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