Week 43 - Advice from my wise Mission President...

District Meeting and Interviews with President Mansell

I never thought that I would be changing this much on a mission. I thought I would be a different person when I got home but I’m seeing it happen already. It hasn’t been easy and  easier said than done. We got to have interviews this week and it was the coolest experience. I’ve always liked interviews and talking with the Mission President and seeing what I could improve on and how the area is doing and just get his advice because he is so inspired by the Lord. He is called to be the mission president for a reason. I love my mission president so much. He’s always on top of it and can figure you out in like 5 minutes and I’m sure it is like that with all mission presidents because you’ve got to do that with your missionaries. He figured me out in 5 minutes. We were doing roll plays outside and he asked if I was scared of the role plays. “Yea, I’ve never felt comfortable doing role plays except with my companion, just ‘cause I don’t want lots of people watching me.” He said “Why are you scared of the role plays?” my reply was, “Because it is intimidating.”  And he said, “Get over it Sister Walker. It’s to help you.”

So it was good to get his blunt opinion on everything and at the same time super encouraging. He said I needed to work on confidence. No one is going to remember you. People mess up. You’re not perfect. He said I needed to forget myself and go to work. That was really good for me to hear, so that is my goal for however long it takes to be confident. He told Sister Jenkins to go up to a door and be completely silent and let Sister Walker take it over. We were standing at a door and this lady was on the phone and I apologized for catching her on the phone. Her reply was, “That’s OK but what do you want?”  My reply was “oh we’re missionaries and we’re out preaching the gospel.” It came out so weird and random and she ended up not wanting to hear the message which is fine but it was so awkward. I looked to Sister Jenkins for help and she just smiled. That has been one of the biggest things that I have been working on and I have seen even a difference, I’ve been talking more and having the Spirit testify through me, and there’s been some really cool experiences.

Singing at RS meeting
"Be Still My Soul, Be Thou Humble"

So one thing I’ve been working on is interrupting people, which I don’t like doing ‘cause it sounds so mean. That is what my Mission President had me practice in role plays. The AP’s or Zone Leaders or APL’s are sorta Okie talkers. They just go on forever on random tangents and we run into them all the time here. Some of the things they might say are, ‘did you know I died once and I came back ta life?  I say ‘really?’  They say, ‘ Let me tell ya about it.” Then they go into this super long story about how they died once and how the Lord helped them come back and all of this stuff. It’s hilarious to listen to but you have to get down to the purpose we’re there and so I’ve always struggled with interrupting them not wanting to make them feel bad. But I’ve learned they don’t even care. If you say something they’ll just go off of what you say. So that’s what I’ve been practicing and it’s been really funny because the last couple of days we’ve run into Okie talkers and I’ve had to figure out what to say.  It’s been a great learning experience.

Sister Jenkins & Walker

We ran into Lazara the other day and we haven’t seen her in a really long time so it was good to catch up with her and see how she was doing. We probably won’t be teaching her anymore. She’s been really busy and that’s really sad because she was doing really well. But I have hope that one day she’s gonna come back to the gospel and wanna learn more, and eventually make that promise to the Lord and be baptized. So right now she is just kinda occupied; she does plays. She’s really good and a great director and she’s working with these kids in a town that we cover over in Purcell. It’s really funny because there’s actually a lot of people from the church that are in this play so it’s fun to hear how everything’s goin and see how Lazara is doing even though we don’t get to see her. We definitely miss seeing her and hope and pray that she comes back some day.

Johnson Family
Jim, Ashley, Sister Walker,
Amy, and Taylor

So I had quite the surprise the other day from our recent convert, Stephanie.  She asked what we were doing at 9 o’clock?  She said a Jim Johnson wanted to meet us somewhere. It finally clicked that it is the Johnson family from our ward back home. So we met at the ward building and it was such a cool miracle to see them and see a familiar face from home. The whole family was pretty much there and I got to see one of my friends from Young Women, Ashley, and it was super awesome. A little tender mercy for this week. I’m so grateful that they were able to make the little trip out to Noble or Norman to see me. They were here to visit family so it was real kind of them to stop by and give me hugs from my family.

Marilyn's Baptism

Right before I saw the Johnson family we had the most amazing experience.  Marilyn got baptized on Saturday and it really made us excited. We gave her over to the Elders about a month ago and it was so great. That was something that just needed to happen so she could hear or experience something new that would help her to get on to that path of baptism. I’m so glad that she is baptized and made that promise with Heavenly Father. She received the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday and she is just glowing. The whole baptism started a little late. They asked me to play the piano . . . it seems like I play piano for almost everything. . . don’t get any ideas when I get home but it’s been real fun. I don’t read music so it’s been quite the adventure to find and match the key so no one is singing too low or way too high. I played prelude for quite a while until the baptism was ready to start and then when it got time for the baptism they discovered that the water was boiling hot and so 30 minutes later they brought ice bags from 7-Eleven down the street and dumped them in the font.  It was quite hilarious as a brother got in and tried to mix the cold with the hot. What are the odds of this happening? But then she got baptized and it was an incredible experience and you could see the light in her eyes shine so bright. We are so proud of her for the decision she made with the Lord.

One pretty big thing that I have been able to study and along with interviews really think about, is how it’s always the Lord’s will in missionary work and in your life. Sometimes it’s hard because it might seem a little scary to do something that the Lord has been pushing you to do, ‘cause you don’t know what the outcome is going to be, but I can promise you the Lord sees the outcome. It just takes that faith and that action to get to that beautiful outcome. Sometimes it takes longer than other times but this week I’ve learned that the Lord knows, and I may be walking past this door and He knows I need to go knock on it. It might look a little sketchy and I might try to shrug it off thinking, it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just one house. But listening to that voice of the Spirit and knowing that something great can come from knocking that door [is what I must do] . . . and it goes for all aspects of life . . .  So your CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK is to pray to know God’s will for you.  I have no idea what is going on in all of your lives but you do and so I challenge you to think about those things you want to improve on and be better at and put God’s will first. Ask Him what He would have you do. We have learned about prayer this week and how we should pray sincerely to the Lord and that sometimes going to the Lord and giving Him a solution—like ‘this is what I’m going to do about this or that, is this the right path?  If it’s not the right path please help me feel real bad about it and please direct my thoughts in another way.’  Sometimes we go to the Lord in prayer and say, ‘OK, I’m struggling.  Fix it please.’ I’ve done this so many times it’s ridiculous. But we really should say, ‘You have a solution, could you help me have the faith that the solution will be the right solution.’ That’s just what the brother of Jared did in the Book of Mormon, he brought the stones to the Lord.  He said, “We need light for the boats to get across the sea.” And the Lord said, ‘As soon as you have a solution come to me and I will make it work.’  So he used his creativity and brought back stones and said, “Lord, I know these stones will give light to the boats. Please touch these stones that they will light up.” And that’s exactly what the Lord did, because the brother of Jared came to Him with a solution and the Lord supported it. If it wasn’t the right solution the Lord would have guided his thoughts otherwise but it was the right solution, and because of the Brother of Jared’s faith he saw the finger of the Lord, and then he saw the Lord Himself. We might not have exactly that experience but I can promise you that if we put the Lord first in all that we do and listen to His words, and walk with Him, and know that He knows what’s in the future, He will help us. If you put His will before yours. . . because sometimes we get stuck on thinking that looks scary, I’m not comfortable, etc.  but remember that the Lord knows better and He is gonna help you through that if you have faith in Him and if you act upon that faith, doing something about it. You can’t just sit there and say, give me something. You have to act. Bring those stones to the Lord. That is my challenge for you this week.  Pray about it and think about it and I’d love to hear how it goes for you guys. Hope you all have a great week. I love you. I can’t wait for this week because it is going to be awesome.

Sister Walker

week 42 - The Lord's Schedule is the Best

How grateful I am for the Lord’s timetable. I think it’s the most amazing thing that things happen for a reason and you’re put in the path of people at the specific time so that you can help in changing their lives because they’re ready. We saw a lot of that this week. One of our district goals was to get 35 investigators by Wednesday. This goal was made last Wednesday. I used to have an attitude of not wanting to set goals because then it’s just a numbers game. It’s not about the numbers it’s about the people that we’re teaching to come closer to Christ. But I’ve realized I needed to have an attitude change about it because, in all reality, setting goals helps you to achieve anything you set your mind to. Honestly, it helps you to become more motivated. So I have a different attitude about setting goals because we’ve seen miracles this week from setting goals. Our goal as a companionship is at least 5 investigators in a week. That is a little tough for this area but we are seeing so many miracles and it’s unreal. It was a pretty long week but everything went along with what the Lord needed to happen. We ran into lots of issues with scheduling over appointments and things falling through, but we saw the Lord’s hand and everything worked out so we were able to visit those people we needed to visit. Some appointments canceled and we were really sad about that but it ended up that we were able to see other people because those appointments had canceled. The Lord’s schedule is literally the best.

To start out, we were tracting this trailer park really far east in the boonies. There are lots of trailers, I’ve never seen so many trailers. It’s awesome and the people out there are so humble. Some of them don’t want to talk about religion but that’s OK because we do meet amazing people. One of those amazing people is Jeff. There’s a bit of a backstory about this . . . we were tracting that area knocking doors and not getting a lot of good response and we go to one house where 2 little girls were. We asked if their parents were home and they told us no, so we told them we’d stop back by later. We started back that direction after we’d knocked a few houses down the road and saw a car there so decided to stop back by. Their dad comes to the door and he’s a little bit like, don’t talk to me, and little bit guarded because they’ve had problems with people coming to the door trying to sell things and then end up causing harm to the family like kidnapping and stuff that’s not the greatest. It was a little surprising and he was reluctant to have us sing a song to his family because of that past experience. But as we continued to talk to him he opened up a little bit and told us he has recently split up with his wife and his kids don’t know yet. It was just a perfect time to talk about the plan of salvation and how he can come closer to Christ and find comfort and peace from this. He has a son with cerebral palsy and we were able to talk about the resurrection and the spirit world and how his son won’t have this limitation in the eternities. As we talked his heart was softened and he said, “You know what? You’ve convinced me. You can sing a song to my kids.” So we sing them a song and asked him to read the Book of Mormon and he said he’d love to. We’ve been texting back and forth to see how he’s doing and he’s pretty busy with his kids but we’re hoping to get in with him this week. So that is a solid family that we’re so excited to get to know a little better.

Another miracle we saw this week was when we went tracting. We got home from an appointment with a lady from our ward that had fallen a little early, and instead of sitting down to plan our week, we decided to get on our bikes and go tract a neighborhood. We found a street and began to knock. This neighborhood has been tracted a bunch of times, so we were hopeful , expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. The first door knock is literally always the worst (laughter) you know get that over with and you’re fine. But we had faith and knocked on this door.  A 16-year old girl answered and she was super sweet. We started talking to her about what she believed, and what church she went to, building on that common belief. In the end she was like, “sure, yea, you can come back and teach me.” So we had a miracle and a return appointment on the first door knocked and also met a lot of amazing people on that street too. So that was one of the miracles from tracting that we had.

Saturday, we were in a neighborhood trying to visit some former investigators and drove by a park on the street where we were going to go see some investigators and saw a lady in a wheelchair watering her garden. We wanted to see if she needed any help, so we walked over and said, “Hi.” She said, “Oh you guys again.”  We were like what??? It seems missionaries had been there before. She has some health difficulties and is in a wheelchair, but that doesn’t stop her from doing what she loves, gardening. We asked if we could sing her a song about the resurrection and she said yes and then talked to her about music. It turns out she loves to play the piano and sing so we asked if we could hear her play. She let us into her home and played some awesome jazzy old time music, “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Amazing Grace.”  It was just the best and was so cool.  We’re hoping to get to visit with her again sometime.  You could tell that she knew her Savior Jesus Christ and all that He had done for her.  Even though she has these difficulties, she is blessed with these amazing gifts and talents that she is using and we thought that to be the greatest thing. 

On that same street we went to find a former person the missionaries had found three or more years ago. We went up to this house and asked the guy if he was Jared and he said no. We started talking to him and he shared with us some crazy stories. We were trying to put a more positive spin to the conversation, because it got a little negative, by asking him how Christ had blessed him. He got a little teary eyed and said how God was the only one who has cared for him in his life. We felt sad that he felt that no one cared about him but we were glad that he does know Christ, he knows God and we were happy to hear that.  This is the humorous part . . . he starts telling us about this surgery that he had to get done and he was telling us about this gnarly scar that he’s got. All of a sudden he starts taking off his coat, then lifts up his shirt, and the next thing we know he’s turned around and pulled his pants down a little bit to show us this scar on his backside. We were like ‘what the heck just happened?’ So we got flashed by an old guy the other day. The things you run into being a missionary.  Sometimes you even get to see scars in weird places. Sister Jenkins and I have been laughing for the last 24 hours.

I will just say that Sundays are always the greatest. First of all, Sabbath day, second of all, Sister Jenkins and I fasted for our investigators this week and we had some awesome lessons with people, nothing like we expected. We were really struggling to use our miles effectively (we have a limit on how many miles we can use a month), and running out of miles since the area is really big. We were trying to figure out members to come with us to this lesson and had a feeling we just needed to go; to have the faith and drive to this lesson. She is a former investigator whose husband use to be a member of the church. Their whole family lives on Hartzog hill. (Her name is Charlene Hartzog, hence Hartzog Hill). A lot of this family are members but she’s not and missionaries have found them before and tried to teach the lessons to them. We found this out because previously we met her at a wrong address and had played some music for her and she said we could come back some time. We were able to go and talk to her today and it was the coolest experience because she believes everything that has been taught and she just needs to gain a testimony about it. So she agreed to have us come over and review the lessons, not necessarily teach them again, but we could review them, and read the Book of Mormon with her. We texted her about 30 minutes ago and she said she’s read the Book of Mormon which she didn’t really do before and we’re going to challenge her to know if it’s true. We love sharing the Introduction to the Book of Mormon. If you get a chance read that because it is so powerful. It invites you to read and pray about the Book of Mormon because, honestly, you can’t convince anyone to believe the Book of Mormon is true, that the gospel is true. It takes you praying about it and studying the scriptures to know if it’s true or not. So that is what we invited her to do and we’re really excited. We think this family has a lot of potential and it helps because they’ve got like a whole “hill” of members that they can turn to. So it was a pretty awesome miracle today.

We didn’t have a dinner appointment and had a feeling to call this family we didn’t know very well, and ask if we could have dinner with them. They said yes and that they could pick us up – that was the second miracle (We got to save our miles). We met half way and learned that her daughter who is less active, her daughter’s husband who is a non-member, with his parents who are 2 more non-members, and then her son who is sort of less active would all be at dinner too. We get to their house and find out that their daughter loves music, so we pull out the guitar and played and sang hymns that she remembered from when she was younger. It was a real cool night of sharing the gospel, laughter and having a good time all being children of God. Everyone in that room is a child of God. Some may have a stronger testimonies than others but it was real cool to just share beliefs about Christ with each other. It ended up being a real good night and at the very end the less active daughter said, “You know what? I just really need to come back to church.” Her mom expressed to us in the car later that her daughter had been talking about the need to come back to church and that she thought we had really helped her see this. We were smiling ear to ear as we drove back home. Miracles happen on the Lord’s timetable. It is so important to listen to the promptings and act upon them, “No random thoughts.” We are going over for General Conference, and every single person that was there tonight, will be there to watch together. It will be awesome!  We’re so excited.

My CHALLENGE for you this week is to set some goals for yourself.  They can be any goals that you want to set.  Sister Jenkins and I have a goal of 5 investigators this week and it’s totally doable with the Lord. Know that your goals are totally accomplish-able with the help of the Lord. Always make sure you’re praying and counseling with your Father in Heaven to know what goals you need to set and how you can accomplish them, then make a plan. Let me know how it goes, I’d love to hear what you do for all these challenges.  I love your stories and experiences.  Have a wonderful week.  I love you all, your prayers, and your thoughts.  Ya’ll are the best.

Love, Sister Walker

Week 41 - Recognize Your Strengths

Sister Jenkins & Walker

The Lord has truly blessed us with beautiful weather. We have been biking all over the place and had several members at church come up to as and tell us they’ve seen us biking. It’s been an amazing week! We’ve seen a lot of miracles from biking. It makes a difference when you’re on your bikes in crazy helmets and dresses, with a big smile on your face trying to hold your skirt down in the wind, people definitely notice you. When we can’t bike to certain areas we’ve been trying to get members out with us so that we get to know them better. We’ve actually seen a lot of miracles with the members we’ve been taking out. One member we didn’t know very well who went out with us, told us about a former investigator that is related to her, who she thought probably would like to take lessons again. While she was out with us we had to go pick up her son’s non-member, Brazillian fiancé, who was super interested in the gospel and she came to church today. That was awesome! We’re seeing so many awesome miracles with the members this week and it’s been really cool to see how much of an impact they have on missionary work. You members out there are really making a difference. Smiling at someone, sharing something brief about the gospel is doing missionary work. Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s amazing. I love the members here.

My shoes!
Tape isn't working anymore 😁

Sister Jenkins and I had the unique opportunity of attending another church, Life Church, this week. Little did I know that I would get to go to another church on my mission but it was a really cool and interesting experience. The reason we did this was for something that we are allowed to do, called a church swap. Our investigator, Sharon, came to our church, then we went to her church. It was nothing that we’re used to and it was a completely different way to feel the Spirit. As I looked at the people in the room, I noticed one thing that was similar to what I saw in our church, every single person in that room is trying to come closer to Christ. There is absolutely no room to judge those people. I could very easily have judged them when they raised their hands up and praised the Lord, but that is their way of coming closer to Christ in what they know. So it was different for us to see, but was honestly a learning experience that every single person, especially being in the Bible Belt right now, who’s core belief is in their Savior Jesus Christ, want to come closer to Christ and to one day be with Him again. This is so amazing, and I absolutely love it. That is honestly their ultimate goal and as missionaries, our purpose is to invite them to come closer to Christ. So, they have a foundation in Christ but why not add to that foundation and grow with it? That is our purpose – to apply the teachings of Christ and add upon that to make it even stronger. So I think it was a pretty cool experience going to Life Church. When Sharon came to our Sacrament Meeting, she said it was a real cool experience to see a different side of church. She liked the family aspect and other things that she absolutely loved about it. It was real cool for both of us to feel the Spirit and to see ourselves come closer to Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the plan of salvation and knowing that every single person on this earth chose Jesus Christ when they came to earth. Some don’t realize that yet, that’s why we’re out here teaching about it, so hopefully they will understand that they are sons and daughters of God. I know for a fact that there is Jesus Christ and that He lives. It’s just incredible to see the growth that the people we teach make and the growth that I’ve been making and that my companion’s been making. It is an amazing experience to see how Christ truly affects us if we turn to Him.

We had the craziest miracle happen, and it just shows that things happen by divine design. Things are laid out perfectly and it all happens because God is real and He has a plan for us. It was so cool, we had just gotten done with a lesson with two sweet girls we were teaching and reading with them the story of Ammon & King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon (Alma 17-18). In the story Ammon goes to a people he’s heard about who aren’t the nicest, who usually kill the Nephites. (Ammon’s a Nephite, Lamoni’s a Lamanite). He goes anyway because he has a lot of faith in the Lord. That is A LOT of faith knowing that you could die but willing to do it any way. He went to teach the gospel to the Lamanites because the Lord asked him to. He is tied up by the Lamanites and brought before King Lamoni. All Ammon wants is to serve this king and that’s what he tells him, so the king begins to respect him and makes him a servent. King Lamoni sees the good deeds that Ammon does and thinks of him to be the great spirit which is God. Ammon explains that he is actually a servant of God. We talked to the girls how sometimes we have to serve.  Being kind, loving and serving is teaching the gospel, and that softened king Lamoni’s heart so that he would be able to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. It didn’t happen in an instant,  it took a little bit of time. After this lesson our next appointment canceled that we were really looking forward to.  Sis. Jenkins suggested that we just walk our bikes and I agreed after saying “No, let’s just ride our bikes.” (I have a lot of respect for Sis. Jenkins because she just goes for it, has no fear and is awesome.  She’s really been pushing me and I appreciate her). We were walking down this one street and she noticed a lady talking on the phone and doing a bunch of yard work. She said, “Let’s go see if we can help her.” Sometimes when we go offer service it’s like, “girls in skirts?  Oh, I’m OK. You girls just keep riding your bikes.”  But she was really appreciative and said yeh, that would be really great. We got her flower bed weeded and things raked up off her lawn and it was the coolest miracle because we just applied scripture story about service and had the opportunity to apply it. We were there for 2 hours and helped her and talked to her about her life and what she was going through. Slowly she opened up to us about some things she’s been experiencing and how she’s been able to come closer to God. We were able to testify about the plan of salvation which is always amazing . . . I absolutely love to testify about the plan of happiness. She kept asking us what we believed about this and that. She told us about experiences she’s had with her ancestors on the other side of the veil. It was one of the coolest 2 hours of my life. After we left from that experience, our jaws just dropped and acknowledged that that was a miracle from heaven. . . we were supposed to meet her. Her name is Donya and in those 2 hours we became close and she said she wanted to have us over for dinner. By the way, she loves music, and so we are going to jam together. She plays guitar and sings. No coincidence, right?  So we are going over to have dinner with her and her family and sing and teach. We had been getting a little discouraged this week because we’ve been having to drop people who weren’t ready right now, so that was a tender mercy from the Lord.  We are so grateful we met that sweet lady Donya.

I have an experience this week that goes along with the Challenge I have for you this week. We talked a lot about confidence this week and our Mission President surprised us and showed up to District Council, where all the missionaries in our District meet and talk about how we can improve as missionaries and get counsel from each other. We were talking about confidence and in walks Pres. Mansell. He had some good insight about confidence and he put me on the spot and it really tested me and tried my faith a little bit. He asked me what my strengths were. I realized that I have not been focusing on my strengths lately, I’ve only been seeing my weaknesses. It took me a while to pinpoint a lot of my strengths. Yes, it was a little embarrassing in front of my whole district but it was cool to see how much we need to recognize our talents and our strengths and the things the Lord has given us. They’re for us to use to help other people. We talked a lot about what God has given you is supposed to affect / influence other people for great things. So the talents the Lord has given you, use them to serve, use them to teach, use them to do good in the world. This week I’ve been really focusing and applying that counsel I got from my Mission President to my missionary work, to have confidence in the things that I’ve been blessed with, and to not forget those things that I could do better in. So your CHALLENGE this week is to recognize your strengths. There is not a limit as to how many strengths you can put down on a piece of paper.  I would just like you to write down as many strengths as you can and then put it somewhere where you can see it and study it, and really ponder about why God gave you those strengths. Everyone is going to have different strengths. They’re not all going to be the same, because everyone is different and God made everyone unique and special. He loves each one of us and those strengths are going to take you into eternity. You have to learn from them. The lord gives you talents not to set in the corner and collect dust, but He wants you to use them for good. I have truly had a strong testimony of the need for confidence this week, and it has tried my faith and it has tried me in so many different ways. I’m excited and thrilled to be strengthened in that. I hope you all have a great week and let me know how this strength challenge goes.

Love,

Sister Walker

Week 40 - So Many Miracles

Hey Ya’ll,

Beautiful Sunsets of Oklahoma

The Lord this week has blessed Sister Jenkins and I with beautiful days and we have seen so many miracles, and the weather has been absolutely perfect. So we have been out biking, believe it or not. I’ve not been able to bike a lot of my mission for several reasons, and so I’m so excited to be on a bike. The other day we were riding our bikes home from dinner and the clouds were just parting and you could see the sun coming over the clouds and the colors were magnificent. It was just absolutely gorgeous. I partly miss the mountains but I don’t think we would have the brilliant sunsets if we had mountains. So I am so grateful for the weather and the beauty we have seen this week

  

Yeah! We get to bike again!!!

We also saw some beautiful and amazing miracles this week. Here is a brief overview because it was so awesome. First of all, one of our investigator’s, Brandie, kids wanted to come to church. We had a member with us pick them up. It took a while for them to warm up to church but hopefully they enjoyed it and hopefully they can come back next week. Also we were knocking random doors out in the middle of nowhere in Lexington, which is just outside of Noble, and we pulled up to this random house and were going to try several houses on that street. But we decided to go up the hill first and found a road. Sister Jenkins commented that she didn’t think very many missionaries would have gone down this road, so we started our way down the road and a dog was blocking our path. Every time we took a step it would start growling and barking at us and we got a little freaked out that it was going to bite us. But we kept walking and stayed confident and had faith that the dog wouldn’t bother us. Later we realized that there were puppies it was trying to protect. We ended up getting by the dog but to get back to our car we had to go past the dog again and it was still on that road. The funny thing was that we didn’t find any houses on the road so this is where the crazy miracle comes in. The dog is there so Sis. Jenkins says, “Let’s pray.” So we say a little prayer that we won’t get bit by this dog, that we can walk by it confidently and literally 5 seconds after we said that prayer, the owner of the dog came out and called her dog in and the dog started walking away. Then the lady came out and we started talking to her. Her name is Saundra. It was so cool because she had met missionaries in Guatemala, she is from Guatemala, and knew what Elders were. She said that we could come back, so we are going back on Tuesday at 7 and we are so excited. We will even get to meet some of her family, her son. Miracle #1…dog didn’t bite us; Miracle #2 we have a lesson with Saundra and that is really amazing.

  

Sister Lewis, Jenkins, Walker, Gentry

I’m counting this as a miracle also. Transfers just happened. Sister Jenkins and I are staying in Noble, so excited that we’re still together. So we get this phone call from the sisters (Sis. Lewis went to Bartlesville and Sis. Gentry on OU is now training a new missionary, a greeny). So we were really excited to see who this new greeny was. Sister Gentry called and asked if we knew a Madison Baker. The name sounded so familiar but I couldn’t put my finger on it. We had to wait a full day before we could see who that was so Sister Baker got on the phone and said, “Yea Sister Walker, I know you, I went to the Fair with you 4 years ago.” She is from Meridian, Idaho and I was so excited to make connections with her. So the whole night I was trying to put a face to Sis. Baker. Then immediately when we went to pick the sisters up for Dist. Council I recognized her. It turns out that we have so many mutual friends and we had actually hung out a few times. It has just been really fun to make connections and have the similarity of being from Meridian. That was a pretty awesome miracle so this is going to be such a fun transfer. 

  

District breakfast

We also have quite a few more miracles and they are just little small things like being able to be invited in to sing for people or get a teaching appointment with a former investigator. This former investigator moved and happened to now live down the street from a member. As they were talking they mentioned that they knew missionaries, so they sent us over and we got to know them a little bit better and ended up meeting one of their friends who is now living with them. He has read the Book of Mormon twice, like that’s cool. He’s pretty set on just believing right now but we keep encouraging him to keep reading the Book of Mormon, exercise your faith, come to church. We’re really excited to see where this goes. He seems like a super cool guy. Another miracle we saw was when we went to try and find a less active and we ran into her grandson who has been living with her, but she was unfortunately not home at the time.  We talked to her grandson instead and his wife who had just had a little baby, so that gave us an opportunity to talk a little bit about the plan of salvation and it went pretty good. We were able to testify of how the plan of salvation has blessed us. So we’re hoping that we can go back and meet them again and teach them a little bit more.

  

I was thinking, isn’t it crazy that we have another General Conference in a few short weeks? So I CHALLENGE you to make it a priority for the next 3 weeks before General Conference that you pray and ponder about something you would like to hear the Apostles and our brand new Prophet, President Nelson, talk about. I am so grateful that there is a prophet on the earth today and that it is President Nelson. I will miss President Monson dearly. I loved him and that is the prophet I grew up with, but I know that President Nelson is a prophet of God, called of God to teach us and share what the Lord would have him share. He is the mouthpiece of the Lord, I know that to be true. I know that all the Apostles are mouthpieces of the Lord, that they testify of truth, that they only speak truth, they would never lead us astray. I have not a doubt in my mind that they would ever lead us astray. And if any one of them would ever lose his way I know that the Lord would not ever let them lead us astray. So for the next 3 weeks prepare for General Conference, and also pray to know whether President Nelson is a prophet, called of God. You can also do that with all of the Apostles. Let me know how that goes if you don’t mind sharing it with me. I love hearing how your experiences go that I give you each week. I hope you have a great week, see miracles.

I love Ya.
Sister Sarah Walker

I wanted to leave you with something to study this week if you get a chance. It’s in the book of Omni and then in the book of Moroni. We gave this dinner message challenge to the Sturgis family tonight. It was a really cool comparison to make.There is this guy named Chemish in the book of Omni, only in one verse though because the book was handed over to him by his brother, Omni, who said you probably should write in it. I guess we’re supposed to, so Chemish wrote a verse. Go to the book of Omni, verse 9 and read what Chemish wrote and I want you to ask yourself, “Does it testify of Jesus Christ? Does it challenge us to do anything? What kind of testimony do you think Chemish had?”  Now go to the book of Moroni 10:3-5, for those of you who don’t know, was a pretty amazing person in the Book of Mormon. He had such a strong testimony. Moroni 10:3-5 says,

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how ^amerciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ^bponder it in your ^chearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ^aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not ^btrue; and if ye shall ask with a ^csincere heart, with ^dreal intent, having ^efaith in Christ, he will ^fmanifest the ^gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may ^aknow the ^btruth of all things.

 

So we see that not only did Moroni testify of Jesus Christ, he also challenged us. He said if you will do these things you will know of assurity that Christ lives. You will know the truth of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost and I guarantee you that Moroni did the exact thing that he’s challenging us in these verses to do. He had a strong testimony. So, I CHALLENGE you guys to read Omni verse 9 and then compare it to Moroni 10:3-5 and I want you to ask yourselves, “Do you have a testimony of the Savior like Chemish or do you have a testimony of the Savior like Moroni?”  This is an add on challenge and I want to know your insights from this study.  Thanks!