 in Noble and I am so excited to be staying here. This place is special and so amazing and I’m just so happy to be here. Sis. Kresge and I are staying together! Another transfer together, we are so excited. We have so many good things happening here. Also the OU Sisters are staying so the 4 of us are going to rock this transfer. We’re so excited!

Sisters & Ruth

So the other day we were going to a less active’s home and we knocked on the door and waited there a pretty good minute, just waiting there and waiting there.  And all of a sudden their son answered the door super quick and he goes, “oh, hold on a second.” He closes the door and we wait another little bit. Next thing we hear is Brother Borchers (their dad) exclaim, “Oh the mothers are here!” He said his son just came up to him and said, “Dad the mothers are here.” What??? “Oh I meant the Sisters.” So we are the mothers now, Mother Walker and Mother Kresge. That will explain the title of this email this week.

Stephanie & her girls, Chelsea & Nevaeh

Twining!! with our investigators
daughter, Hailey! 

Our investigators are doing real well right now. Some exciting news…Marilyn is engaged.  We are so pumped. One Sunday it was all about God answering prayers, and this question has been on her mind for awhile and it’s been whether to get married to her son’s father or not.  They finally decided to get married and we actually saw her with a ring on and she also has a new baptism date and it is going to be Dec 30, 2017. We are so excited for her. She is glowing and she wants it so bad. She is even sharing the gospel at work and has someone for us to teach. Stephanie’s also doing fabulous. We have been teaching her more. She has her date set for the 6^th still and she’s so excited to be baptized. We are also starting to teach her daughter the lessons so she’s going to be able to be baptized on that day too. Lazara is also doing so great.  Today she met our mission president. This is fun because our Mission Pres is super fun and expressive and so is Lazara. She told him that she needed to get these lessons done before we left because she doesn’t want us to leave. She’s on board saying she needed to have more lessons, so that’s what we’re going to do. She loves learning and grasps the information so well and progresses amazingly, it’s so cool. She’s awesome. 

When its 30 degrees and your comp is
Feeling a Pina Colada Milkshake:)

So yesterday we had our ward Christmas party and were trying to invite as many less active and investigators as we could. We got 3 investigators there and one was a part member family, the Underwood family, and they’re so amazing. We were really struggling with them because they wouldn’t come to church, and that’s something that has to happen in order to show that they’re progressing. So we had a prompting and felt strongly we needed to invite them at that moment. Sister Underwood later called us to find out what she needed to bring to the party and the only thing that was holding them back was their kids are super crazy. Crazy awesome!  So they were really scared to bring them to the church thinking they would be disruptive the whole time, but they did come to the Christmas party. We were really hoping they would come to church this morning and they didn’t. But we got this text from Bro. Underwood (the member) saying they had gotten ready for church, were ready to get in the car, and then everything just fell apart. His wife, Tonya, used to be with a group in the Pentecostal church and suggested that they just go there. Bro. Underwood wouldn’t hear of it saying they needed to go to his church, the LDS church. She was insistent and went to the Pentecostal church and gets home and tells her husband it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel the same. He told us in a text that she’s paying attention to the lessons and is grasping things and that we needed to keep teaching them because they were going to come to church next week. This just made us so happy. It was such a miracle and we are so excited to see them next week.  What is really cool is that the ward has adopted them into the ward. They are like family now and there are so many people talking to them. Tonya has lots of friends and we’re getting closer to their kids too and it’s really cool to see a family progress like that. 

We made 3 pans! #lighttheworld

I want to know what you guys have been doing to Light the World.  Isn’t it amazing?  (apparently amazing is in my vocabulary today cuz everything is amazing) …Sis Kresge and I have been trying to figure out what we can do to light the world. So the last week we’ve made three pans of brownies and a batch of cookies and we’re on a sugar high. It’s crazy. We’ve been making so many brownies and taking them to people. We made brownies for this Christmas concert that happened tonight and it’s just been awesome. I want to know what you have been doing to Light the World and I want to know the miracles you have seen.  Because it’s the holiday season I want you to continue the challenge from last week and do the weekly challenges.  Do them because they really strengthen your testimony of the Savior because the Savior served and we need to be serving just like He served. Come up with awesome ideas, there’s ideas on Mormon.org.  You all are so creative, and I know you can figure out amazing things to do and I want to hear about all of them. Let me know, email me, cause Sis. Kresge and I need some fresh ideas, and I want to hear the miracles you’ve seen from doing this Light the World challenge.

I love you all and I am so grateful for you and the love and support you have for the missionaries. We really do appreciate your prayers and they help us so much. Because we’re out here, and sometimes on our hard days and you have no idea how much it means when we know that we’re getting prayers, because our investigators need it, and all the people in our ward as well. You guys are just amazing and I hope you have a fabulous week and see lots of miracles.

Love you,

Sister Walker

District pictures

This Ornament made it on the top of our Tree!
Thanks Spence!

Piano Guys Christmas!!! Thanks Bryan<3

Week 27 - LIGHT THE WORLD Y'all...

Hello from Noble Oklahoma! 

Sis. Williams, Lewis, Walker, Kresge
Thanks to the missionary mom at
Stake Conference who texted us the picture

This week has been extra Amazing!! First I am staying with Sister Kresge In Noble!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH and she has taught me a lot this past 6 weeks! Also I love NOBLE Tons and our Investigators here are so faithful and Progressing to baptism!! They are so close to making that incredible and life changing promise with their Heavenly Father. They are following the example of Jesus Christ. We are so proud of them!

We had interviews with our mission president this week and they went so well!! President gave me some great council that I will never forget, and thats "to never think you aren't doing enough or good enough". That is Satan, when you get doubts that you aren't doing enough, so get that out of your head! I have been repeating in my mind lately, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" (President Uchtdorf), And I have seen miracles come out of this. One of the hardest things is to determine satan's voice and the Spirits sometimes, and I have learned to better know the Spirit. He will not give you doubt, but hope, and not fear but peace, and not lies but truth. If it is good and uplifting its the Spirit. Just listen and he will guide you to the right places. 

THE DISTRICT!!

I have a strong Testimony of the Godhead, and that they are 3 separate beings, and that they all work together to bring to pass that fullness of the Gospel. If we didn't have the Spirit we would receive no revelation for ourselves, and we would be lost. If we had no Savior we would not be able to make it to our Father in Heaven one day. If we had no Father in Heaven we would not even be here, and there would be no plan. How vital are these 3 beings, and how they love each of us! 

So Who is Just Waaaaaaayyy excited for the #LighttheWorld initiative this month??? I AM SO PUMPED!!! Service is the absolute BEST!!!! Christ is the Whole reason for the season! And he Served so thats what we should emulate this month to remember him and keep him center in our hearts this season. 

Went to breakfast at Tiffanies and had to get shirts

Thank you Grandma for the TREE!!!

Your Challenge is to do the #lighttheworld initiative! And try not to miss a day:) I would love for you to email me some of the experiences you have with this and the miracles you see. Also post on social media the things you do. This is so great for missionary work! 

I love you all, and hope you have a Fabulous and AMAZING week!!! 

Love, Sister Walker

Telephone box on campus!

Sister Lewis & Walker
OU Campus

Exchanges!!! with Ruth and Sister Lewis
are the absolute best on campus!!!