Week 33 - Work Hard, Be Obedient, & Have Fun - & Bed Bugs!

Hey Ya’ll,

Sister Walker & Lewis
on exchanges at OU campus

This week was eventful. We had exchanges so I got to go to OU Campus with Sis Lewis for 2 days and it was so much fun. I love campus and OU Campus is absolutely the best. We were able to do a 2-day exchange, and were able to get to know the area better and the Sister better and I absolutely love Sister Lewis. She is so much fun, just a party. We talked to so many people. I love the college students because I can totally relate to them so it was a lot of fun on exchanges. One of the lessons was with an investigator named Hannah. She is literally me except she has super kinky curly hair. She is my personality. . .we just talked for a little bit about ourselves and got to know each other and then by the end she thought she could make a commitment to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized . . . sometime. Sis Lewis and I just looked at each other and just said ”awesome”!  So she’s solid and amazing and such a true seeker. We love Hannah. 

That night we went to dinner with a member of the ward who usually doesn’t like to feed the missionaries. (She told us that.) But when the dinner calendar was going around she had the feeling she needed to sign up. During dinner she told us about her brother who served a mission and after wasn’t doing so well. She wasn’t expecting her family until after we would have left but they showed up early and so her brother was there. He sat down and started eating, then he said, “Sisters, you’ve probably already shared a dinner message but this can be part of your dinner message, I’ve got some questions for you.” He asked us why we went on a mission? What helped us progress to a mission? What are we going to do after our mission? How are we going to stay in the same habits that we have on our mission?  It really got us to think and it was really cool as we could bear testimony to him about the gospel and how it’s not just a testimony, it is a conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s what our mission President’s vision is, to be converted in 20 years and not fall back into our old lazy habits. So we testified to him of this and after he left, his father came up to us and said, “I hope you weren’t scared by his questions, but he literally wanted to know that and you testified to him and that is probably going to do him some good down the road.” That was a miracle. It was the timing and the place and angels listening to the Spirit and all these other factors. I really hope that he gets his life together and is able to come back to Jesus Christ and find Him in his life again.

OU District

I spent a lot of time with our district this week and it was a lot of fun. First we went to this weather station because our Mission President and others thought it would be a great opportunity to be seen in the community. And at OU there is a National Weather Station, one of the biggest in the nation. So we got to go and got a tour and it ended up being a miracle , because we got there and had to sign security forms. We didn’t know about all this and were just about not able to go, and then this awesome lady named Shelby, shows up and offers to just give us a tour of where she is allowed to go (because she isn’t allowed into the weather station).  So it was really just a building tour and it was really fun. At the end we gave her a Book of Mormon and we were grateful that we were able to meet her and other neat people along the way. So definitely effective and definitely awesome.

Having fun after working hard:)

I absolutely love the District I am in. We have been able to learn from each other so much and that we’re able to hang out, and do missionary work, but also work hard, be obedient, and  have fun. That is our mission motto and I love it because it doesn’t forget the ‘have fun’ part.  If you are being obedient and working hard you are going to have fun. I just love the District and how much we are unified.

Sisters Kresge, Walker, Stephanie & girls
Love this family so much.

We have been working on getting our area book into our phones. It’s taking a long time and has required just using our phones and it’s made us a little crazy, but that’s ok. Our Mission President  wants us to focus on getting this done, so we’re doing it. We usually go to the library to do this, as we felt strongly that’s where we should go to do it. So we pulled into the library and saw Lazara’s truck in the parking lot.  (side note: We keep running into Lazara, like little moments here and there and since she has decided not to be baptized now, we have been working with her to help her develop faith in Jesus Christ and we’re pretty much doing as Christ taught…line upon line, precept upon precept.  So we might have taken a step back but we want her to feel ready and we don’t want to push anything on her that she’s not ready to commit to.) So we’ve just been helping her and this past week we kept running into her. It’s been so cool because she needs those spiritual uplifts since she has been struggling to read the Book of Mormon, so we’ve been helping her to get back into those habits. We just happened to stop at the Library and she’s there getting ready for a job interview. We asked how her reading was going.  She says, “not good”.  OK, five minutes, let’s read, Alma 7. So we read Alma 7 and it went really well. It just shows how much Jesus is aware of Lazara and what she needs. She is growing and is being strengthened and is progressing so well. So look what the working of the Area Book got us…it got us to the Library to see Lazara and to see more miracles.  That’s pretty awesome!  Also that day we went tracting behind the Library and we met some really cool people. One lady was Michelle. When she didn’t answer right away we started to pull out a Pass Along card and the Spirit told us to knock one more time. We knocked one more time and no one answered so we pulled out a pass along card and this lady comes around from the back and she said, “I’m so sorry, there’s a book shelf in front of that door.” Go figure. So we started talking to her and she was so sweet and so kind. We didn’t want to end the conversation even though it was freezing outside and she didn’t have her coat on. We didn’t get a return appointment but we gave her a pamphlet and a pass along card and encouraged her to read it.  She had the biggest and most beautiful smile and it made us so happy. We could see the light of Christ in her as we talked to her about Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. Hopefully we will be able to come see her again and start teaching her because she seemed pretty interested.

We met some even more awesome people when we went tracting that day.  It was a day full of little but powerful and amazing miracles.

Poor OU sisters got bed bugs:(
It was a long 24 hours...

Soooo, this is where the week gets interesting. Sister Kresge and I finished up our Area Book, getting ready for bed, ending the day on a good note and I noticed I had bug bites on me. I found about 3 on my arm, one on my toe, like 5 on my hand, some on my legs. At first I tried to ignore it and then Friday night I started itching really bad.  I couldn’t figure it out since there are no bugs, no mosquitos, nothing (it’s too cold). Since we were just over exchanges and I had just been over at the OU apartment and stayed in Sister William’s bed, I called the OU sisters to see if Sister Williams had similar bites. Yea, she did and Sister Lewis and Kresge didn’t. They hung up from our call and a minute later we get a text saying, “Come get us right now!”  I called them and asked if they were absolutely serious. They were. The OU Sisters got bedbugs and they’ve had them for 6 months and had no idea. I was so creeped out right disgusted. They lifted up the mattress and saw the nest and it was gross. We are nervous because we had taken stuff from their apartment to our apartment. We started putting everything in the dryer, checking all of our mattresses, all of our sheets, going crazy!  They OU sisters spent the night Friday night and got ahold of Sister Mansel, the mission nurse, and she told them to call her in the morning for a list of what they needed to do. At least the Noble Sisters don’t have bedbugs but we had to help the OU Sisters clean their whole apartment, dump their mattresses, and bag all of their clothes.  The fact that this happened right before transfers was hilarious. We got up at 6:30 and the Elders met us at 8:00 and we just cleaned the whole apartment. That was the craziest 24 hours ever.

The dog is in her usual spot to get petted. If you aren't over
there, she barks at you. She even knew Sis. Kresge was leaving:(

In the meantime, we were waiting for TDOC (Transfer Document) and the sad news is that Sis. Kresge is leaving Noble.😞 I am so sad because she knows the ins and outs of this place and she was the backbone. She’s my favorite and my sister and I’m going to miss her so so so much. I love her so much. But as all transfers go you have to get a new companion and my new companion is Sister Jenkins, who has the most amazing voice and writes music, plays guitar, and I’m literally so excited right now! We are going to write so much music. Sister Lewis, Sis Jenkins and I are the music people in this District and we’re just hoping that Sis. Lewis’s companion will be musical too so we could have a quartet of awesomeness. TDOC is so nerve racking, sometimes you hate it and sometimes you love it. The suspense is what kills you. 

So the challenge this week is something that President Uchtdorf said at the YSA devotional. If you didn’t have the chance to watch it, you need to watch it. It is a really good devotional.  I love President and Sister Uchtdorf, they are adorable. Something that Pres. Uchtdorf said that really stood out to me was to “Have faith, have faith enough in the moment you are living in now.” Have faith now and faith in your future that everything will work out the way it is supposed to. Trust in God and know that He will direct you on your amazing path. But you have to do your part.  Challenge:  Strengthen your faith, and develop a stronger faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in God’s plan for you. I promise you that you will be happier and have a better week.  Love ya’ll and I hope you have a wonderful, fabulous, faithful week. (Oh and your other challenge is to check your bed for bed bugs.)

Love you,

Sister Walker