Biking... or not?

This past week has been amazing to say the least. First of all, our area is the only all-biking area in our zone (zone usually equals stake). Last Thursday traveling missionaries came to our apartment to go on splits with us. The English elder, Elder Olsen, came with us and the Spanish elder went with the other two spanish elders in our apartment. Because the "traveling" missionaries travel a lot, they have an infinite amount of distance they can travel in the car. They are the only one's not limited on how many miles they can go in a month. After about an hour of being out teaching, Elder Olsen's companion called and asked him to come back to the apartment because he was very sick and Sister Holm told him to sleep it off (he slept a good 16 hours... wow). So we got permission to use their car that has unlimited miles on it. Our area is pretty small, but we made good use of the miles, and it couldn't have been on a better day, it was very very hot that day. We'd walk to a door 30 feet away then walk back and be drenched in sweat. I'm am very grateful for the car that day. then we changed his plans and had Elder Olsen stay with us for Friday too. Hurray! Both days were very effective days. It was amazing the things that I learned from Elder Olsen. He is a very good missionary. He knows how to love the people at the same time as being bold. I learned a good number of things from him, and someday when you read what I've typed to President Holm, you'll get part of the rest of the story. I have learned that I need to bear my testimony more frequently and that I need to be more bold and loving at the same time...

On top of that, one of the Spanish missionaries, Elder Sinclair, was waiting for his visa so he can serve his mission in Argentina. How fun is that? He'll be on the plane next week Monday. I don't know if that means Elder Bowman (the other Spanish missionary) will be moving somewhere else or if someone else will be moving in to our apartment. I think it's likely that Elder Bowman will leave, but that will mean that we don't have a car that we can use to get to church or to Walmart to buy food, because it'd be a little ridiculous to bike to them each week. We'll see what that means; but if Elder Bowman leaves, we might get the car; we'll find out.

This Thursday and Friday, my companion will be going to some meeting that I don't get to go to, so I'll team up with other missionaries those two days, and then on Saturday one of our investigators is going to have a baptismal interview, so I'll go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders for the day. It'll be an adventure week, I'll be going half the week to different areas. It'll be fun, that's for sure.

hasta luego! en dos anos!

No Miracles Missed Here

I forgot to tell you last week. I met a person who's name escapes me from Morgan, UT. He came down here to Greenwood for the last couple of weeks to ask a father permission to marry his daughter. He got off his mission recently (a couple months ago) and knows our aunt and uncle and cousins. Forgot his name... but dad might know his family.

I am currently in Goose Creek, South Carolina. It's right next to Greenwood where I started. This is a wonderful place to be. Wonderful. My companion is Elder McGuire. Elder McGuire was baptized when he was 17, his family is not members and did not support him financially for going on a mission. He's 20 now and has been a member for almost 3 years. He has the strongest recent convert testimony I have seen in anyone who has been in the church for such a short period of time. Through a particular huge miracle he was able to come to be blessed with a sudden gift of financial help that enabled him to come on a mission, and some. His priorities are all in order, we are going to make a great team here in Goose Creek. We share an appartment with Spanish elders who are not in our district, great elders btw, and a member does our laundry because we don't have a washer or dryer.

We have some super solid awesome outstanding investigators that are going to get baptized next month. They are really cool. One of them is chinese (no religious bakground at all, his only concern is currently being resolved of whether there is a God or not), one of them is Japanese, two of them are Americans, one of them I haven't met and will probably drop off date. But the first 4 have wonderful friends in the church that are supporting them and are looked to for answers. The Japanese lady's mother is the Stake Relief Society President. The Chinese guy's friend is the Elder's quorum president. Unfortunately is moving soon, but the elder's quorum president knows all the people in the ward he's moving to so he'll be taken care of there. The couple is also well liked and they've come to church and are well fellowshipped.

The area I have seems small, but when we have the Spirit with us, we are most blessed and a great number of the people open the doors for us and we have gained a great number of potential investigators in the last few days we need to follow up with. Ever heard the quote, "one person can cost the miracle" Well, there will be no miracles missed here in Goose Creek.

Transferred

Surprise surprise. (It really is a surprise.) I'm getting transferred, not sure where, I'll find out Wednesday when I get transferred. I already packed most everything up though. It's a sad exciting moment. I have a mix between getting ready for something I've been preparing for and leaving the people I've come to know so well. Greenwood is a great place, it'll be sad to leave it. I'll have to come back sometime in the future and visit it. At least I know to whom all of our investigators are falling into the hands of, and they are in good hands. I am most excited to be heading into the unknown ready to take on a mountain (I'll just borrow the faith of the mustard seed in the grocery store.) I am an amazing packer, I don't know how I happened to accumulate so much stuff, but I'm going to need to mail things home before I bring it on a plane. Because it weighs more than it should. But somehow I'm able to fit it all in not very much space.

I love the people of South Carolina. They have such wierd words: buggie (shopping cart), cammode (toilet), smash (push), cut (turn [off]) and such belly warming fried and greasy food. That pretty much sums up South Carolina. They done been saying good language and know how to whip up a supper!

Returning

Ty [names changed] is part of a less-active family in the outskirts of town. He sent a media referral for himself to us and requested that we help him become active again. We gave him a call and texted him to set up an appointment to see him and ever since he has been coming to church. . . . He became a member when he was 16 years old and stopped coming to church at age of 18 when his parents divorced. (He's 24 now). The reason that he contacted us through mormon.org for us to come and see him was so that he could be friends with the missionaries and know somebody for when he comes back to church. He is looking to go to BYU-Idaho for school and he is a very hard worker. Ever since he has met us he has offered to help us in any way that he can. For example, "I know I live a ways out, if you can't get a ride from a member to get out here I'll drive down to you and pick you up." "If you guys want to take a break from biking for a day, I'd love to drive you around and go with you where ever you need to go." "If you find that you need something at night or in the morning past your curfew and you need it bad, give me a call and I'll go to the store and buy you it and bring it to you even if it's 1am or 5am." He is very honest and is a very nice guy. He plays some game and in the online game you go around in groups of 5. 4 of the 5 including himself are members of the church. 2 from California and one from Idaho. Every day or every couple of days they read the Book of Mormon together over a video conference. One of his friends, the one in Idaho, is the only one that has read the entire Book of Mormon. One of them is a recent convert in California and gets bored easily, so they read the stories that Ty's friend in Idaho picks out because she knows all of the stories, to help the recent convert stay alert and paying attention to the scriptures. Ty is awesome. He has been coming to church ever since we've met with him. He's gone out to visit people with us. He's offered to do us any favor we might ask him. He has talents for being a great inspirational leader, his personality has been positive every time that I've seen him, but he's not going to let somebody tell him he's not a good person or he will walk out of the environment. Because of how he's grown up (with his dad and roommate before) he's gone through phases of packing up all of his stuff in 15 minutes and putting it all in his car and leaving. But he has never done that without first telling the person that he's living with that they need to change certain things they are doing (bad habits of them, word of wisdom or otherwise) or he'll be gone. So, to finish summing it all up, he's been through a lot, and he's awesome because of how he has dealt with his trials in his life.

So... this kind of story, happens all of the time with people, all of the time. You hear all sorts of crazy experiences people have: visions, family issues, financial issues, miraculous miracles in people's life, a change a heart and attitude for what needs to be done, renewed sense of purpose, etc. Every day, my testimony grows stronger and stronger, I know the church is true. There is no other explanation that explains everything with the accompanying of the Holy Ghost as a witness of it's truth.

Ta Ta my time is spent,

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Fun Times

We're having an awesome fireside tomorrow night. It will be way awesome and lots of less actives/recent converts/re-activating members/investigators will be there. It'll be great.

Yesterday it got to 108 degrees Fahrenheit; it was over 104 for at least 4 hours. Then I took a video with my camera... it hailed. The hail was 1in diameter. Big hail. How strange is that? You'll see it eventually.

We taught an awesome investigator yesterday. She is dating one of the members and we taught them both (they're both 60+), and she explained to us how she knows the church is true... it is pretty awesome, she had many ah-ha! moments and afterwards we went to a members house to eat with them, and the member tried to bear testimony to her and our investigator kept interrupting telling Sister Bayne (who was feeding us all) that she already knows the church is true and that she doesn't need to tell her that so many times. Pretty funny to watch.

My memory is so bad.. I can only remember to yesterday and tomorrow...

I'm kind of out of time, thus, I now leave in peace! adios amigos!