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