June 7, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well things here are good. I have just been getting ready to leave and head over to Paris. It should be fun. I am excited to go to Paris. It also should be fun to white wash and start a fresh. It should be awesome. Ya, so Elder Whitecar is staying here in Le Havre with an Elder Fisher. The work is going good here so they should have some fun. Well, these past few days have been fun. This past week we had an exchange with the zone leaders. They came down for the day and we each worked with one of them. We found some cool people and got some numbers so hopefully they will turn into new investigators. We have also had some pretty cool things happen here. There has been many times when people have just come up to us and started talking to us. The cool part is that they knew us and they knew a lot about the church. There was one guy who knew about the pioneers crossing the planes and everything. We ran into a couple of people like that. I guess a while back they had missionaries come over and teach them, but they didn’t progress or something. But now they are interested again and want us to come over. So, it looks like the seed was planted a while back and now they may be ready. It is pretty cool. That has happened about 3-4 times this week.

Well, our investigators are doing pretty good right now. Joseph our friend from Donatien is doing great. His life is just like from the movie Pursuit of Happiness. The Lord has blessed him so much in his life to let him be here in France going to school. He was asked last week to leave his apartment and he had to find a new one. He has some great friends who said that he could stay with them. He is so cool. He loves the gospel and is so elect. Our other investigator, Françoise Daniel, is doing great also. She is so cool and likes us very much. She gave us some real Normandy creme and some real Normandy cheese. It was good. She is progressing great also. She is coming along slowly, but she is coming along. She comes to church almost every week. It is hard to have some rendez-vous with her but we have them about every other week. Well, that is what is going on. I have been trying to just get some things organized to head out. It is going to be hard to leave and I will miss it but this is what the Lord wants. Well, I love you.

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TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

June 6, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Things here are going great. Well, the transfer e mail came and I have some news. There have been a lot of changes this time in our mission. Well, here is what is happening with me. I am staying a district leader, but not in Le Havre. Yes, I am leaving. Can anyone guess where?......I am going to PARIS.....but not just Paris - I am going down town Paris as in the center of Paris itself. If you had a map and found the city center that is where I will be. Well, this is where I will be living:

Les Missionnaris
Elder Christopher M. Walker
11 rue des Roses
75018 Paris
France

It should be fun! My companion and I are white washing Paris 2. That is we will be both new and without knowing the area or the ward. My new companion is named Elder Robin Dick. He is from England. The cool thing is he is my bother in the mission. Elder Caywood, my father (trainer), trained him and now we are companions. It should be great and I am excited. It will be fun to work in Paris. Well, I will write my big email tomorrow. I love you and hope you have a great day.

Love Elder Walker

May 31, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? Well, things here are going great. We had a fun week this past week. Well, this past week I had to do an exchange with the elders in my district and we were running out of time because the transfer ends soon. We didn’t have time to do a full exchange with both elders so what we did was we had district meeting first. Then I worked with one elder for part of the day and then I worked with the other for the rest of the day. I worked with Elder Ingram first who is really cool. He is one of the funniest people I have met. Then I worked with Elder Able, one of the biggest U of U fans I have met, it was sick. I like them both. They are both really hard workers. So on Tuesday I had the awesome chance to work with them. Well, this past week we had an awesome rendez-vous with one of our investigators, Françoise Daniel. It was so cool. We have not seen her in a while so it was good to see her again. Well, last time we left her with Alma 32 to read about faith. Well, she came to the rendez-vous having read it and had a whole new meaning of faith. She also had some great questions. She was able to understand more clearly the definition of faith which is found in Alma 32:21. “And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” It was so cool. You could just tell she understood it. At the end of the rendez-vous we asked her to pray. In the past she wouldn’t do it, but this time she did it without even saying anything. It was very spiritual. We could all just fill the spirit very strong. It was a great meeting. So that was an awesome rendez-vous. Then on Sunday we tried to pass by a less active/part member family. The wife is a less active and the husband is not a member. In the past they told the missionaries that they do not want to see them again and that they don’t want us to come over. We decided to pass by anyway and they let us in. It was the husband at first. He let us in and talked to us. Then the wife comes and said, “Did you tell them that we didn’t want to see them anymore?” She sat down anyway and towards the end they both were participating in our discussion and where happy we came. It was so cool that they let us in and then that they were glad they did as well. They were a cool family. I was glad that we got to go over. Well, our investigators are doing well. Donatien, the one we wanted to set a baptism date with, is going back to Gabon, Africa for a couple of months. He needs to find an internship. If he doesn’t find one then the school year that he just finished does not count. So, he is going back to get one. His family is in Gabon as well so he will get to see them. He will be back in September for another year of school, so it should be good. His friend, Joseph, is doing awesome also. He is so elect and has a lot of faith and really counts on the Lord.
Well, transfers are coming up soon. We will find out on Saturday what will happen and next Wednesday is the actual transfer day. I would love to stay another transfer in Le Havre. I love this place. The members are great and I love the investigators. This is just an awesome place. We don’t know what will happen but we are guessing that I will leave because I have been here for 3 transfers, but you never know. We will find out. Well, thanks family for all that you do and for your love and support. I love you and remember to stay bright eyed, bushy tailed, and eager to excel. TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER

May 23, 2011

Hey family, how is everything going? I hope everything is going great. Well this week was a great week. We had to go to Paris again for our leadership training last Thursday. It was great...we got totally rebuked and chastised. We got “owned” as one might say. We had a big training on walking circumspectly. It was a great meeting. We were told to walk circumspectly and be fully obedient. We also talked about F.O.D. which stands for Foreign Object Debris in the aviation world. It means anything that is foreign to a jet engine that can destroy it. It also causes a lot of damage worth a ton of money. So we talked about F.O.D. in missionary terms and what things can be debris for us. They don’t even have to be big things president said. They can be little things like rolling up your sleeves if it is too hot, not buttoning your top collar on your shirt, chewing gum in public and a lot of little minor things that can easily be over looked. They can also very bad things. So we talked about changing the meaning of F.O.D. to Faith Obedience, and Diligence. So we had this huge talk on being obedient to the max! Don’t do anything that is not in line with even the tiniest of tiniest things we have been asked to obey. Then we talked about the talk by Elder Todd D. Christofferson, "As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten.” It was given during the last General Conference in April 2011. It was a great talk. They gave it to us and we were asked to read it and study it. It is a great talk. It may seem a little harsh, but it is totally worth it to study it and apply it. So this was our little training. I loved it! We also talked about what a BYU president once said. He said, “If you put me in a prison with walls so high and dig it so deep with walls so thick with no window, there is a slight possibility that I could get out. But, if you draw a circle around me with chalk and make me give you my word that I will not leave, there is no way I could get out. I would die first." So, we also talked about giving our word. We gave our word when we came into the mission. We gave our word that we would be obedient. So, this was our whole training. It taught a good message. It was one of the last trainings of President Staheli. We will have a zone conference next month and that will be the last time we will have training by him. Then we will have President Poznanski. So, that was a fun day. Then we had some time before our train so we got another BOOBOOS. Our whole zone pretty much got one. My new one is black with red, gold, and green around the neck. It is pretty cool.
Well, that was that day. Another fun story happened this past Saturday. There was a huge demonstration here in Le Havre for the G8 conference. They had 20,000 cops and a ton of protesters and people who just like to destroy things....So, we had two options - stay in the apartment all day or go to a referral we received. So we decided to go to the referral. Well, we took a 30 min train ride and then a 15 min bus ride. We end up in a place called Doudeville. The referral lived in Galleville. So we went to the city hall and asked how to get there. They said it was 5km away...so we start walking - and walking. We walk about 3 km and end up in this little town. We knocked on a door to see if we were still heading in the right direction and a lady told us “no” and we had to turn around. We had to go this other way. Well, we finally get there and we couldn’t find her place but there was a little ville right next to it so we walk there and couldn’t find it either. So we finally see a sign that said Doudeville 6 km so we walked back that way and we walk about 2 km and guess where we were? We were in the very place where the lady told us to turn around. We were only 2 km away and here she told us to turn around and go this long way. Well, we finally get back after a 4 hour walk. We walked about 15km which is 9.4 miles.... we get back to the city sun burnt and dehydrated. We ran into a grocery store called Carefour and bought a ton a water and just drank. We also found out that there was a bus at 1 o clock. Well, we missed that and the next bus was at 5, so we got to relax for a little bit and wait for the bus. It was a very fun and long day with very sore feet. Now the burn is gone and we have a great tan and a very funny tan line.

Well I love you family. I hope you have a great week. I love you!

TTFN LOVE ELDER WALKER