November 21, 2011

HOMEWARD BOUND

In the quiet misty morning, when the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing and the sky is clear and red,
When the summer's ceased its gleaming, when the corn is past its prime,
When adventure's lost its meaning, I'll be homeward bound in time.

Bind me not to the pasture. Chain me not to the plow.
Set me free to find my calling and I'll return to you somehow.

If you find it's me you're missing, if you're hoping I'll return,
To your thought I'll soon be list'ning; in the road I'll stop and turn.
Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end,
And the path I'll be retracing when I'm homeward bound again.

Bind me not to the pasture. Chain me not to the plow.
Set me free to find my calling and I'll return to you somehow.

In the quiet misty morning when the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing, I'll be homeward bound again.

--PS Remember that I love you
TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

November 14, 2011

Bonjour Famille, how is everything going? Well things are going great - just living life as a missionary, working hard and having fun. We have had a good week. We have also had a couple of miracles. The work is starting to pick up...This week we have fixed two baptism dates with our investigators. One - his name is Luis and he is half French and half Portuguese. He came into the visitor center one day and we started to teach him. Then we went on an exchange with the zone leaders and Elder Tehaai fixed the date with him for Dec 3rd. Actually, Luis is the one who fixed the date for the 3rd so we are going to work with him and try to get him ready by then. He is good though. He told us that he wants to change his life so he came to learn more about Jesus Christ. He is pretty cool. We will hopefully see him this week to get him ready for the 3rd. The other baptism date is a guy named Juan. He is from Ecuador and is now here in Paris. He is pretty cool. We taught him a while back in my 1st transfer in Paris. Then he left on vacation and had work and then it was just complicated. But we got a hold of him and started teaching him again. We fixed a baptism date with him for the 3rd of December also. So things are starting to pick up here. So those are a couple of miracles we have had here. This week also we had my last zone conference and we had Elder Kopishkie of the 7O’s come and speak to us. It was such a great conference. All he brought was his scriptures and at the first of the meeting he told us to write down a question. Then after we wrote it down he told us that we just set the theme for the conference. He promised us that if we pay attention and think about that question that it would be answered in this conference. So then he just talked for the first part. We talked a lot about the spirit. Then after the lunch break he talked about desire, and what desire really is. It was good. After the conference my mind was finished. He blew my mind out of the water. It was good and he talked about how god answers the desires of our hearts and he asked us what we each desire. He asked, “Have you ever desired to know what your mission president sees for you or what God sees for you in the future?” All in all it was a great zone conference and I will have to go back and look at my notes, but in the end he was right! My questions were answered. He told us also that we can do this at church. If we have a question and write it down on a piece of paper and then go to church and think about the question, ponder and listen carefully. That question will be answered. The answer may never be said by someone, but it will be answered never the less. So it was a great conference. Well, so that was the highlight of our week. Our investigators are doing all great also. Our mother, Graciela, is doing great. She reads 3 chapters in The Book of Mormon every day and she even went to church when she was visiting her husband down south. She is doing great and she even told her daughter that she will be baptized. Cherif, our friend from Egypt, is doing ok. We haven’t seen him in a while. He came to English class though, but we haven’t seen him this week. We will call him and see how he is doing. Things are going great though. We have been getting some new investigators and things seem to be going pretty great. So we are happy about that. Well family, I love you and hope things are going great. Well, after this I will only have one e-mail left. The mission has been a life changing event that I would never trade for anything in the world. I met new people and friends from all over the world - from America to France to South America to Africa to Egypt to China. I will never forget the stories and the times I have had - the good and the bad. I have learned a lot about our Lord and Redeemer and I still have much to learn. It is a lifelong process. This has been something that I know has changed my life and I want to thank you all. All my family, friends, members - everyone. If it weren’t for you and your testimonies I don’t know where I would be in my life. You all have played a major role in my life and it is something I am truly grateful for. Thank you! You all mean a lot to me and I wouldn’t change it for anything. You all have been a blessing in my life. I will never forget this place and the great times I have had serving the Lord. It has truly been the best two years. Well, next week will be the last e-mail. Then I will shortly be seeing you. I love you and I will talk and see you next week. BYE

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

Homecoming Announcement

November 7, 2011

Hi family and friends. how is everything going? Are you doing great? Well things here have been great. We have been working hard here and we also have been walking a lot too. I mean a lot...but I guess I should be good at that. I mean after all, my name is Walker, and the definition of a walker is a person or a thing that walks or likes to walk......Ya, I don’t think it is the 2nd one - liking to walk. Ya – no, I think I am more of the person who walks instead...No, it is all good, good exercise also. This week has been good, but like I said, we have been doing a lot of contacting trying to find new investigators. We have found some great potential investigators but we will have to see them again to see if they are really interested in our message. We have had some really great first lessons, but we will see where they will go. Well, a cool thing that has happened this week happened yesterday. Yesterday, Claire, our investigator who got baptized last week, received the Holy Ghost. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong there. After the meeting I asked her how she felt after receiving it. She told me that it was a spiritual confirmation that being baptized and becoming a member of the Church of Jésus-Christ was the right choice and that it is the true church. It was so cool. Her testimony has grown so strong and she will be a great member of the church. That is pretty much all of the big things that have happened this week. There was something big last week that I forgot to talk about. It is that Elder Gonzales of the Presidency of the 70’s came and spoke to us for a zone conference. It was pretty cool. He talked about la foi et trouver les gens or in other words Faith and finding people. It was great and really spiritual. Then this week we have Elder Kopischke from the 70’s also coming to talk to us. So it should be good. I am looking forward to that. He is also I believe in the area presidency over Europe so that will be cool. That is pretty much what is going on here. I love the work, I love my companion, I love our apartment - it is a fête chaque jour, I love being a missionary and I love you! What more can I ask for - not much. Thanks for everything. I hope you will have a wonderful day and week and I will talk/see you soon. LOVE YA!!!!!!

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

October 31, 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

So, how is everyone doing? Well this week has been great!!!!!! Our investigator Claire got baptized! Oh yaaaah!!!! It was a great baptism yesterday. It was so good! Well let’s start off at the start of the week though. After the call last Sunday saying she wanted to be baptized, we said we would have to see her every day and we did. It was so cool. We also had some great members with us who came and helped out a lot. Probably if it was not for the members I don’t know if she would have made it yesterday. The members helped out so much. They gave her a friend at church, helped her stop smoking, and change her life. They helped her with questions when we were not around. They did so much and I am so grateful for them. It was so cool to see someone change their whole life and turn it around. It was also cool to see that happen in a week. Every day that we saw her you could tell something was different and that she had a testimony of the gospel of Jésus-Christ. It was a cool experience that I am glad that Heavenly Father gave me. To see someone change like that for the better has strengthened my testimony that I know this church is true and that with the Lords help you can get through anything. Then Sunday, yesterday, was a great day. We had a lot of people at the baptism and it was great. We were scared that there would not be a lot there because it is fall break, but we had a good turnout. What was also cool - her friend from Georgia, USA came to baptize her. He got here in France around 11:20 Sunday morning then at night we had the baptism. So he was pretty tired after a long flight and then a long day. It was all good. It was a beautiful day and we all felt the spirit. So that was a pretty cool thing that we were able to have this week. Another thing that happened was Monday night president called us. This was around 9:30 at night telling us, “Oh by the way elders tomorrow you will have a mini missionary with you. So you will have to come to Versailles tomorrow to pick him up.” We told him we had a rendez-vous at that time and he said well you have to come. So we worked it out and he ended up going on a 3-way exchange with us and the 2 companionships in Paris - Lilas. It worked out and it was all good. So we had a mini missionary with us for 3 days. It was good.His name is Marc and he is from Evry, which is just south of Paris. He was pretty cool. He helped us out a lot. He is very, very shy but he had a good testimony and helped out in the rendez-vous. It was pretty cool to have him with us. So that was our week. Things are going pretty good for us.

Well, real fast, our investigator Cherif from Egypt - things are hard with him. I don’t know what we are going to do but we will still try to work with him. Graciela is doing great. She left to go out of town this week to go see her husband down south. She couldn’t come to church but she is still progressing and things are going great. She will get baptized soon - not sure when but soon. So that is all that we have right now. So that is how things are for us. This week is going to be spent doing a lot and a lot of contacting. So we have a lot of things to do this week...right! Well, it will be good. We need some new investigators so everything is great. Well, I love you and take care.

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

Official Release Letter

Parents of Elder Walker,

Your son, Elder Christopher Merrill Walker will soon complete his service as a full time missionary in the France Paris Mission. His scheduled release date will be November 22, 2011.

At this time we wish to thank you for your invaluable support of his mission through your letters and prayers. We feel certain you are anticipating a joyous reunion. Upon his return he should report immediately to his stake president in order to give an account of his mission, receive timely instruction, and receive his formal release.

During his mission, Elder Walker has served faithfully, has demonstrated an extraordinary attitude, testimony, and spirit, and developed qualities which exemplify the very best in the performance of missionary work. He has treated the various responsibilities he assumed here as a sacred trust. By his faith, humility and devotion to duty, often in the face of adversity, he became an effective teacher and witness of truth. The great personal qualities which he discovered and enhanced during his mission will be a source of strength to him and to all with whom he associates throughout his life.

Elder Walker will be remembered with fondness and love by many friends and members of the Church in France, as well as by his missionary companions. His life has been enriched by learning the French language, by living in a foreign culture, and especially by serving others.

It has been our privilege to serve with him, observe his spiritual growth, and enjoy close association through personal interviews, and his weekly letters and accompanying reports. He is a fine young man whom we love and for whom we wish the very best.

Sincerely,

Franck Poznanski
President, France Paris Mission

October 24, 2011

Hey, hey, hey how is everyone doing? Well, this week has been great. There have been a lot of things happening and a really cool miracle that took place. Well, this week started off great. We had a great family home evening with the young adults and Clair even came. She loved it. We also saw her on Wednesday and gave her a blessing to help her quit smoking and to answer her questions. It was a great rendez-vous. She is so cool. Well, she came to church on Sunday and then I went on a split with a member and we taught her. It was a great rendez-vous with her. She was taught about a year ago and she was almost baptized. Well, we committed her again. We said we know you know this is true so will you go home and pray for a date that the lord wants you to be baptized. She said she would. Well, we go throughout the day and just contacted and contacted. Towards the night I get a phone call and it was Clair. We were on the metro at the time and I asked how she was doing. She said or so I thought; “I am sick.”....then the phone cut out. I was in shock. I was thinking she was fine earlier today. Is she sick of us? Well, when we get off the metro I called and asked how she was and she said fine. I am fine..whoo…there goes that worry. Then she said "I was calling to ask you if...if we could actually fix a baptism service for next Sunday".........WHAT??? I was in shock! She said that she felt that it was time and she needs to get baptized. I told her I would have to make some calls. So, I called around to see if we could and I got a “yes.” So, I called her back and told her yes but that we will have to see her every day to get her ready. She was ok with that. Then I told her that everything needs to stop…the smoking, the coffee drinking and the tea. She said; “no problem.” It was so cool. She asked in the rendez-vous earlier if her friend from America who is a member can come and baptize her. We said of course. It is so cool. She remembers a lot from the last time she was taught. We have a lot of work though. We have to go over a lot of things and make sure she is ready. So, we have a lot of work and we also told her this week will probably be hard. We told her to just remember to rely on the lord and he will help you get through anything. So, we will be working with her to get her ready and we are praying and will try our best for her. So that is our miracle for this week. It is so cool. Graciela is also doing great. We have a rendez-vous with her tomorrow and we want to ask her to be baptized. We have asked her before but there is something that is stopping her from doing so. We don’t know what it is but we will work on it and hopefully find out what it is. She is doing great though. Our friend from Egypt - I am not too sure about. He is having a hard time right now and I don’t know what is going to happen. We will keep working with him to help him out. We will try our best. Things are going great here though with Elder Tehaai. We are having a great time. We are doing a lot of contacting though but things are great and we are having fun. Well, I love you and hope you have a great week. Take care and remember to rely on the lord and he will help you. --
TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

October 17, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well things here have been fun. It has been a great week with my new companion and we have had a great time. We have worked hard and it was a very tiring week. Well, let’s start off our week. Monday was our last p-day of the transfer. We didn’t do much. We just went out to lunch and then we had a rendez-vous with Cherif, our friend from Egypt. It was just really to say good bye for Elder Dick. Then we left a spiritual message. He is doing well. I am not too sure about him though. For the moment he has stopped progressing. He has come to a wall and kinda stopped. I am hoping just for the moment though. I hope we will still try to work with him. We saw him with Elder Tehaai and it was good. It was a little difficult but it was good. He just wants to find a job first before he wants to stop smoking. We will keep working with him and hopefully help him out. Tuesday we just had our usual last district meeting for the Pairs zone. After the meeting we had a burrito fête. This is where we make homemade burritos and have lunch together. It was good. Then we just had a dinner with a couple of members to say good bye. Wednesday came and it was a fun transfer day. Luckily I didn’t have to transport anyone this transfer. But we went to the gare and found my new companion. I have to say he is legit. He is so cool and is so nice. Our apartment is so funny. Two Tahitians, one French and one American. It is a fête. We all have a good time. For a long time I couldn’t figure out something. I could understand when the Frenchy Elder Gubbay talked but when the Tahitians were talking I couldn’t really understand them. I could understand a little bit of what they were saying but the rest was just a blur. Then I realized that they were not speaking French but Tahitian. It was good. So, in our apartment we are speaking French, English; Tahitian, and Chinese. Last night it was funny. We had two Elders speaking in Tahitian, a Frenchy speaking Chinese and a very lost and confused American. We get along great in our apartment. We have good laughs and a great time. We have been doing a lot of contacting lately. We need to find some new investigators so we have been doing that for a long time. It is working. This week we also got a golden referral from the Visitor Center. Her name is Claire and she is from England. She is so cool. She met with the missionaries a while back but stopped. She then realized that there was something missing in her life and found out that it was the church. So, she came into the Visitor Center and talked with them for about 2 hours. I called her Saturday night to invite her to church. She told me she was already planning on coming. She then said that right when I called her she was praying and it was the first prayer that she had given for a very long time. So I asked her how she felt and she just said it was good and she felt closer to God then she has ever felt before.... so we saw her Sunday and she loved church. After church we saw her and just got to know her and give a little lesson. It was great. She remembers a lot of stuff that the missionaries had taught her and then she told us that she wanted us to teach her about the atonement of Jésus-Christ. So we taught that and asked her how she thinks she can be clean. She said that baptism is something that has been on her mind and that it is something that she must do in order to be clean and follow Jésus.....WOW it was such a good lesson. She told us that she will probably get baptized but she wants to take it slow for the moment. She was very cool and she may come to FHE tonight. If not we will see her on Wednesday. We also had a rendez-vous with Graciela and it was great. We taught her about eternal families and it was a great lesson she is doing very well also. Things here are going great. Elder Tehaai and I are getting along and working hard. Thank you family and friends. I love you and hope you will have a great week.

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

October 10, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Things here are just great. Well, I am sure you are wondering what is happening with my last transfer.....oooh it gives me chills just thinking about that. Well, there have been a lot of changes in the mission. President has changed a lot of things around. Well, I guess I could tell you what will happen, but what would the fun be in that. Well, I guess I could tell you anyway. I am staying in Paris! However, things have changed. I am getting a different companion. His name is Elder Mihiarii Tehaai. He is from Tahiti. He has been out a little over a year. He started when I was in my 6th transfer. He will also become the District Leader. So, that means a nice relaxing transfer. HAHAHA. It will be good. He is a hard worker so I am excited about that. Then we are also having the zls move out of our appt and we are having the Chinese elders move in. Also, one of them is from Tahiti. That means two Tahitians in the apartment....o yah… we are going to eat well and have super fun. Then the other Chinese elder is French - so that means 3 francophone’s and an Anglophone in an apartment. We will be speaking a lot and I mean a lot of French - which is great. I finally have a francophone companion. It is going to be great. They are also taking the sisters out of Paris and not putting any in for the moment. There will just be 4 French missionaries here. I am the only one in my district who is staying. Elder Dick is going to Metz, Elder Rako is going home, Elder Wood is going to St Brieu and the sisters are going to Brussels and Blois. Everyone is leaving. President made some big changes. So that is the transfer news.

Well, we had an awesome week. We didn’t teach much though. We had 5 rendez-vous fall through, but it’s all good. We didn’t have any baptisms either but maybe we can have a couple next transfer. We have some great potential with the mother daughter team and our friend from Egypt. Their names are Graciela and Cherif. They are doing great. We had one last concert last night before everyone left and they both came and loved it. The concert was about Joseph Smith. We had a speaker who played him and a narrator who told the life story of him. Then we had some great music and everyone loved it. It was so spiritual. There were people crying at the end. Our president’s wife, Soeur Poznanski was crying and loved it also. It was a great way to end a transfer. We sang some awesome songs. I can’t send it because it is to long but if you want to see what it was we sang a version of “Nearer my God to Thee” by Vocal Point. So, you can look that up. It is an awesome version of the song and you sing it with 9 or more voices. It was all sung A cappella. It sounds sweet! We also sang some other great songs. I have recorded a couple of them but I will just have to show you later because I can’t send them by e mail. It was good and it was a great way to finish a wonderful transfer. A lot of stress and anger came from getting it ready, but it turned out great. So that was the highlight of our week - it was really sweet. We had a great meeting with Graciela, our investigator, and taught her the commandments and they went great. She understands them. We couldn’t see Cherif this week but he is doing good. He is still smoking a little but we will work on that. Well family, I love ya and I will talk to you next week. I hope you will have great week also.
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

October 3, 2011

Bonjour family or as President Monson said "HELLO". So, how is everyone doing? Things here are just great. Well I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch or at least had the chance to hear General Conference. It was a great conference. I don’t know how excited everyone is back at home with the news but everyone here is so excited!!!! THEY ARE BUILDING A TEMPLE IN FRACE YAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! We were not quite sure when he announced it but on the church web site it says they will build the temple. OH YA we were so happy when they said that. Everyone just yelled. It was so funny - it is so cool. There will also be another temple in Provo. WOW that is cool - two in one city. It just shows the work of the Lord is moving on. It was a great conference. We didn’t get to watch the Sunday afternoon session, but as I am writing this I am listing to it at the same time. So it is all good. Ya we watched the Saturday morning live at 6:00 PM our time, then we watched the priesthood session at 11 o’clock Sunday morning, then the Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock on Sunday afternoon and then we watched the Sunday morning live at 6 o‘clock pm. The Sunday session was at 10 to midnight so we couldn’t watch it. Oh well, I still loved conference. I loved how they just look so happy and are full of energy. I don’t know how they do it. They are in there eighties (80's) and we are in our 20’s and we are just dead tired. I don’t understand. I love it though. I loved President Monson and how he starts off with “Hello”, then his talk Sunday morning about his 5 dollars and prayer and being ready to answer the Lords call when he calls. There were a lot of good talks. President Packer’s talk about the crows and the young and old people. They were just all good. I can’t just think of one that I loved the most. Every talk - it was so great. It was a great conference. I did also read the conference talk by President Uchtdorf from the relief society about the forget-me-not flowers. It was very good about the 5 things we need not to forget - how to be patient, how to sacrifice, how to be happy, the why in the gospel, and that we are loved. It was a great talk. Let’s just face it; they were all good and inspirational. I learned a lot from General Conference. I will always remember it. Before the mission I didn’t take it that serious, but now I know they are called from God to give us his word. I love watching and taking notes. It is something that will bless my life forever. It was also good because we had to go out to the Versailles church. It was beautiful and it was good to see everyone in our zone and our stake. Know that I love you and I hope you have a great week and remember the words of the prophets. If you didn’t have the chance to watch them then go to the church site http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/10?lang=eng and watch/lesson/or read the talks. They will bless your life. If we remember the words of the prophets we will be protected and we will know what we are doing is right. I love you and hope you have a great day.

PS - our investigators are doing well. Our friend from Egypt has a date for this Sunday, but I don’t know if he will make it. We will pray though.
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

September 26, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well things here are going great. We have had a fun week. There have been a lot of things that have been going on. Well, thanks again for the happy birthday wishes. They were really nice. Well, I had a great birthday. It was not bad at all. It was pretty cool though, we had a rendez-vous with one of our investigators and we found out he does not live in our area so we had to pass him. Sad - but it is ok. We have had to pass about 4 or 5 investigators this transfer. It kinda hurts but they are going good. I talked to one of the other elders we passed them to and he told us that they fixed a baptism date with one of them. So we are excited about that. Besides that, the investigators that we have are going great. Our investigator from Egypt is doing great. We had to give him 2 more weeks. He is so close. He is down to 2-3 cigarettes a day. He is cutting down. It is so good and yesterday at church he had a great interview with our bishop. It was awesome. He gave him great support and helped him out. Our goal is the 8th or 9th of Oct. so keep praying for him and he will make it. Our mother daughter team is going great. We had a rendez-vous with them last Saturday and we taught the Plan of Salvation. It went over well. I love the rendez-vous with them. They are funny. The daughter speaks English, Spanish and Polish. The mom speaks French, Spanish, and Polish. So, we teach the mom in French, ask questions to the daughter in English and then the daughter testifies in Spanish. So, we have all these language things going on. It is still awesome and we have great rendez-vous though. They feel the spirit and love it. Before the lesson the mom said she was scared about death. It is scary, but after we taught the lesson she had a lot more comfort as she realized that there is another life and that we can live together forever with our families. It was awesome to see how she changed and now has a better understanding of the gospel. They are going great. We also invited her to be baptized when she knows that it is true. She said “yes” but she wants to be a 100% sure that it is the true church before. They are awesome though. So those are some of the big things with our investigators. We have a couple that we are just starting to teach and hopefully they will be great. Another cool thing that happened yesterday - we had this great activity after church for the members and the missionaries. It was organized by our sister missionaries. It was an activity where the members and the missionaries could strengthen their faith. We had 3 stations - one was this video with Elder Nelson giving a little talk about member missionary work, the 2nd was a recent convert activity were the members asked questions about their conversion. Then there was a role play area. That is where I was. It is where the members act as themselves and the missionaries are their friend. The friends would ask a question and the members had to find a way to tie it in with the gospel. It was a great activity. After we had our bishop extend an invitation to have a friend ready by some date they pick to give to the missionaries. It was a great activity. Also, yesterday was one of the weirdest Sunday’s I think I have had. It started off ok then it was painful, then stress related, with an awesome activity and a good night. Well, we had to be at a members’ house at 7:30am to help him take some stuff to the church for the activity. We had to be at the church at 8:15am. Anyway, every Sunday I have a meeting with the leaders of the ward and talk about the work and stuff. Towards the end of the meeting my head started to hurt like no other. It started to kill me. I never felt like that before. I had to leave the first hour of church because it was so bad. It started to make me sick and to tell the truth it made me throw up. It was horrible. I never felt that much pain in my head before, but our DMP gave me some Advil and I was feeling great after that. I have no clue what happened but it sucked. It was just for the 1st hour also. Weird - but ok. Then the 2nd hour we were getting the sacrament ready and we ran out of sacrament cups for the water. So we were running around trying to find them. We were lucky and found just enough for the sacrament. After we found out we still needed some more though. We had to prepare 2 sacraments because this was the first week where they tried a sacrament in Chinese. It was so cool. They eventually want to open a Chinese branch here. It will be so cool. That was our 2nd hour. Then we had sacrament. Now that was fun. I am glad I participated in the scripture mastery in seminary. I helped translate and I was the one looking for scriptures. It was hard. You have like 5 seconds to find and read the scripture before the talker moves on. So they will say D&C 121:5 and you are flying through the scriptures. Then after a few you’re thinking I got this - it is all good. But you know what? I think the speaker knows how you feel – that you think you can handle it. They are just thinking ok I went easy on the scriptures, but try this on for size - D&C48:56 then Joshua 5 then after you have Mosiah 2. There! You shouldn’t have been just thinking you could handle it – YEAH - try to find all those in 5 seconds. So, you are flying through the scriptures and you miss them. Then all the English speakers are totally lost and have no clue what is going on and you are just freaking out. The speaker is just laughing thinking yeah, “I got ya.” It was fun though and we had a great time translating. After church and the activity we practiced for our last concert. It will be on the 9th of October. It should be great and hopefully we will have a great time. We have some great songs. Well that is my week. I love you and thanks for all that you do. BYE --
TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

September 19, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. They were really nice. It is weird to think that I will be 21 years old. I can’t believe it. It feels like two days ago I was learning how to drive and yesterday I left on my mission. Now I am 21 and legal. OK - it is weird to think – wow - I am old but it is ok. I am loving it. Well, things are going great here. We are having a good time and we are getting along. Well, we have had a good week. Our friend from Egypt is doing great. We have had a couple of rendez-vous with him and we have fixed a baptism date for this weekend. Now, we don’t know if he will get baptized this weekend. He smokes and it is hard for him to stop. He has gotten down to 4 a day which is a lot better and he is working on it. We have a rendez-vous with him tonight and we will see how he did over the weekend. We will find out if he smoked or not. It was funny. We had our Stake Conference yesterday and it was at Versailles. It was great. We told Cherif about it and we told him we could go together out there. The only problem was we had to meet at our church at 7:45AM to get out to Versailles in time for the conference. Well, he never showed up so we decided to leave. Then around 11 o’clock he calls us and tells us he is at the church, but no one is there. It was a good conference though. We had the conference in a big conference center in Versailles. The cool part is that it is right next door to the Castle of Versailles - the big huge famous one. It was awesome. It is a lot different than the big city. I forgot what it is like out in the outer cities. It is calm, clean and the best part - fresh air. It was really nice. France is a really beautiful place. It is so green and there are lots of things to see. The mother/daughter team is also doing very great. We stopped by one night after they got off work and we sang them a song and talked. They are doing awesome. They read together each night and it is just awesome. She knows the church is true and the daughter is helping out the mom a lot. The daughter is a member and she helps her out with questions. When she bears her testimony to her mom it is so powerful. It just shows that the family is very important and how the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless families. We can be together for eternity after this life. It really means a lot to me and I am so grateful that we have that opportunity to live together forever. Thank you again for all your birthday wishes. It truly means a lot. Well, I love you family and hope you have a great day and remember to BE HAPPY!!!!

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

September 12, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well like always things here are going great and we are having a fun time. Well, we have had our ups and downs this week. It started off well, ended just under well. I have no clue what that would be called, but it was a good week. So let’s get down to it. Our friend from Egypt is doing great. On Monday we had a family night with him and some members at the member’s house and it went great. We talked about the Parole de sagesse (word of wisdom) and it went ok - a little rough, but the members bore a strong testimony on how living this commandment has changed their lives. We also fixed a baptism date with him for Sept 17. Things were going great. Then we had a rendez-vous with him on Friday and it was a hard rendez-vous. We got through it and we realized that he was not ready. The 17th is this Saturday and he was not ready. He is trying his best and he wanted to get baptized, before he left, if he has to leave. We will find out tonight if he has to leave to go back to Egypt or not. We are hoping he will stay, but if he goes home he said he would be back about the start of November. He would just go back for a month to get his wife (fiancée) and get some money and come back. So we are praying for him. He loves everything we teach and loves church. He told us that when he comes to our church he fills like he is home and this is where he belongs. It was so awesome to hear his testimony on how he loves church. It is so cool. I love it. So he is doing well. It is a little hard for him at the moment, but hopefully things will work out for him. Then we also have our mother and daughter team who are doing great. The mom left for the weekend but she will be back. They are doing awesome. We want to fix a baptism date with them for the 9th of October and hopefully things will work out for them. We have been teaching the daughter also so she can help us with the rendez-vous. Things are great with them. So hopefully we will be able to fix a baptism date with them and see that miracle. So those are our top two priorities for the moment. We are still looking for some new people to teach and things are going slow. Vacation is finally over and I thought there would be less people here without all the visitors. Was I wrong! There have been more people than ever. All the Parisians (people that live in Paris) left for the summer while all the visitors are here and now it is the other way around. The visitors left and all the Parisians are back and it seems that there are a lot more of them. The metros are always packed and the trains and buses - they are just packed. You are always in someone’s space when you get on the metro. It is funny - when the metro is packed when it comes to the stop more people try to get on. You are tighter then a pack of sardines. You are back to back and everyone is crammed into a little spot. It is funny. I have a good laugh every time. Paris is fun. I am having a good time. It takes a lot of energy out of you though - running from end to end, up and down stairs (let me tell you after Paris I don’t think I ever want to see stairs again in my life.) We get a work out every day with those stairs. You are at the bottom and by the time you get to the top your legs are killing you. But one thing - is it is a good work out so you’ve got to love it. Well family, my time is coming to an end here today. I want to let you know that I love you and hope you will have a great week – BYE.
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

Release Date!!!

Well Chris must have filled out those "dreaded" papers he received a few weeks ago. Today we got an email say when his release date is. We are so excited and can't wait for him to come home. These past two years have just flown by. We love getting Chris's emails each week telling us about his fun adventures in Paris...but we can't wait to hear them from him personally. So without further ado...Chris will be returning home to Utah on

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

September 5, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well we had a good week this week. It was transfer week so that means that the missionaries in Paris get to help others. It was good. We had to help a couple of elders get through Paris. We only helped out 2. It was not nearly as bad as last time. Last time we were helping people from 8 o clock until 2 o clock. It was hot and we were sweating, but it was a lot easier today. It is fun helping other missionaries through. It gives you a chance to get to know them and if you already know them, just to talk and see how things are going. We actually helped Elder Whitecar (my last companion) through and it was great. He just left Le Havre so I got to talk to him and catch up on the thing in Le Havre. Things seem to be going great there so I am happy for them. Well, I guess I should probably tell you something…so it may be hard for you to take this but I am a mother...confusing right! Well, let me explain. In our mission a mother is someone who takes a brand new missionary out contacting for the first time. They let them experience the mission life before he meets his trainer who is called their father. So we had the brand new missionaries come in on Tuesday and I was asked to take one and go contacting with him. It was awesome! His name is Elder Husle (I think that is how you spell it.) It was fun. We ended up giving a Book of Mormon away and got three numbers. It was fun. It was cool to have that experience of taking out a blue (greenie in English a bleu (blue) in French). It was pretty cool. So now I am a step father (stepfather is a missionaries companion after their trainer), and a mother. Cool huh! OK - well the work here is going great. We have some great investigators and we are just having a great time. So we have our friend from Egypt who is awesome. We had an awesome miracle this week. Our friend was having trouble finding a job and a new house before he has to leave. So, we have been trying to work on that. Then last Monday there was a group of us just standing around in a very popular area when someone comes up and taps us on the shoulder. He said he was a member so we started talking. Then he told us where he was from. He told us that he was from Egypt....wow right! There are not too many members from Egypt. So, we started talking and we told him we were teaching a guy from Egypt. Then the member got really excited and was just so happy. We told him a little of his problem. Then he said; “I will help him with his problem. I will help him find a job and a home. Give me his number.” We all were just shocked, mouth wide open and speechless. Then on Wednesday we have French class and our friend comes to learn French. We invited the member to come and he came. Right when he walked in and they just started talking in Arabic so I have no clue what on earth they were saying. But apparently it went very well because after our friend said that the member was going to help him. Then the member thanked us. After we were just standing there trying to think what it is that he needed to thank us for. It was us that were thankful. It was so cool and we feel so blessed. It was such a miracle. Then yesterday he told us after church that he has to be baptized into this church. He knows it is true and he wants it. It was so cool. I just love it. We didn’t do anything. He contacted us and he was ready. I feel so blessed to be here at this moment to have this experience. It is so awesome. Then another miracle - a while back we did this fast with this recent convert. We fasted to help with missionary work, because she wanted to help the missionaries. About a week later she comes to us and tells us that she has been praying for someone she could present - someone to give to the missionaries. Then she says I found someone. I have been talking to my mom and she wants to start taking the missionary lesson. She saw how it changed my life and she wants to start taking the lessons again. She started taking them with me but stopped after awhile and now she wants to pick them up again...We were just shocked and we were totally ok with that. She told us that she will go on vacation for a month down in Orleans, France. So we asked the missionaries there to teach her. Then, they just got back this last week and we had a rendez-vous with her and her mom on Saturday. It was so awesome and spiritual. It was just so cool. After, the daughter sent us a message saying that her mom loved the lesson. She learned new things and felt the spirit really strong. Oh Ya! This church is true. I love it. She then came to church Sunday and loved it. It is so cool. I just can’t explain. The lord is just giving us these awesome blessing and we are so grateful. So those are some miracles for this week. I love the mission. It is a great feeling testifying to others of the truth that is on the earth and of Jesus Christ our Lord. I love this church. I know it is true. I hope you will all have a great week and a wonderful Labor Day. Remember that I love you!

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

August 29, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, I have some news for you..yep..some transfer news that is. Well, transfers are this Wednesday and I bet you will never guess what is going to happen. Well, there have been a lot of things that have changed. President Poznanski has made some big changes, but they are good. He has been talking and wants missionaries to stay longer in a ward to get to know the members more and the investigators better. So, with that I am staying another one in Paris and I am staying another one with Elder Dick. This is the first time I have stayed 3 transfers with a companion. It will be good, we are excited. Things should be good. We get along great. There are also a lot of missionaries who are staying 3 with their companions. It is a big change. We did have 12 zones in our mission, but now only 8. They have gotten rid of 4 zones and combined them with the others. It should be good, easier and more efficient, so that is nice. It is a little weird though since this is the first time that the Paris ward is not changing missionaries. All 10 of us in the ward are staying the same which is pretty cool. We will get the chance to work with them a lot more. Well, we have had a good week here. Actually we had a great week. Yesterday we had another concert at our church. It was so good. It was based on the Book of Mormon. We had copies of the Book of Mormon out on the chairs and we had 3 speakers who read out of the Book of Mormon before each song. We went through and picked out some very good scriptures and had them read. It was so powerful. You could just feel the spirit when they read the scriptures and then when they sang it was just awesome. It was a good concert and everyone loved it. We had a lot of investigators come and a lot from other wards also like Versailles, St Ouin, Paris, Lilla and more. There were a lot of people there and our Mission President was there with his family. It was very good. It was so spiritual and everyone loved it. We are planning to do one more. This one will probably be one of our last ones also, because next transfer we will be separated and will go somewhere else. So we will make it a good one. Another good thing is that vacation will be over soon. Everyone is starting to come back to Paris and home to go to work and school. It is awesome. We will have some investigators coming back so we are excited for that. It should be fun. One of them we had asked to be baptized and he said yes, but then he left and we had no idea. So we called and called and called again. Then guess what? We called again, but this time we left a message saying if you’re not interested you can just let us know. Then we will stop calling you. Well he calls us back and said no, no, I am interested. It is just that I am on vacation.....Oh! Ok! So he will be back on Wednesday and we can start teaching him again. Oh ya! We are excited. We also have our friend from Egypt and he is doing great. He is so cool and he knows this church is true and wants to be baptized. We just need to work some things out first before we can fix a date with him. He will get baptized soon - hopefully this transfer. He loves this church and comes every Sunday and reads the Book of Mormon and so much more. He is just elect!!! We also had a great rendez-vous with another one of our investigators, but then we found out he lives right outside of our area. So, we will have to pass him but we will still see him around. We asked him if he knew it to be true to be baptized and he said yes. So hopefully the other elders will be able to work with him. Things are going great here. Elder Dick and I are happy that we are staying together and we will have a great time. I love this place and I know this church is true. I LOVE YOU!
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

August 22, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, things here are great. We had a good week. It was pretty cool. We had our zone conference with President Poznanski and it was pretty good. We talked a lot about breaking the walls between the members and the missionaries. We also talked about raising the bar. It was good. We also had his councilor there who talked to us about a minute missionary. He was saying this is not a long time - 2 years or 18 months – it is not long but it will change our life forever and we will always benefit from it. It was a good conference. They are doing this new thing now and I think it is for every mission in the world. Every missionary will get a DVD player as part of their equipment. We are to use it to study the Preach My Gospel DVD. So at the zone conference we all received a Preach My Gospel DVD and a DVD player to use to study. We used it during companion study this past week we have been watching those sections and have been practicing and talking about them. They have been fun to watch and to see how they do it in Preach My Gospel. So that was a cool thing that we got that. Well we have had some awesome things happen here. One is with our investigator Cherif, who is awesome. We had some awesome rendez-vous with him. They were so great. We gave him 2 Nephi 2 to read and when he came to the meeting he had it read. He taught us what was in the chapter and how we needed opposition to know good and evil. Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit or we wouldn’t be here and because of that we fell. We could not return to Heavenly Father alone without help. That is why He sent Jesus Christ to come and lift us up and save us....WOW I was just sitting there with my mouth open and speechless. It was so cool! He knows that this is the true church and it was awesome. He even went to a baptism yesterday and loved it. He said he wanted to get baptized. Hopefully we will fix a date soon. We need to find a couple of things out first. He has to find a new apartment soon or he will have to leave and maybe go back to Egypt. Hopefully things will work out though. He is awesome. He went to a baptism yesterday for a young Chinese lady and it was awesome. I had to give the baptism interview. She speaks English also so it made it easy. We had the baptism questions in Chinese also just to make sure she understood the questions. She did and she passed. She has completely changed her life and loves it. She loves how the gospel fills to her and how it helps her in her life. It is so cool. You can just see how this gospel helps others. I know that this gospel is true. It can help others for the better and I love seeing it help others every day. Seeing that one person change their life for the better and how she just looks like there is something better in her life. I love seeing that and it only makes me happy to see others follow Jesus Christ. This gospel is true and I love it. We have also had some very nice members this week that called and asked us to come over to their house. They are so nice and I am glad that I have had this chance to get to know them better. Well family, I know this gospel is true. I love you and hope you will have a great week and remember I love ya! (And stay bright eyed, bushy tailed and eager to excel)!
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

August 15, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well this week was good. “Was” is the key word though. It was all good up until about Friday...So let’s get on with the story. We started off with studies and they were great, but good things can’t last forever, as they say. Well, we went down to get the mail and I had a letter there for me. That is when my day went from great to horrible. There comes a time in a man’s life that they have to receive something like that in the mail. And just like the scriptures say, it will come to everyone both old and young, both bond and free, the learned and the unlearned, everyone shall have a part of it in this life to come. Well, I guess it was my time. As I got that letter and opened it and started to read my heart was in shock. I could not breathe! It just felt like.....like I was lost and I had nowhere to turn. (Epic story right) Well, I was shocked. I couldn’t breathe and I just told myself; “No! It is not true! It cannot be! But, as I looked and read again, it was true and my heart felt like it was missing. Well, I guess I should probable tell you what it is that I actually got. Well it was.....you know what? Let’s switch subjects here. I am getting all teary eyed just thinking about it. Ok! Onto new and higher things. Well this week started off great. Last Monday our p-day ended at 6pm and we were in the apartment wondering where we should do some contacting. We get a call from some other missionaries in the Visitor Center calling us saying that there is a guy who just walked in the center wanting to be taught and to be baptized. There was no one there to teach him. They asked if we could come. Well, of course we said “yes”. We live about 30 to 45 minutes away from the church but I think we set a new record to get to the church. It took about 20 minutes for us to get there. We ran to the bus stop and the bus was there right when we got there. Then it just felt like it flew to the train station where we jumped off and ran down to the RER (which is a big metro that is faster and has less stops then a regular metro). Well, it was there right when we got there. We jump on and it flew down to the stop by our church. We ran to our church and found him sitting there watching the special witness DVD. This is the one that has all the testimonies of the prophets. Well we talked and had a first lesson with him. We also fixed a second one but this one was a good lesson. He got distracted easily but it was good. He never came to the next rendez-vous but, oh well, we won’t talk about that, but it was still a good story. Now we did have an awesome miracle though. I think I have told you about the guy from Egypt. Well we finally had a rendez-vous with him and it went great. It was so spiritual and just a great meeting. We asked him to really read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He has read a little and tells us he loves it and he feels good when he reads it. Well, we saw him again and we asked how he felt when he read the Book of Mormon. He said; "Every time I read it I just feel calm, like at peace. The best way to describe it would be when you come in from a hot day and you have a nice Ice cold drink of water. It is just refreshing." WOW! Well, then we asked if he has been praying and he said; "I pray before I study and after I study". WOW! Again! It just blew my mind. I just wanted to hug him it was so cool. He has come to church 4 times and reads every day. He is so cool and he is the one that found us. Well, that was the big story of the week we also did a lot of practicing for our next concert. We have gotten a lot of members involved with this one because we want the members to really get involved with the missionaries. We are planning to do it on the Book of Mormon. We are going to have a scripture read and have a song about it. We have about 11 songs and some really good scriptures. It will be a great and spiritual concert......... Well, I guess I should tell you about my letter that I received.....well, here it goes. Well, it is what we call in our mission the “trunkie papers” or in other words the papers that say; “Elder, your time is almost up. This is your time to shine. Work hard and keep going, and by the way, can you fill out these papers and send them into the office so I can get things ready for you-like buy your ticket and everything...... Ya, you could see why I was sick and couldn’t breathe and felt lost. It is ok though. I will work hard. I still have a long time left. So that was my horrible news. Well, ya! Oh, last week we also went to the opera house of Paris. I will have to tell you more on that next week. It was cool and I will send a picture of that also. Well, I love you family. I hope you have a great week and hope everything is all good and well. I love you.

P.S. here is a picture of me and the papers
TTFN Love Elder Walker

August 8, 2011

Hey family, how are things going? Well, things here are not too bad. I do have some good news and some bad news. Well - bad news.....there will not be a baptism this next Sunday. We have canceled the date. Good news is that Michael is still progressing. He told us that it was too soon and he still wants to be baptized, but he wants to be more prepared first by reading more in the Book of Mormon. I have no problem with that. He will get baptized for sure, just when is the question. He is still progressing and coming to church. We have decided to read in the Book of Mormon with him and so we have started that. He is still awesome and will be baptized. We just need to take it a little slower. Things are going great though. Vacation time is still here and hopefully our investigators are doing great on their vacations. We will make calls tonight to see if any of our investigators have returned from their vacation and maybe we will be able to see them soon. So do you want to hear a funny story? Well, yesterday we were on our way to the church about 7:00 PM. We were heading over and there was a guy who happened to be drunk. Well we walked by him and he had an umbrella and tried to poke at us with it. Well, I moved out of the way and it skinned the back of my neck. Then guess what? He gets ma and hits me over the head with his umbrella. We both just turned around and gave him this weird look like did you really just hit me. Then he just stumbles off. It was so funny. Just out of nowhere an umbrella hits me in the head. We had a good laugh about it. It’s a good story to tell the kids you know. I thought it was pretty funny. We both had a good laugh about it so it was good. Well things are going good here. It has been a little bit slow this week but things are good. We had 3 investigators at church which is always good and we are going to see if we can get some rendezvous with them and start teaching them some more. We had a leadership training last week for all the zone leaders and district leader in the mission. We all went to the church and had a training on some new things we should be doing to help our district. President is really pushing hard on having everything done in French. He can speak perfect English, but they think it will help the mission if we do everything in French. I think it is good. It will be hard at first for the blues (greenies) but it will get better and the French will really improve a lot. He also wants us to be working a lot more with the members here. So as a ward and a zone we have made goals to go and see the members and make friends. This will help us with the work to gain their trust in us and everything. So that is our goal for this next little while. Well, things are great here. It has been a fun week. We have been working hard and will continue to do so. Well I love you I hope you have a great week. Bye
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

August 1, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, we had a great week this past week. Well, it has been fun. Things are also going great with our investigators. One of them is still going strong and he will get baptized. His name is Michael and he is just awesome. We had a rendez-vous with him last Monday and it was great. We have started to teach him the commandments. Then on Thursday or Friday we saw him again. It was so cool he brought his friend and his sister to the meeting. It was awesome. They loved it! We went over the first lesson again about the establishment (restoration) and it went very well. They had some great questions. Then he came to church yesterday and he loved it. He is so ready and the baptism is for the 14th. So, not this Sunday but the one after that. He is so cool. Our other b-dates have been a little shaky. One works a lot and it is very hard to see him. We can only see him on the weekends and maybe not even then because he works so much. We have not been able to see him in some time. We will keep trying and working hard at trying to get him ready. For the moment though we will have to move the baptism date with him. Then the last one we haven’t been able to see. He has been on vacation; because it’s the most wonderful time of the year - vacation time - aka the best. Hopefully when he gets back we can see him again. So, that is what is going on with some things here. We also had an awesome miracle. There is a guy that came from Egypt and awhile back he talked to me and another elder on the road. He asked for a Book of Mormon in Arabic. Well we didn’t pay too much attention because we were in a hurry or what have you. But he comes to see us the day we said we would be there. We were not there thankfully but there were other elders there that gave him a Book of Mormon. Then he came to church one Sunday and he stayed and liked it. He had read a lot in the Book of Mormon. We then saw him at our French class and he came having read the Book of Mormon. He even made his own handout in Arabic saying who Mormon was, who Moroni and Joseph Smith were, where the plates were found and in his own words what the Book of Mormon is.......WOW he is cool. Then he came to church yesterday and loved it. Hopefully we will start teaching him and things will be great. Well yesterday we had another concert at our church. It was so cool. We had a lot of people there and they loved it. It was a classical concert with some twists. It was really cool. We had some awesome singers. We also had some very talented BYU students here for 4 weeks and they came and played in the concert also. It was awesome. The spirit was there and everyone had a great time. We also had wards from all around Paris and missionaries with their investigators there. It was so cool. Our friend from Egypt invited his friend also - it was awesome and they loved it. It was a great time. We had some great music - mostly classical, but like I said we had some twists. Like one elder in the middle of the concert went up and played Mario on the piano. It was so funny. It was to help make people feel more comfortable and just have a good time. It was great. Also one of my friends from high school was there. She was one of the BYU students that were here for four weeks. They left today though but it was cool to talk and have them at the concert. So that was our week. Full of fun times great rendez-vous with our investigators, awesome members and awesome missionaries and a blast serving our lord. I love the mission! It is truly great. I know this church is true and I have felt that my testimony has truly developed on my mission. I love helping others seeing the light and inviting them to come unto Christ. Thanks for all you do. I love you.

TTFN ELDER CHRISTOPHR WALKER

July 25, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, this past week was great, tiring, slow, spiritual, and funny....right… let’s get started. Well, this last week was transfer week and I am staying here with Elder Dick. Last Tuesday we had our last district meeting as a district and we decided to do it as a zone. We decided to have the zone leaders teach it, so they did, and after we took some group pics. Now this is funny, we took a big group picture and then all the elders for some reason decided we wanted to make a human pyramid. So, we had 5 elders on bottom then 4,3,2, and finally 1. It was a huge pyramid and it was very heavy. I was on the row with 4 people so the 2nd one and it was heavy having all the other elders on top. It may not have been the smartest idea but it was fun and we got some cool pictures. We had to try it a couple of times, like 4 or 5, but it turned out good in the end. So that was our fun meeting. Then we had a big burrito fête or a burrito party where we just made homemade burritos and had a good time. Well, then Wednesday came around. This was transfer day. You would think it would be easy because we were not going anywhere. But because we live in Paris we had to help all the other missionaries who were getting transfer and are traveling through Paris. It was a long day. We were helping missionaries from 8am to about 3pm. It was fun but tiring. We went to every Gare (train station) in Paris except for one because it was not in our mission. Besides that we went to everyone and some of them more than once. There are 6 Gares in Paris and they are all very far away from each other. We were running around all through Paris that day - good exercises though. So, that was our day Wednesday. Thursday we had to work in the Visitor Center. We have a Visitor Center right next to our church in Paris. We all take turns once a week to work in the Visitor Center. It wasn’t bad. Ok on to Friday. OK -Friday was not bad. I had to give a baptism interview to one of the sister’s investigators who is awesome. He is from Bulgaria and it was awesome. I have helped him a couple of times before and he was so cool at the interview. He speaks Russian, Bulgarian, English and French. They had to teach him in Franglish. It was good though, he passed then he was baptized on Saturday. It was a great baptism. We were asked to be the witnesses. The baptism prayer was in Russian so we had pieces of paper to read along to see if he is saying it right. It went well and he was baptized. Then he received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It was a great time. He is so cool and so funny. And speaking of baptisms, we are still good with our b-dates. We have asked 3 people but only fixed a date with two of them. They are going good. One of them though we may have to push back to another date because we just haven’t been able to see him that much. So, it has been hard with him. He is still going strong. We will be seeing him today. The 3rd one we haven’t been able to see yet so hopefully things will work out. OK - one last thing - one of the sister’s just went home last transfer and her family came over to pick her up. They were so nice. They brought us all treats like peanut butter, Reese's Pieces and peanut butter cups. It was so cool. They were so nice. It was cool to talk to them also. Well, that was my week. It was great. Well, I love you and I hope you have a great week. Thank you for all that you do. I love you.

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

July 18, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Things here are great. Well, it was good until about this morning when we found out that we didn’t have any food for breakfast. So my question for you is - think about me and then think about what I would do for breakfast if we didn’t have any breakfast food. So, are you thinking? Well, some of your answers might be ice cream, hamburger, and stuff like that, right? Well, that was not the case today. Today for breakfast I had a salad and mash potatoes....yum right? Well, I actually made the salad and then another elder made the mash potatoes. He had some extra so I ate them but I was just going to eat the salad for breakfast. You might be thinking he is eating salad for breakfast or not just that but that he is eating salad period. Yes, before the mission - no way, but now –Ya! I eat salad. Amazing right! Actually this whole week every night we had salad. Just salad for dinner. It is really good. Ok well, now on to the miracles of this week. Well, we had a great week. We set another baptism date and we asked another one if he would be baptized. We didn’t fix a date with him yet. So now we have 2 b-dates and 1 who said yes. So this week was awesome! This was also our best week all around. OK I am going to tell you everything in 10 min because that is all I have right now so, let’s get going. Well, we had a rendez vous with our investigators and they were awesome. W felt like we should ask them to be baptized and they said “yes.” It was so cool. They are for August 13th. They are going to be awesome. OK – sorry - I will have to tell you things later. But - last thing - transfers are this week I am staying in Paris with Elder Dick. It should be a fun transfer and we are planning to have 3 baptisms this transfer! Maybe we can find another one. Sorry this letter is short. That is my fault. I got distracted with my photos. I was trying to do some things with them and I lost track of time. I promise I will spend the whole time next week and I will fill you in on everything. I love you and hope you have a great week.
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

July 11, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, things here are going great. Well, there are a lot of things that have happened this week. This has been a great week for us. We got 4 new investigators and a baptism date for the 6th of Aug. It is so cool! Well, let’s start off. On Monday it was the 4th and we got to go over to a family’s house to have a 4th of July dinner. It was good. We had hotdogs and roast beef hamburgers. It was so good and we also had Jello. They don’t make Jello here in France. We don’t have it here at all. They got it from America and it was good to have some Jello. They made it look like an American flag also, it was cool. Then we got to play a game and have a good time. They also gave us some root beer! Oh yeah! That is so American! It was good to taste root beer again. It has been too long. So that was my 4th of July! So, how was yours? Well, other things, Wednesday was our best day. We had a rendez-vous with one of our investigators named Micheal and he came to church last week. We fixed a rendez-vous with him for Wednesday. So he comes on Wednesday and he brings his sister. It was so cool. So, we taught both of them the Restoration of the Gospel and they both liked it. We gave them a Book of Mormon also. They liked it and wanted to start to read it. We fixed another meeting with them. They are so cool and they are so nice also. So, those are two of our investigators. Then, Wednesday night, we had our Korean friend come again and we started talking about how we can have a happy life. We asked if he would like to hear more about our message. He said yes and we will now be seeing him on Wednesday right before our French class. So, he is the 3rd new investigator. Then on Saturday we found and old investigators who was lost for some time. We saw him again and he told us that he had a baptism date and he still wanted to be baptized. We were both shocked. But he is so cool. His name is Emanuel. He is cool. We talked and we fixed another date for the 6th of August. It is so cool. We talked about the plan of salvation with him and he has some great questions that he asked. It was cool. So, that is our 4th investigator and our baptism date. So that is cool. Friday we did a big zone activity where our whole zone came and we went to a big park. We did a family contacting activity with the Family Proclamation to the World. It was fun. I went with a Chinese elder - Elder Chung - who is form Taiwan. He is so cool. We contacted this cool lady that can speak 4 languages; English, French, Italian, and German. Wow! She was cool. She wanted to know some more about our church. Hopefully we will be able to see her again. It was a fun activity. It was also fun going with Elder Chung. He also taught me how to say “Hi, how are you? I am doing fine and you?” and my name in Chinese. I can wright my name in Chinese also. COOL! I have said cool a lot in this e mail, oh well. Saturday was a funny day. We played sports - some baseball and basketball again. It was fun and it was the day we also fixed the baptism date. At night we had a meeting with a member. After that the Chinese members were having a little party that they said we could go. So we went and ate some Chinese food. Then they were going to do a surprise birthday thing for a Chinese elder, Elder Liao. They had cake and candles, but no fire. Big problem right! Well, we decided to go out on the street to ask people for fire. Our church is next to a huge gay quarter of Paris. There are a lot of gays there. We found a guy next to the window so I went back into the church. Some other elders went to ask the guy if he had a match. By the time I got to the window with the candles the guy had left. So, they went to look for more fire. We needed the fire now for the candle. So I have a candle in my hand leaning out the window. Our windows have bars on them. So there I am waiting for the elders to come back. I am just looking around and the first guy I see and when I did see one I asked for a light. Now - think about it - I am in a shirt and tie leaning out of a building with bars on the window with a candle in my hand asking for a light. You should have seen his face. It was funny! He said “yes” and gave me some fire. It was funny. So weird, but funny. I mean – just asking a stranger like that, but it was a good b-day party. Sunday, well last Sunday, I saw someone from my school. They are here for a couple of weeks doing some vacationing. Her name is Rachel. She was in a couple of my classes and in my choir class. It was cool to talk to her and see her again. Then we went to a piano concert which was cool also. So, that has been my week. Pretty fun! We had a good time and a fun week and I know that the Lord has helped us with those 4 new investigators. It is so cool to see people wanting to come unto Christ. Well I love ya!

I will try to send some pictures. If it doesn’t work I will send some next week.

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

July 4, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! So, how is everyone this week? I hope everyone had some fun. Well, this week was great for me. Well, let’s start here. We got a new mission pres. last Tuesday. The change went very simply. When Pres. Poznanski stepped on French soil after he got off the airplane, he became our new President. President Staheli gave him the keys and the phone and he was in charge. So that was that. Then, on Thursday, we had our interviews with him, which was cool. The whole meeting was in French. They can speak English but they felt like it would help everyone to learn French faster. I thought that was cool. So, we had a training session and our interviews in French. He is a nice guy. We also got to meet his family. His two youngest daughters moved with him and so they are here in Paris also. It was fun seeing them again. So that was a great day seeing the new mission pres. I think he will do a great job. He knows the language, he is French, knows how to work with the French people and their mentality. I think he will be a great mission Pres. With him we also got a new part of the mission. All of the Nancy stake and about 21 missionaries from that zone are now part of the France mission. So we have a lot of new faces. So that was that. Another cool thing that happened this week was we had our concert last Friday and it was great. We had a great concert and it was so spiritual. We all had a great time. We had about 60 people there and they all said they loved it. So that was cool. We are planning to do one every month and hopefully it will get bigger and bigger.

So, miracle for this week. We teach French class every Wednesday night at the church. Last week a Korean guy came in named Brian. He met a missionary at a hotel and he told him we taught French at the church. So, he came and he was awesome. He also came to the concert and he is looking for a religion also. So, we will hopefully be able to teach him. We will see him this Wednesday for class and hopefully we will be able to talk. Some other things that have happened - yesterday we were walking down the street and a couple of roller bladders came by. Then two cops on roller blades zoom past. So, I turned around and then about 2000 roller bladders were coming down the street. I got some photos and a video. I was filming for one minute and I never saw the end. I guess they were doing a fund raiser. It was quite funny. So, those were just some things that are happening. Tonight we have a family that invited all 12 missionaries over to their house for the 4th of July. It should be a great time and very fun. I will have to tell you more next week. Well, I love you family and hope you have a great day and a happy 4th. I love you.
-- PS sorry this letter is a little short.

TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

June 27, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well things here are going great. Well, just some things to fill you all in. Last week, not last Thursday but maybe the Thursday before, I got bit by some creature. I am not sure what it was but maybe a spider, I do not know. It was a small little bump on my face then it grew and you could tell it was swelling. It was way hard and it hurt really bad. The good news is that everything is fine now. I am not dead and I am back to normal. So, that was a fun experience. Well, onto our week. We had our last Zone Conference with President Staheli and Sister Staheli. It was a good conference. It is said to say goodbye but we will see them again. They leave tomorrow around 11 and then we have a new president, President Poznanski. It will be cool to see the things that will change and what he is going to do. He will be a great mission president. We have interviews with him this Thursday to get to know him and start off some things right. Well, our zone conference was great. It went really well. We sang in the conference because our district was in charge of the musical number. It was fun. We sang the same song that we did for sacrament meeting. Well, we had a good training. We talked about finding new investigators and more, but I forgot. That is why we have study journals. I will have to read it and remember what we talked about, but we did watch a slide show with all the pictures we sent in. It was a good training. It was fun. I also got a picture with him because I never got one when I came in, so that was good. Besides that there has not been that much going on. We are still trying to find some new people and working hard. Oh ya there was a baptism Saturday by the dl’s. It was a cool baptism. The guys name is Jun Shu. I think I spelled that wrong, but he is Chinese and he is so cool. It was a cool baptism. We had to do it at the church in St. Ouen because we don’t have a baptismal font here at our church. It was not far away so that was good but the metro ride there sucked. First of all we were wearing our suit coats and it is boiling outside. Then the metro is even hotter, but not just that, the metro was freakin packed. So you were body to body with someone and that doesn’t help with the heat. By the time we got off we were just sweating and it was just horribly funny thought but horrible. The service was great though. It was in English and Chinese. It was a cool experience. We also had our resent convert move out of our ward. He is now in the Paris Lille ward which is right next to our ward. He didn’t move far away but he is not in our ward anymore, it was sad. We will still see him because he comes to FHE and institute, so we will see him again. So, that is pretty much all that is going on. Not much, just trying to find some new people. We have found a couple but we have only had one rendez-vous with them. We will try to see if we can get some more things set up and see if we can get them coming. We got another internet referral today. We will call him up and go and see him. That should be good. So, that is life. It is great here. We are having a great time. The members are really nice to all the missionaries. Last night there was a family who invited all the missionaries over, all 12 of us. We had this big thanksgiving dinner type meal. Then for the 4th of July there is another family who is inviting all the missionaries over again to have a little dinner. It should be great. They are so nice to us we will have to do something for them. Then this Friday we have our concert with the missionaries so that should also be great. Well, family I love ya and hope you have a great week. I also hope that the weather has cleared up a little bit. Well, love ya

P.S. I forgot my camera so I will have to send some photos next week.
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

June 20, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Things here are going great. I am loving it here. Well this week has been fun. It has been hard though trying to get things moving along and starting all over. We have been doing a lot and a lot of contacting. Every day and sometimes all day we do nothing but contacting, but things are going great here. We have found two awesome investigators who are doing great. Their names are Charles and Godwin. They are both really awesome. We had a rendez-vous with Charles last week. He told us he was contacted by some other missionaries but they could never fix a rendez-vous. Things kept getting in the way. We finally got a rendez-vous with him last Thursday. He is so cool. He has family back in Nigeria who are members and so he knows a little about our church. He likes it a lot and we both think he has some great potential. We think he could be someone who will get baptized. Godwin is also awesome. He has met the missionaries before and has talked about them. He is doing great and working hard. It was pretty cool, we had a rendez-vous with him and he actually beat us to the church and called us asking if we were on our way. It was awesome! Then during the rendez-vous he had some great questions. It was a great rendez-vous with him. Then we had some other meetings but they couldn’t come. We were able to fix other ones with them and everything will hopefully turn out. So that is what we have been doing. We have just been trying to get this place up and running. We have been getting a lot of numbers. We have a goal on how many we want to get and we have to get at least one number before we go into the apartment. So that is what is going on. We have called them and we have fixed some rendez-vous for this week so things should be great. Some other things that are going on is that we do district finding each week and it is pretty cool. We will go somewhere and we will sing and contact or we will draw on the sidewalk with chalk. It is pretty cool. The last two weeks though we have sung because it has rained here so we couldn’t do the chalk. Speaking about singing - we are planning to do a Concert on July 1st with the missionaries in our zone. We have some very talented musicians in our zone - singers, piano players, flute players, and guitarist and more. So, we have been working on that trying to get things up and ready. Let’s see here – Tuesday – tomorrow, we have a zone conference and we have to sing. Our districts in the conference are planning to sing the Called to Serve arrangement there and it should be great. It will be our last one with President Staheli. He leaves the 28th and we will have a new president, President Poznanski. Then we will have interviews with him on the 30th and get things moving. It should be fun to see what will happen with the new pres. We will also be getting part of the west of France in our mission. They are merging some missions again. We will be getting the stake of Nancy and 16 missionaries, so it should be fun to see what president will do. So, it will be sad seeing President Staheli go, but President Poznanski will be a great president. I know him a little bit from when I lived in Anger. He is awesome. Well I love you family. I hope that you will have a great week and I hope the weather is great there. Well I love ya!
P.S. here are our district pictures when I was in Le Havre

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

June 13, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well Paris is Great! I love it here. There is always something to do and a lot, a lot and a lot of people to talk to! It has been a great few days here in Paris. Well, my last few days in Le Havre were also great. Monday at our English class we wore our Boo Boos because we have a few Africans come and they loved it. They all had a good laugh over it and they took pictures also. I will have to send it next week though because I don’t have my camera with me. But it was fun. Tuesday we had a dinner with a member family and it was awesome. They are so cool. We also had a district meeting in Rouen. This was the last one for me there. Because it was the last one I had to go and get me a Dr. Pepper...Yes it was a necessity. I had to have one! It had been a long time...I do have to say it was very good. Then we took awesome district photos. Then I spent a lot of time packing. I don’t know why, but I have a lot of stuff. I left a lot of it and sent some stuff like my journal and letters home. I left about 4 shirts, two pair of pants, some gym socks and a couple of ties. I love my ties, but I had to get rid of some of them. Some I never even wore so there was no point in keeping them. I finally got things ready for Wednesday. Wednesday morning I got ready and the member who gave us dinner the night before gave me a ride to the Gare (train station) to say goodbye. Then there were two other members at the Gare already to say goodbye to me as well. They are soooo nice to the missionaries and to me. They gave me two ties, a bright blue one and a black and blue striped one. I also got some treats for the ride to Paris. Well, that is when I was off to the big city. It was a couple of hours by train, but I finally got there. There were a couple of elders there to pick me up and take me to the church. My new companion didn’t come in till about 4:30 and I came in at 12:10, so I had some time to chill. Well, he eventually came and we headed over to the apartment. We are sharing our apartment with the Zone leaders so we are in a 4 man apartment. It has been great. We all get along and have a good time. Well, my new companions name is Robin Dick. He is from Oxford, England. This will be his 3rd transfer. The cool part is he was also trained by Elder Caywood. So, we both had the same trainer. Well, we get along and work hard. Elder Dick loves to sing and has a great voice. He took professional singing classes for 4 years and is a great singer. Our first couple of days here have been great. When we got here we had about 1-0 investigators so we had to start off with nothing and start fresh. We have been doing a lot of contacting lately and we have gotten a lot of numbers. This is good! We even had an investigator make it to church. Now this is something else - I couldn’t remember a ward like this. This ward has kids running around; it is loud and has a lot of people. It is just a different experience with all the members. I forgot what a big family ward was like. It was awesome though. I had a meeting early in the morning so we had to get up early because we live about a half an hour away by metro. So, we get there and Elder Jacquier and I had a meeting because we are the district leaders. We have a meeting every Sunday. After the meeting we had our first church meeting. In sacrament we were asked to sing the intermittent hymn. So, we had our two districts, Elder Jacquie’s district which is the Chinese district, and my district, which is the French district, sing. So there were 12 missionaries. It was so cool! We sang a rendition of “Called to Serve”. We sang one verse in English, then one in Chinese, and one in French. We then end again in French. It was so cool! They absolutely loved it. There were so many members coming up to us telling us we did a great job. We also have been asked to do a musical thing at our zone conference on June 21. We are thinking about singing that same song again. Well, let me tell you about our ward. We have a lot of French, a lot of Africans and a lot of Chinese. There are also a lot of Americans and a lot of visitors on vacation. We also have several BYU exchange students. So, we have a big ward. There are about 300 people at church each week, which is a lot here. It is so cool though, our church is right in the center of Paris. It is so cool I am so happy to be here. This place is sweet. Our work is starting to pick up and move. We also have a Visitor Center here in Paris where we work for one night for 4 hours a week. It is pretty cool. So those are some things going on. Oh, it was so cool, on Saturday we play sports and we played basketball last week. It was so cool; we played right next to the Eifel tower! It was so cool. Then today we had a Paris p-day where all the missionaries around Paris come. We played some American football and it was a good time. Well, I love it here! It is cool! I love the work also and love my companion. We are going to work hard this transfer and do the best we can and have a great time also. Well, I love ya!
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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER