What exactly are you going to do on your mission?
I have accepted the calling to be a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so that I may share the gospel to those who are yearning to know of the truth of the gospel. I have answers to questions that people don't even know to ask. I am going to tell people where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. I will explain to everyone that will listen why Christ is the center of the Plan of Happiness and why the Atonement that Jesus Christ has provided for us is necessary for our salvation.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Coming up on Leap Year Day

"I have heard/seen what hard conditions others have chosen to serve a mission with and it's humbling to me that I am so blessed. It really is. We have a great family. I see families every day go through hard times. We are truly blessed! Don't take it for granted."

"I have been learning to listen to the spirit better and acting on It's promptings. It is fun to see what comes of following the spirit when prompted to do so. Nothing bad ever happens, it's just the natural man that scares me into not doing it all of the time."

"This last Thursday was our zone conference. At the very end of the zone conference, we watched a talk that Elder Holland gave to the MTC missionaries in Provo a year and a couple months ago. It was a very good one. He talked about the new method of Preach My Gospel rather than the old way they did stuff by memorizing the stuff to say... it was a very good talk. Very good. I asked Pres Holm for a copy of it. He's going to distribute it to those that want in in a month or so. I'll send it home for Joshua to watch before he goes out on his mission. It's very inspirational and energizing and leads to much self evaluation and rededication."

Is your mission a bit hard?
"Hard to me means: I don't feel like I can handle it. So no, it's not hard at all. It's nice to be free of all worries of normal life stuff. There's no, 'what am I going to do with my life?' because I already know: I serve a mission!"
How do you keep a study journal?
I bought the biggest heavy duty binder I could find. I've got tabs from A to Z. I have normal lined paper, reinforced lined paper, sheet protectors, note cards, and an index to say what A to Z tabs mean. 
A is full of District Meeting notes. We have a District Development Meeting (DDM) almost every week.
B is full of zone conference notes, transfer meeting notes, or other mission conferences notes.
C has every other meeting: stake conference, ward conference, who knows... everything else meetings.
D is nothing yet.
E is Preach My Gospel (PMG) Chapter 3, Lesson 1 notes. Everything to do with the restoration: relationships with God, Holy Ghost, depictions associating with Dispensations, prophets, Joseph Smith, Atonement, how Christ set up his church, etc).
F is PMG Ch 3 Lesson 2. Everything with Plan of Salvation.
G is PMG Ch 3 Lesson 3. Gospel of Jesus Christ.
H is PMG Ch 3 Lesson 4. Commandments.
I is PMG Ch 3 Lesson 5. New member lessons, temple, Priesthood, etc.
J is PMG Ch 3 Lesson plans
K is Book of Mormon reading. Insights, summary, analogies, etc. Ex: Ch 47 of Alma you can compare Lehonti to us on top of the hill being tempted by Satan (Amaliklah) to try to get us to lower our standards. The hight of Lehonti being the standards he holds.
L is nothing yet.
M is every random topic not in PMG lessons. Last days, trials, being a 'doer', angels, authority, diligence, judging, scriptures, significance of doing everything "In the name of Jesus Christ", trust, voice of Spirit, word, Law of Moses, purpose as missionary, presence of God, Charity, Children, fear, foundations, God-like potential, parenting skills, miracles, sin, etc. That's what I have so far.
N-V is nothing yet.
W is quotes or handouts, or stories, songs, poems.
X is activities
Y is companion's letters to me before we're not companions anymore.
Z is miscellaneous. Questions I come across, answers I find, ways to greet people, object lesson, other in sights.
For those of you who don't really have the time to write Elder Benjamin Walker, but would still like to ask questions or whatever, write them on the comment section of the blog and I'll get them to him and write his responses on the blog when I get them.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

14th Week in South Carolina

Portions of Elder Walker's most recent letter:
We set somebody else on date [appointment for baptism]! But I don't know what happened to him... he didn't come to church. I haven't seen him yet since the first lesson with him. 
I thought my mormon.org profile would be done by now, but I just checked and my picture was denied because of background stores and the obvious library behind me. I can't upload a picture from the library because of the browser they use, but it will happen eventually. 
I got lots of mail this past week. 
Tell Josh that he's super for helping out the twins in sharing them the gospel. It's a lot harder to share it with people you know (like neighbors). He should invite them to go on some of the activities he does like snow camp-outs or hikes. 
I like food. Members feed me a lot. 
I had a lot to tell you yesterday as I was writting 1,000,000 letters, I don't remember any of it now. I think it was a bunch of spiritual experiences. 
"ta ta for now" said tigger.
He's grateful for the letters sent to him! And he wrote everyone back yesterday, so expect a letter from him sometime this week if your wrote him. He's written me more about the Study Journal that he mentioned before, so once I get his letter I will be including them on here later this week. Apparently he's also got a profile at Mormon.org so I'll have to figure out the address and include it on here, so be looking to that as well.

But he seems to be doing well! Continue to write him as he really enjoys receiving them and will do his best to write you back in a timely manner.

Ta ta for now!

Monday, February 13, 2012

The 13th Week in South Carolina

Portions of Elder Benjamin Walker's most recent letter:
I'll tell you one of the many many things that have happened on my mission. (I'm really not very good at writing them down, I'm bound to forget all of them except this one because I've typed it up.) Last Thursday we were tracking a couple of neighborhoods and 3 out of 5 people we talked to was interested enough to make a return appointment with us to teach them more at a better time. (A very successful tracting period of time.) Well, one of the houses we knocked at, we were speaking with the husband about the church. Somewhere in the conversation we brought up mormon.org and his wife (who we found out was having her 4th baby the following day) yelled from the midst of the house "I'm pulling it up right now!" (Yes, she was eavesdropping on our conversation.) Anyway, to make a longer story shorter, right before the door shut as we were leaving she exclaimed to her husband excitedly, "We're going to be Mormon!" Can you imagine what joy it brought us as missionaries to hear her say that? a lot... We haven't reached the return appointment date yet, I think it's tomorrow or Wed, because of her recovery of bearing another child probably. What awesome people there are out there in the world ready to hear the gospel! Just this morning members called us and asked us to teach their friends the gospel over dinner... Investigator! Unfortunately, they aren't in our ward boundaries so the Oakbrook missionaries will get to baptize them into the Oakbrook ward and probably teach them most of the gospel too, even though the fellowshippers are in our ward, unless conflicts arise and the bishops of both wards say otherwise. 
Elder Parker, my companion, has put out a focus on contacting all of the members in the ward, active or not. I think I have gotten to know the ward a lot better, even though I already know them pretty well. 
I've gone on several exchanges (exchange = swap companions for a day) in the last few months. It's been fun to go into new areas and meet different people. One of the things that Elder Parker did is collapse the boundaries between the missionaries in the Summerville ward. Now the whole ward boundaries are free-for-all amongst us 4 missionaries. Haven't run into a problem yet. I think it's better this way anyway; it seems to be more effective.
His study journal, which he had first brought up on January 23, 2012, he mentioned again, saying:

I have discovered that my method of how I keep my study journal (binder) works really well. I hope I have it stuffed full of insights and other things by the time I get home. I bought the largest and sturdiest binder they had to sell.
I've asked him on how exactly he keeps a study journal, so when he writes me back I'm sure to have the information that I can put up here to inform each of us how to create such a useful tool.

Monday, February 6, 2012

New Companion

Elder Walker's received a new companion whose name is Elder Peter Parker. I'm sure the poor guy has heard every Spiderman joke possible. Elder Parker is also the district leader for their four missionary district. Elder Thayne also has a new companion, Elder Bennott. But Elder Walker is still in the Summerville area, and enjoying it quite a bit.

The lessons that we have had though have been pretty good ones. We had done a good job at bringing the investigators to a point where they know enough and have felt enough to make a decision on whether they want to progress or not. 
I have still enjoyed just about every aspect of my mission. We truly are blessed as missionaries who have devoted two years of our life to serving the lord. We really are. Sometimes it amazes me how much we are blessed when I see the way other people are living their lives.