December 29, 2010

Hey family, how is everything going? Did everyone have a great Christmas? I hope that you all did and that you all had a fun time. Well, Christmas for me was great. A family invited us over to their house and the cool part is they live right on the beach. So, Elder Gull and I went to the beach for a little bit and got to check it out. It was pretty cool. The weather was nice so we got to see out a ways, but it was cold, very cold. Then we had lunch at their house and it was pretty cool. Well, that was our Christmas. After, we went home and had the best part of the day. Calling home and talking with the family. It was great to call and talk to you. I am glad everything is going great and it was great to hear your voices. It really was the best part of my Christmas. Well, New Years is coming up so HAPPY NEW YEARS! It is so weird to think that it is already 2011. Were has the time gone? I remember when it turned 2010 and it just feels like it just passed in the blink of an eye. I am shocked! Well, time must go on. Well, this week has been really slow and kinda bad. We have lost contact with our baptism date, Katylen. I saw her last Tuesday with Elder Hall and we haven’t seen her since. She said she was coming to church so we went to pick her up. We got permission from President Staheli to drive her. So, we went to her house but she was not there. So, we called her - no answer. We finally went to church without her and it was great. I had to give a talk. I gave it on un refuge contre Satan or a refuge against Satan. It went well. Well, after church we went throughout our day and at night I decided to call her, but once again no answer. So, I called her on Monday...nothing, and Tuesday...nothing. So, we haven’t seen her for a week or even heard from her. So, I hope everything is still ok with her. Then with our investigator from Canada - we haven’t seen him in awhile either. The last time was last Thursday. We found out that he caved in and drank some alcohol and smoked also. He said that he is trying to recover from that and he is still praying, but that was the last time we saw him. So, we are hoping he is doing awesome also. Well, besides that, the rest of our amies have been out of town but they should be back soon.

Well, besides that our week has not been too much out of the ordinary. We do have another rendezvous with our old baptism date, the mom and the daughter. So, hopefully it will go great. Well, this has been a great year for me and the mission. I have really grown to love the Lord for all that he has done for me in my life and the life of my family and friends. I have learned a lot about this gospel also by having the chance to study it everyday. This has truly been a great year for me and it isn’t even over just yet. We had our interviews with our mission president, President Staheli. He encouraged us to fix goals for ourselves, for this new year coming up, and to look back at our old goals and see what we have accomplished over the year. So, this year was great but next year we should make it an even better year. Elder Ballard said this about setting goals, “We need to set goals and learn how to master them. If we don’t, when we get to be a ripe old age looking back on our lives, we might realize that we only reached a part of our potential.” Those are not the exact words but close enough.

So, I encourage you all to fix some goals and push for them this next year and make this year even better then the last.

Well, I love you family and I hope you have a great day and an awesome New Year. I love you!

TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

December 22, 2010

Hey family, how is it going? Well, we all know what time of year it is so Je vous Souhaite un Joyeux Noël et une Heureuse Nouvelle Année or Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. So, how is everything? Did everyone have a great week? Well, things here have been fun. On Sunday we had to cancel church. This is the first time I had to cancel church on my mission. The reason why is because there is a lot of snow! Our branch pres calls us and tells us he can’t come so we started making call to all the members. A lot of them couldn’t come either so we had to cancel it. So, we stayed home, did our studies and we did our deep cleaning on our apartment. Well, Sunday night we went up to Cherbourg for a little exchange and on Monday it was our p-day. We went to Nez de Jobourg which is on the coast and it has these really beautiful cliffs. It was awesome, really cold, but awesome. There was also a beach that we found so we decided to go out running on it. The bad part was that it started to rain and by the time we got back by the car we were soaking wet. It sucked! Well, it was funny though. I took some pictures but not too many because it was raining and freezing cold, so that was fun.

Yesterday we had a bad but yet good day. We were driving to go to the train station and there was a turn so we slowed down. We were not going that fast but there was black ice on the road. We were supposed to take the turn but our car didn’t want to. Well, we ended up hitting the wall on the right side of our car. It was not that bad though. There is just a little dent above the right side front and back wheels, but besides that everything was fine. Well, that was fun! The rest of the day thought was great.

So, Christmas is coming up. Santa is loading his sleigh it should be great. Hey, guess what? Guess where I will be having Christmas? I will be having Christmas in a cabin on the beach next to a fireplace....oh ya! It should be great. A family invited us over and they live right on the beach so, it is going to be fun. I am excited.

Well, our investigators are doing well. Some of them have left because of Christmas and gone on holiday. Besides that they are doing well. Our baptism date is still going strong. She is having some doubt but she is coming along. Our Canadian is great also. He wants us to start teaching his kids which will be awesome. We have a rendez-vous with him tomorrow, so it should be great.

Well, I got a new companion today - Elder Ryan Gull. He seems pretty cool. I haven’t gotten to know him that well yet but he seems like a cool guy. He just came from Charleroi and Patrick so it was cool to talk about Charleroi and the work there.

Well, time is short. I love you and hope you have a great Christmas. Oh, and I can’t wait to call home!

TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

December 15, 2010

Hey family! Well, to start off I just have to say I love you. I am just thinking here now about all that you do for me while I am on a mission for the Lord. So, how ya’ll doing? Things here have been great. We had mission conference at Versailles last Wednesday. It was great to see the whole mission and all the missionaries. It was also good to see old companions. Well, it was great. They made this huge slide show with pictures throughout the year of missionaries and it was funny. Some of those pictures - I will get a copy and will have to show it to you. Well, it was also very cool because we took a huge mission picture with everyone in it and then we played a white elephant game. I sent in this 5 color changeable highlighter and I ended up getting a 100 French blond jokes. I have to admit some of them are pretty funny. It was a good conference though. When we left to go home that is where things got fun. We were there for about 4 hr and when we came, there was no snow. When we left there was about 10-12 inches on the ground.... Yea - everything was closed and nothing was working. So, we had to walk to the station after because the buses were not working; then when we got there the metro wasn’t working. We needed the metro to get over to the train station. We finally got on one that worked. Oh boy, Oh boy! That was fun. It was pretty much the only one that worked in Paris. That metro was packed tighter then a can of sardines. At one point I was smashed up against the window with a box of Restoration DVD’s in my stomach and millions of people pushing me. I looked like a pancake on that window. I have to say that that was the most uncomfortable ride I have ever had. Well, because everything was late and because of the snow we missed our train. So, we had to catch the later one. We didn’t get home till about midnight. The bad part is that we had to get up at 4 that morning to catch the train to Paris. What a day. It was still fun and it was a great time.

Well, this week we have some miracle stories to tell. One was today about an awesome lady who has been sick for a while. Well, we saw her today and it was awesome. We told her about the restoration of the church and she just accepted it. She just had an open heart. At the end we asked if she would be baptized and she said YES! So, we fixed a date for the 15th of January. It was awesome and she is so cool. She is also coming to church on Sunday. We had to get permission from our president to drive her there because she doesn’t have a car and it is a half an hour drive. So, we did that and now she is coming to church.

Another one which was so cool - we ran into someone from Canada. When we found him he was in bad shape. His wife just left him and he has been drinking and smoking cigarettes and weed. He was bad but we had a 3 hr appointment with him and at the end he told us he wanted to change. He hates his life. We taught him about prayer and how about God is always there for us. Well, we prayed with him and then we gave him a blessing of comfort. At the end we were just talking about how he can fight the temptations. We told him not to even have it around him. Well, he takes us into the kitchen where he gives us a bottle of red wine, a bottle of Jack Daniels whisky, a package of tobacco, and his weed. We left his house with all his drugs. Now don’t you worry, we threw it away. Well, we come back the next day and you can just tell by looking at him that he had changed. He told us he is doing a lot better and that he has not even had the temptation to smoke or drink. His wife came over the night before and he told us in 10 years he never saw her face look like that. She was proud of him right then, that night. And, she is also helping him become better. It is so cool. I am so happy for him. We have another appointment with him tomorrow, and it should be great.

Well, transfers are coming up. They are on the 22nd. Well, here is the news. I am staying here in Coutances/St Lo with Elder Gull. Elder Hall is leaving and going up to Namur, Belgium. I don’t know Elder Gull that much. I just know that he is the same age as Elder Hall, but that is about all I know of him. So, it looks like I will be having Christmas in Normandy which is always cool. I like it here. It is small but I can still have fun. Apparently we are also getting sisters in our district next transfer. So that will be cool to have sisters in the district again.

Alright, so next week is Christmas. Now about calling home – well, I don’t really know how it is going to work because I am trying to figure out if I call or you call and what times. I don’t know what times Elder Gull has either. Well, I know it is coming up. It is next week. There is a good chance I will be buying a calling card to call you but if not I hope you can call me. OK THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO. DAD AND SHANNON; MOM AND DENNIS - I NEED YOU TO EMAIL THE TIME THAT IS BEST FOR YOU BECAUSE I AM FREE ALL DAY BASICLY AND IT IS GOOD. I JUST HAVE A LUNCH WITH A MEMBER. I NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TIME IN YOUR TIME - AS IN THE TIME IN UTAH - NOT MINE. 2 O’ CLOCK IS THE LATEST I CAN CALL SOMEONE BECAUSE 2 O’ CLOCK THERE IS 10 PM HERE. SO, ANY TIME BEFORE 2 WILL BE GOOD. CAN YOU DO THAT AND I WILL TRY TO GET BACK TO YOU NEXT WEEK OR SOME TIME THIS WEEK.

Well family I love you and am excited to talk to you next Saturday. I love you and hope you have a great day and week. TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

PS - here is a district boy band picture.

December 7, 2010

Hey family, how are you all doing? Well, I have to say this week has been fun, cold, and a little sucky. Well, let’s get on with the story. It has been fun because a member, our ward mission leader, took us to Saint Malo. It is a very beautiful city on the coast. Well, we went there and it was cool. The whole city is kinda like a castle fortress thing. It was built to keep out pirates so that was pretty cool. They also have this place where you could get the biggest ice cream I have ever seen.....and this is where the week started to suck. I am going to give you a little advice - never go 3-4 days without eating anything healthy and only eating junk food. Friday I had some bad food so I was not feeling very well. Well, Saturday came around when we went to Saint Malo. Our ward mission leader wanted to get us a treat. So, we go to this bar restaurant thing. The next thing we know he is gone and when he comes back he said he had already ordered. Well, they came out with two slices of the biggest cake I have ever seen, and it was all chocolate. So, we start eating, and I am still not 100 percent from the day before. Then a couple of minutes later they come out with this huge bowl of ice cream. Well, we eventually downed as much as we could. That just made me start feeling worse. Well, Sunday came around and after church we had a branch meal with the whole branch. It was pretty good. After the meal they bring out this huge bowl of chocolate mousse, which was awesome by the way. Well, after that we started our fast for fast Sunday. So, that is all that we ate Sunday. Monday when we broke our fast, we broke it by eating brownies......bad idea....and now let’s just say that Elder Hall and I are not doing/feeling too good. Ya – that’s a bad on our part.

Well, besides that things are going great. Our two investigators with the baptism date - well for right now they don’t have a baptism date for the moment. The mom is going through a rough spot and needs more time. But hopefully they will be doing a lot better soon. They want to get baptized so that will be a good goal to push them toward. We also had a rendez-vous with another investigator here in St Lo who is awesome also. We went over there and we asked if he had read in the Book of Mormon and he said yes and explained everything he read. His son also read it and joined in on the rendez-vous. That is freaking awesome! And he wants to join in next time also! Oh ya! It will be so cool if he is there and wants to join in again. They are doing awesome. We have another investigator who we think would have a baptism date and everything, but she is still in the hospital. She has an appointment with the doctors tomorrow, so hopefully that will go great.

Those are our investigators at the moment. Things seem to be going great with them. I just hope that they can hold on. Well, this week there has been a ton of snow and it is weird because it does not snow here in Normandy. We talked with a guy and he said he had lived here for 46 years. He has never seen it snow this early in the year, as in December, and has never seen it snow so much. There had to be a good 10-12inch of snow here. Everything was closed down. We were lucky when we went places that we never got stuck in the snow. There were many times though when we had to help people going up a hill. We were going somewhere and there were a bunch of cars that could not get up this hill. So, we made it up, parked the car and ran down to push people up the hill. It was great fun.

Well, my time is up family. I hope you have a great day and I love you all. TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

More Funny Boy Band Pictures

Looks like Chris is having fun over in Normandy. These pictures just make me laugh.

December 2, 2010

Hey family, how is it going? Sorry my email is a little late. The place where we do our emails was closed, so we had to wait to do them today. Well, things here are good but it is freakin cold!!!!!!! Oh my, is it cold. Normally it does not snow here in Normandy. But this year it already has been snowing and we have gotten a lot. It just actually started to snow here in St Lo yesterday but up in Cherbourg, which is right on the coast, they have got over 8 inches. It has been snowing all around St Lo but we finally got hit yesterday. I am ok with the snow but it is not just the snow, it is freezing. It was -7°c the other day. You also have to include the humidity and it goes straight to the bone. There is also a wind that feels like it is coming from the Arctic. It was bad, on Sunday we were out going door to door and we had been knocking on doors for about 3 hours from 3-6 pm. Around 6:15-6:30 we could not feel our hands and our faces, nor could we feel anything else. It started to hurt every time we knocked on a door. Eventually we just had to stop and come back inside. It was bad, but very funny.

Well, this week, besides the cold, has been great. Ok - I guess we found this one person who is just awesome and she wants to read the Book of Mormon. She believes in a life after death and she loves what we have been teaching her. We had a very good appointment. She then got sick and couldn’t come to church and we had asked if we could give her a blessing. She didn’t want to see us when she was sick. So, that kinda blows but it is good. She is so cool she could get baptized in 3 weeks, which is awesome. Let’s just hope that she gets better soon. She has a doctor appointment on Wednesday, so hopefully it will be good. Our other two baptism dates - well they are not.. let’s say.. doing the very best. We had to move the baptism date back and we have not been able to see her for a long time. We have an appointment with her today and hopefully they will be there so we can teach them. We were going to teach them about Modern Day Prophets, so hopefully it will be great and they will be awesome.

We have been doing a lot of contacting lately. We have knocked on every door in one whole little town. It took us a couple of days but we have finally done it

Well, this past Monday we had the elders from Cherbourg come down and we went to a place called Mont Saint-Michel. This is a very famous place. I guess there a lot of people that know about it in America. Well, we went there and it was beautiful. It is this church/monastery on an island. You should look it up on Google if you can. It is awesome. We went there with the elders from Cherbourg and took a tour of it. When we were there we ran into 3 members of our church, one from Costa Rica, one from Pennsylvania, and the other one was from L.A., but she lives in France now. It was cool. We got to talk to them and two of them didn’t know we had a church in their area. We told them we did and gave them the numbers of the elders in their area, which was really cool. When we were there Elder Easton had a great idea to take “boy band’ pictures. Ya, they are funny and I think they are cool. I will try to send you one in the email. Then we came back and did a little exchange and did some work.

Next week I think the email will be on Tuesday because we have our mission conference on Wednesday. This is where the whole mission is going to Paris or Versailles. it will be cool to see the whole mission. There are still a ton of missionaries I don’t even know. It should be a good time. We are asked to bring a 5 dollar gift and we are going to play a white elephant game, so that will be chouette.

Well family, I love you and I hope you have a great day. Thank you for your support and love. It really helps me get threw a hard day. Well, I love you again. TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

P.S. Sorry if my email is a little weird. I am a little tired. LOVE YA

November 24, 2010

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TOUT LE MONDE! Well, how is everyone doing? Well, this week has been great. Well, as everyone might have guessed, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It is sad I will have to miss it. They do not have Thanksgiving in France. It is only an American holiday. Well, what we will be doing is working, because it is not a holiday, but it is ok. There are some other elders or missionaries who our going over to members houses for a dinner and stuff, but for us, we will be working. I think though that we will make some potatoes and gravy and try to do a Thanksgiving dinner with us. Hopefully it will work out though.

Well, things here are great. We have been doing a lot of port à port lately or door to door. We have been working in a little town just right out of St Lo. We are trying to knock on every door in that city. It has been going great. We have knocked on about half and we have found 3 potential investigators out of it, so that is really good. The work is a little bit slow but we are having a great time. We may have another baptism date here also. We already have two, the mom and here 9 year old daughter. They are doing great. We have a rendezvous with them today and we are planning to teach them about the atonement. We also have to move the baptism date back just a little bit because they couldn't come to church last week and they will be in Paris this Sunday. So, we will have to move is back but they are doing great. We also have another one named Sonya who is doing awesome. Her parents are members and last week they told us that she has read the Le Live de Mormon or the Book of Mormon and knows that it is true. So, we were very happy about that. We taught her the big two commandments on Monday. The word of wisdom and the law of chastity. They went well and she knows what she needs to do to change. We have another rendezvous with her tomorrow, so that should be great.

This past Sunday we had district conference. It is like stake conference but when you have just branches it is called a district. So, we all went to Caen and President Staheli was there also. So, we got to talk with him and it was great. He talked about the missionary work for members and how that they don't need to do missionary work, but just be missionaries. As in they should be an example and should invite people to come to activities. Then if they are interested, give them to the missionaries to teach them. And he encouraged every member to have a Preach my Gospel. The book is not just for missionaries, but for everyone to help them know the gospel more and help them with a lot of other things. President also talked about the miracle of 2010. For our mission, two years ago, 2008, they had about 105 baptisms. Last year the mission had about 120 baptisms. This year up to right now, we have about 230 baptisms. We have about 70 or more baptisms dates before this year ends. Our mission is shooting for over 300 at the end of the year. It is so cool. The work here has just exploded and it is just going to keep getting better. Our goal for our zone, the Normandy zone, was 12 baptisms. Last year we got 6 so they made the goal of 12. Right now we have 13 and another 7 more baptism dates here. It is so cool. I am lovin it.

Well, that is just some things that our going on with the work. Now on to the other stuff. Last Saturday was awesome. We were going to do some service with the elders in Cherbourg and we had some extra time before the service. So, we went and played football. And I mean football! American, not soccer, with a team in Cherbourg. This was like football and everything with pads, helmets and all. It was not a game but just practice, so we practiced with them. It was awesome. Their coach was in the army and he kicked our butts into shape. The next day we were all sore. They said we can come back so we are planning to go again this Saturday. Well, the service was cancelled and we were in Cherbourg with our ward mission leader. He took us to go see the world's largest nuclear sub. It was cool. It doesn't work anymore but it was awesome. I also found out that Cherbourg was the last stopping place of the Titanic before is sunk. Last week they had the Queen Elizabeth at the boat docked there, so that is cool. Well, we were coming back and we stopped by this church because we where with our ward mission leader lives. We stopped at this church, the St. Marie Eglise. I think that is what it was called where the 82nd air born landed in World War 2. There was a guy who got stuck on top of the church for two days and was not killed. So, at the church they have a manikin hanging by a parachute on the church. It was funny.

Well, those are just some things that are going on here in Normandy. Things are going great. Well time is short. I love you guys and hope you have a great week and a great day. I hope you are loving the snow. All it does here is rain and rain and rain some more. I think it has rained everyday since I have been here. Well, I love you. TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

November 17, 2010

Hey family, how is it all going? Things here are awesome.... well, some things at least. Well, the train ride here was fun. I had to change trains 3 times to get over here from Angers. I almost missed one of them also. But I finally reached Coutances. So, our church is in Coutances but we live in St Lo, which is about a 30 min drive away, so it takes some time to get there. Well, we have done some cool things here this week. We have two baptism dates here. So, we have been teaching them and they are doing great. It is a 9 year old daughter and her mother. They asked us if they could be baptized. They asked us if they could be baptized! It was awesome! They are really cool. Well, the first day that I am here, we go do some service for some members in our ward. They live about a 30 min drive in the other direction of Coutances. So, it took us some time to go out there. Well, they live on the coast and it is awesome. You really have about a 100 feet to the ocean. It was cool. Well, we helped them out then we went back and they gave us dinner, which was cool. We had some fish soup. Ever since I got here I think I have had some kind of sea food every day.

Well, eventually, Sunday gets around and guess what I found out.....? I found out that we have a branch and we the missionaries are the councilors in the branch presidency....! So, you have the branch president who is like the bishop of the ward and we are his councilors. Every Sunday we have to direct the meeting and direct sacrament and all those things. Ya, so we got a job on our hands. And, I guess our branch pres. sometimes isn’t there, so we have to do the things. Well, can you guess how many members we have in our branch? We have about 15-20. But last Sunday about 10 came. It is a little change for me going from a big city to a little city. You had Brussels with 1.8 million people, Charleroi, I don’t know, Angers with about 155,000 people and Coutance with about 9,000 ....ya there is a little drop. Well, after church we had a little branch meal with the members and it was cool to get to know them. They are really awesome. Then our ward mission leader, his wife wasn’t home, so he asked if he could take us somewhere. So, we said ya and we just took the time off of our p-day on Monday. But can you guess where he took us? He took us to the beaches of Normandy! To Omaha Beach. Now here is some history if you don’t know. The beaches of Normandy is the place where the Americans, Canadians, and the British landed for D-day in World War 2 to attack the Nazis. Now, I love the history of World War 2 so I was so stoked to go there. It was awesome. We went to the American cemetery where there were over 9000 young adults who died on D-day. The actual land belongs to America. France gave it to America in about the 1970’s. So, you can kind of say I was home for a little bit. But it was awesome. We got to go into bunkers, see the ocean and the beach. We got to see some cool stuff there I will send along a picture to show you, but it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, we didn’t do much on Monday. Tuesday we had a district meeting in Caen. They asked us to bring some meet and cheese for the sandwiches. So, we bought some. We then were leaving the apartment to go to the gare or train station. So, we get on and I realized I don’t have my discount card and without it my ticket doesn’t work. So, we don’t have time to go get it. I had to buy a new ticket without the discount which sucked. Then, as we were on the train, we realized yet again that we forgot something important...the food. So, eventually we get to Caen and we had to run to the store to get some food for lunch. So, that was fun. But it turned out to be a good day.

Well, Normandy is awesome and Elder Hall is awesome also. We were in the same apartment when I was in Charleroi, so I got to meet him there which was cool. He is cool. He is from St. George, Utah. Cool thing is his mom is French, so he knew some French in the MTC. He only had to stay there for 3 weeks. So, he will have an extra transfer than all of us - but that is pretty cool.
So, yes, the time has come! I have been reminded a lot from my e-mails this week, but yes, the one year mark will be reached tomorrow, NOV. 18! WOW! Where has the time gone? It feels only like yesterday I left for the MTC - WOW.... Well, it only means one thing. Do you know what that is? It is WORKING HARDER!! Oh ya! gooooo wooork!!
Well, family, I love you and hope you have a great week. Things here have been great and things will only get better.

PS - if there is a package sent to the office for Christmas, it needs to be in at the latest before DEC 8. Because DEC 8 is a big mission conference with the whole mission and that is when we should get it. Thank You! TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

More fun Photos

Here are some photos of: last family home evening in Angers (only the young women showed up. It was kinda weird), and two pictures of our district; I hope you enjoy them.

November 10, 2010

Hey quick note family I made it to Coutance ok I am just leting you know that here we can not do our e-mails on monday. so we usualy do them tuesday, or Wednesday. mostly wednesday because I guess it takes to long to get back from district meeting on tuesday so it maybe tuesday or wednesday. We dont do it monday because it is closed.

I just wanted you to know for next week. I love you and hope you have a great week I love you and I will have to tell you about my transfer next week I LOVE YOU TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER