Week 69 - Sad to Leave Pawhuska - Anadarko Here I Come!

Hey Y'all!!

Sister O and her animals

So this week was a blast!! first of all...MARELYN, MIKE, AND SAVANNAH CAME TO CHURCH!!!! We were so excited to see each of them!! The Branch was so amazing with putting their arm around them and welcoming them! That is what I will miss most about being in a branch. I love the people here so much! So last night I found out that I get to say goodbye to Pawhuska:( I was so sad, and it hit me that I am leaving home. I am excited for a new adventure, but I will miss this little town especially the people here! especially my companion Sister Ostergar! I love her to pieces and know she will do amazing things here. This place loves her so much!! I am headed to ANADARKO, OK way down south I am so excited to be with Sister Gwynn, and meet the people of Anadarko!!!

So we are teaching some amazing people! Mike is a former, and after some recent events he has decided that the principles we have been teaching him is the path he wants to take! We were so excited when he told us that he wanted to be Baptized!! We were even talking to him about what he can do to prepare for baptism what he said was so funny!  "Well I guess I'll need a change of clothes?" We love Mike so much!!  Whitney is doing well. We saw a miracle yesterday with a member who knew of a job offer. We both thought of Whitney and were just passing her trailer. After a week of not being able to get a hold of her, we caught her outside mowing, and told her about this job. She said it made her whole day! She just stopped smoking, reads the Book of Mormon everyday, and we are excited to set another date with her!! 

Pawhuska Town 🤙with my sister's!

We had interviews with President Mansell on Tuesday! I Love interviews! Its one of my favorite parts of the transfer. You just go away feeling 10 million times better, and you are set to accomplish this work!! They decided to try something new for our roll plays this transfer. We got to be recorded twice on the first 2 lessons, and then we got to watch ourselves teach with the AP's. They gave great feedback, and it was one of the most stretching, things I have ever done. Talk about having a growth mindset during these:)

So super funny story. We were in Bartlesville for a service project, and knowing that we were painting some things we put on service clothes. Well, we get to the park we were supposed to be at and one of the brothers was there telling us to go to the church.  We get there and are looking everywhere for a bunch of Relief Society sisters in Service clothes, doing service. We hear singing in the Chapel and we all start laughing. We look in and everyone is in dresses, and then there's us in sweats, basketball shorts and T-shirts.  It was pretty funny walking in and being noticed by a chapel full of sisters. We stuck out like a sore thumb! Later we found out that an email was sent out about the event being changed to a devotional about service and "Scattering Sunshine" with lunch the day before. We didn't get it cause we didn't have Wifi haha. Embarrassing in the moment, but definetly worth the memory 

Have y'all ever had Canes fried chicken!?

This week I have been studying all about grace. This was an assignment given to me this week, and it has changed my week and my life!  How much do you know about grace? Brad Wilcox's talk "His Grace is Sufficient" is an amazing talk about how much we need to understand it to give us peace and help us change. Briefly, this is what I learned, then I want you for your Challenge this week to go read his Talk and read in the Bible Dictionary about Grace. 

I learned that Christ payed the debt in full. We don't have to pay him back for His sacrifice for us. He payed it fully so that we can one day fulfill the ultimate goal and become like Christ is and return to live with our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ again. He doesn't expect us to be perfect right now. On this earth it is a time of learning and growing. He wants us to use his Atonement. This is what we can do to show our love and appreciation for his sacrifice. I love how Brad Wilcox said, "We are not Earning heaven, we are Learning Heaven". Through us turning away from sin and striving to come closer to our Savior we are learning and growing so that one day we will be comfortable in the Celestial Kingdom with Him. President Bell, Stake President of The Bartlesville stake said something that stood out to me. He said that we have no idea how much mercy the Lord will have for each of us when we face him one day. We can't even comprehend it. This whole week of study has taught me to not fear, and trust in the Lord. Do my best and continue to use Jesus Christ's Atonement in my life, decide to change my Nature, and Endure Happily to the End. This Gospel is true and it makes me so happy to have this knowledge:)

I love you all, and have a great week learning about Grace

Sister Walker

This picture describes the district to a capital "T"

Exchanges with Sister Russel!!!

BTW Sister Kresge trained her!!

Gonna miss them!!

Love these Sister's so much!!!

Sister Lewis is going to Witchita Falls, Texas!!
And we are in the same Zone Again!! letsgoooo!!!

Week 68 - I Love This Little Place!!!

Hey Y'all!!

All y'll need is a truck, missionaries,
a fishn' pole and Oklahoma!

So this past Monday our district found our inner OKLAHOMA and went fishing! Everyone here fishes, and we even teach this family who owns a bait shop in their front yard. That's also very OK. A few things I have learned while being in Pawhuska specifically...

• -yard sales are a 24 hours 7 days a week thing  
• goats are a normal pet for everyone to have roaming in their front yard
•  "there are more Dogs than teeth in Oklahoma" President Mansell 
• everyone is related to everyone. Sounds like the Walkers
• there are no such things as secrets 

I LOVE THIS LITTLE PLACE!!

We are doing the stop smoking workshop with Mary and Whitney right now!! Both of them have 2 days left!  and we are so proud of how far they have come!!  Also Whitney is so close to baptism! Just pray we can get her to church, and that she can avoid being sick next week 

Bartlesville, OK P-day

Marelyn Is Back Y'all!!! she just needed some questions answered and some Bold loveI am so proud of Sister O, 1. for taking over the area, and 2. for testifying with boldness and so much love the other day! She is AMAZING!!!

On Wednesday we spent the Day in Edmond for Greenie Grad. If no one knows what this is, let me tell ya.  For the first 2 transfers of your mission you are a greenie in training, at the end of the 12 weeks you get to graduate! President Mansell gives a training, and then each greenie gets to roll play each of the 3 lessons including another one thrown in there.  Talk about nerve racking!  But Sister O killed it!!  She is an amazing teacher!!

Thursday and Friday we had exchanges with our Bartlesville sistas. I love them so much! I learned so much from Sister Russel as she testified with so much power to Mike. Mike even told us the next day that he wants to be Baptized!!!!!!! We are so excited for him!! The Spirit can do wonders I'm not even kidding

So I got this text this past Friday..."Sister Walker, Larry King from Noble wants you to call him. He is in Provo, Utah and is getting baptized tomorrow."

GREENIE GRAD!!!

Me, "OH MY GOSH!!!!!!" I can't even believe it! 6 months ago we were sad to see Larry leave Noble, and we just had in our prayers that missionaries would find him in Utah. Well he is baptized folks, and Sister Jenkins, Kresge and I are so so so happy!!!  I realized that you never ever forsake a prompting. If Sister Kresge and I didn't listen to the Spirit telling us to try him again, there would be a completely different story here. 

Your Challenge this week and everyday for the rest of your life:) is to pay close attention to the promptings you receive. If its good it is of the spirit. The spirit will never give you thoughts of doubt or negativity. Moroni 7: 13-14 .  

Also,  go check out the new Book SAINTS the church came out with! and watch the devotional Elder Cook had with the Young Adults. It is worth it!

I hope y'all have a great week and see lots of miracles!!:) 

Love, Sister Walker

Nicky and Gracie
(We are teaching Nicky right now,
and they won 1st place in the
talent show at the fair!!)

SISTER KRESGE!!!
I miss and love her so much!

My favorite little Otdaza:)

We normally don't go fishing
 this much....promise;)

Love my comp so much!

Such a small world! A lady ran outside of the
Mercantile and said, "hey sisters." Then we established
both of us being from Boise and that I was a Walker.
She knows Grandma & Grandpa Walker.  I looked in the window
and their husbands were decked out in BSU gear.
They went to the game in Stillwater.

Thanks Donna Palmer for taking the time to talk
with the Sisters and text grandpa pictures!

Week 67- The Spirit Will Testify

Hey Y'all!

The Plan of Salvation!
Sister Walker, Stormy, Loise, Barb (Stormy's grandma), Sister Ostergar

Sister O and I had a great week!! We spent the day In Bartlesville for an all day P-day! I found out I stink at Golf (I can't even hit the ball with the stick thing), and "The Best 2 years" is now my favorite movie haha. And guys he's from Oklahoma!! 

 We had an interesting experience with someone we were teaching the other day. 

This man said he made a decision about our church, but when we said we got a lot out of his church service he really wanted to know what we got out of it. We said that the scriptures the pastor brought up about false prophets were what we needed to help Marilyn. Then we got into a very intense discussion about the Book of Mormon, and how there are prophets on the Earth today. Sister O and I studied, but we studied with the wrong attitude. 

It won't stop raining! But we love it!
Sister Walker & Sister Ostergar

Every scripture we came to him states that Prophets and Apostles will guide and direct Christ's church. In a way, he "proved" us wrong and shut us down several times. He at one point called us deceitful prophets, coming in the name of Christ. We did our best to defend ourselves, and the name we represent, but he just continued to argue. He had to get up for a second and finish something. Sister O looked at me, and said "We need to just testify of what we know to be true." Man, she was right. We put away our scriptures and boldly told him that this was true, and if he really wanted to know for himself, he would not only pray, but actually read the words in the Book of Mormon we had for him. We told him that he would not find an answer if he already had one in his head. That is when the Spirit was the strongest during the lesson, and we realized the power of a bold and simple testimony. He became very very quiet and then he said he would read it and pray. He is definitely one of those guys that will take the challenge. Now we only hope he will do it sincerely. I learned a lot from this. 

1. Never just go into a lesson to prove something (wrong attitude)  
2. The spirit will only be there when you are in tune and will testify



Sister Walker & Sister Lewis

3. Your testimony of the words in the Book of Mormon add even more power to the great testimonies in the Book of Mormon. 

I know that this Book is true, and It testifies of our Savior, Jesus Christ on every page. It has brought me more comfort than ever before in my life. This experience strengthened me and my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I also know that President Nelson is a Prophet called of God to lead an guide this church in these latter days. Your challenge this week echos the challenge we got in Relief Society the other week, to study the prophets life. Through his talks and his Biography. I will be doing the same this week:) 

I love you all so much, and hope you have an amazing and miracle filled week!!

Love, Sister Walker

Biking in the rain.

1. 
   

Chickens roaming the streets of Pawhuska!

These goats are in every Okie's front yard here

The District 

When you want real popcorn you go get it from the Theater,
and confuse the world out of the employees
 cause you don't go see a movie  #bethefirst

Chalk Talk!

Breanna!!!

Stormy! Love this girl!

Week 66 - A Week Full of Awesome Experiences

 

I LOVE HER!!!!
Sister Ostergar & Walker

Hey!  WHITNEY has a Baptism Date y'all !!!!!! We went to go see her the other night and Sister O reminded her of what Brother Paris said in Sunday School last Sunday. He said "We hope one day you can join the Church, and enjoy all the blessings God has for you!" She asked her what she thought of that and she said, "it was pretty Inspiring"....she understands that this is a big commitment, so we set a goal. We are so excited!!!!!

We had a unique missionary opportunity the other day that was so much fun! We met this older gentleman who invited us to a little performance at his retirement community center. We went with our investigator Mike who lives there. They were pretty good! They sang some old country, "Praise the Lord, I saw the light", "Jesus is my Friend" and "Born Again" very Oklahoma! There was a little keyboard in the back, so when they found out I sing and play I couldn't get out the door fast enough! Jk.  It was honestly the greatest thing of my life playing with them! Sharing the Gospel through music is the best!! Oh and Sister O talked to everyone listening:) she is da best! 

Exchanges
Sisters Ostergar, Lewis & Walker

We went on exchanges this week with sister Lewis and Hermana Bell! When I say that exchanges are crazy and never go as planned, I mean that! Both of them got sick this time, and we ran around for a whole day like chickens with our heads cut off. It's a longer story than that, but I will let you use your imagination:) 

We then headed up to Owasso for Zone Conference! I love Zone Conference so much!!! Every time both my comp and I need to hear every word. It's like president is inspired or something. We talked a lot about how to determine success. President talked about how success is not necessarily the Outcome of the situation or goal, for example,  if our goal is to get 2 baptisms by the end of the 6 weeks, and you only get one, most of the time we would say we failed, but he reminded us that  "The only person who could be called a failure is that person who tries to succeed at nothing". He reminded us to focus on what we can control, which doesn't include others agency, the weather, the transfer, etc. But we choose how we handle it, and the effort we put into the work. "The Great Motivator is giving 110% to our Savior Jesus Christ." 

Then Sister Mansell talked about not comparing ourselves to others achievements, because this only leads to either Pride or Discouragement. We were also given some amazing trainings from the APs on how to strengthen our areas. Sister O and I are having a lot of fun discussing and applying what we were taught this week! 

We finally saw Marelyn after 2 weeks!!!! She's doing great by the way:) she did get a hold of a bit of anti material:( and that was a little stressful, but we encouraged her to go to the Lord, or text us for any more questions she has and the scriptures of course:)

MTC Comps reunite

We did a church Swap yesterday! Jamie came to our church in the morning, and we went to his Baptist Service that night.  So the Lord must know each of his children or something because we were talking about prophets in Sunday school, and Jamie had a few concerns to whether or not there are prophets again on the earth. Then in the Baptist Service they talked about how to receive revelation, and how to identify false prophets, and leaders, (haha they low key through us under the bus a few times, but all was well) but the scriptures they preached were just what we needed to help Jamie and Marelyn! It was honestly a great experience to strengthen our own testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what we believe in. 

One thing I wish they mentioned was to pray to seek revelation. That is extremely important when you have a question or seek to know God's plan for you. Joseph Smith did just this (James 1:5 is a scripture we need to follow always:) and got an answer that changed his whole life and the whole world!! We are going to encourage Jamie to pray to know about a prophet of God on the Earth today, and if he is a prophet.

Me & Otaza
She loves to do my hair, isn't she so good!!

I know that President Nelson is a Prophet called of our Heavenly Father to lead and guide us in these latter days. I know that he will never lead us astray or away from our Savior. I am in awe with the sacrifice the Prophet Jospeh Smith made to help our Savior Restore the fullness of his Gospel to the Earth again. I know that because of his question, and faith to receive an answer, we have the Book of Mormon, a straight and narrow path to follow back to our Father is Heaven, and a Plan of Happiness. I Love this Gospel with all of my heart, and without a doubt I know it's true. 

Your Challenge this week is to share you testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith with someone. This can be on social media, in a copy of the Book of Mormon you give them, or in whatever way the Spirit directs you. Pray for an experience to have this week to share this. Remember that it doesn't have to be elaborate, just simple. The simplest testimony is the most powerful

I love y'all so much! And hope you have an amazing and miracle filled week!

Sister Walker 

Hug those you love and are thankful for!

KEEPSAKE CANDLES!!!!!
With Sister Wheeler.
Candles are my new favorite thing!