January 19, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, this week has been great. We were able to fix more teaching appointments this last week and we were able to teach our investigators and everything went great. Well, we were able to see the mother and the daughter and things are going good. The daughter comes up to me all the time and asks me when she is going to get baptized. The mother still wants to be baptized so we are trying to get her ready. They are having some problems with their papers to stay here so they are working on that. I guess they have to move. They said that they will be staying somewhere in our area but we don’t really know quite where yet. Hopefully we will know soon. They came to Eglise (church) last week which was good and after we had a branch meal and they were able to stay for that, so that was good for them. At church we also got a new councilor. We now have one councilor and I think that is what we are going to have for some time because we really don’t have a lot of people. It was really weird to sit down in front again with the members looking towards the stand instead of towards the audience. It was cool though. The not so cool part was we had to give another talk in church. They had no speakers for last Sunday so Elder Gull and I gave a talk. It wasn’t the best but it worked. I just used one of the talks I used when I was in Charleroi. So, I was good, just touched it up a little. The bad part is next Sunday, not this one coming up, but the one after, a missionary is assigned to give another talk. So, that should be good. Maybe we can make a deal with our branch pres and get out of it. No, just joking. So that is what happened on Sunday.

Well, on p-day or Monday or Lundi, we went to Omaha Beach again with other elders who haven’t been. And it was really cool. We were able to take a tour this time with an American and a Flemish guy. It was awesome! They went through and explained the graves and some of the stories of the soldiers that lost their lives. We also found out that Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the son of President Roosevelt was laid to rest there. We got to see some other cool graves of people as well. It is an awesome spirit when you go there, just this feeling of peace. It is really cool just to go and see. They asked us also if we wanted to help them with the flag ceremony. They take down and set up the American flag every day. So, that was sweet. We were able to help fold the flag and we got a group picture of us with the flag, it was so cool! We also met other American people there. It was so weird to here English, and not just English, but American English one could say. A guy walked passed us and just said, “Hey guys, how’s it hangin.” Oh, that is so American. I love it. I miss good old American English. But it was really cool. Another cool part was that the cemetery is owned by America. So, we were on American soil. It was our home away from home. It was soooo cooooool.

I also was able to go on an exchange with my MTC companion, Elder McQuay. It was cool to talk with him again and work with him. He is our district leader now so that is good. He does a great job. It was cool because Monday we were on American soil together. It was also a year to the date of the last time we were on American soil, which was cool. On our exchange we have also been in France a year to the date, which was cool as well. It was cool to work with him again. We both had a great time.

Well, this past week I finished this book called, “400 Questions about the Life and Times of Jesus Christ.” G & G Walker gave it to me for Christmas. It was a really good book about, well, the life and times of Jesus Christ. It was written by Susan Easton Black, a BYU Teacher. She wrote a book that answered the questions her students asked her about Jesus Christ. It was a really good book and I was able to learn a lot about the culture and times. I liked it a lot.

So, those are some of the things that have happened. About our other investigators - we have our Canadian guy, who we have been working with. We saw him Sunday and we have been helping him with his smoking problem. We made a plan to call him every night to see how he is doing and so far things are not going too bad. He smokes about 2 cigarettes a day but he has stayed off the alcohol which is really good. So, things are going good with him. We have dropped the lady that had the baptism date. We have not been able to get in touch. We still try though, just in case, but all we can do is move on. We haven’t been able to get a hold of the guy that we gave the Book of Mormon to either, but hopefully things will work out. We also have this African guy who is awesome. We went over there and he has read everything we gave him and he told us that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. He wants to come to church. The only bad part is how to get him to church. He doesn’t have a car and he lives about a 30 min drive away. So, we have a little problem but we will find a solution and everything will be good. So, that is our investigators for the moment, but hopefully things will get better.

Well, all in all it has been a good week. We have had fun and have had a great time. Well, I love you all and hope you have a great time this week at work or school. Well, I love ya --
TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER