Sone Conference and Investigators

From Elder B. Walker's Mother: Ben, funny thing happened with your new missionary plaque.  It has you returning home in November instead of October.

No problem mother...

and no worries about the plaque, I don't mind at all. Who knows, 25 years down the road I might start thinking I received a transfer extension.

So, some interesting things about the conferences (notice plural) this week.

Zone conference went great. We have them every other transfer (once every 3 months). Ya, I provided a training, it is normal for that to occur. (For the Zone Leaders to provide a training for their zone). I would have been surprised if I wasn't assigned one to do. The theme of the zone conferences had to do with using the Book of Mormon. My training was to use the Book of Mormon to confirm the message of the restoration. The stake president visited for a little bit, President Squires, he's a good stake president. In his stake mission plan he's helping the members bring friends to church, so we, as missionaries, can find new people to teach at church. That's where the four baptisms are coming from in our ward on the 7th of Sept.

So, on Thursday night we received a call from the assistants (to President Cottle) that Elder Anderson (of the quorum of the 12) is going to the Columbus Stake Conference that weekend and that he wants to have a mission conference with our mission on Saturday. It was a last-second mission conference with Elder Anderson. That is pretty cool. I drove the most consecutively I've ever done in my life without switching with somebody else. it was a 4.5 hour drive from where I'm at to Columbus Stake center. That pretty much took up our entire day. Something funny that Elder Anderson told us:

He shook hands with Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin after a talk in his ward he gave (years ago) who shook hands with some old lady (many more years ago) who shook hands with Joseph Smith in the streets. So, let me take that one step further: I shook hands with Elder Anderson who shook hands with Elder Wirthlin who shook hands with some old lady who shook hands with the prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. He spoke of patience, he told us that our mission is a difficult one, he told us to memorize 10-15 passages in the New Testament to quote to people, he spoke about how no effort is wasted, and gave some examples, Friday night he visited with a non-member friend he hadn't seen in over 20 years and gave two missionaries an apostle referral to go see them and took his picture with them individually to email his friend to let him know who the two missionaries were that are going to see him. (we also got a group picture with Elder Anderson btw.) It's been fun. 

Dana, and her three kids came to church yesterday for the 3rd or 4th or 5th time (lost count), and they're going to be baptized on the 7th. They are a good family. They are lots of fun to teach too.

We stopped by one of our investigators we hadn't seen in a while and her husband's funeral was that day (he died sometime between the time that we'd seen them before); Italia greatly appreciated us stopping by and sent us home with lots of food. She's got deep roots in Catholicism.

We had a fun exchange with one of the priests in the ward too, we were able to teach a couple of lessons with him.

(hmm, anything else?)

~probably~

Love you all,

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Baptisms and Life

Law of Chastity for Joshua:

We don't actually have a standardized way that I've ever seen with teaching the LoC to younger baptismal candidates. I definitely would use simplified language though. Here's probably a direction I'd take it:

Do you understand why your parents won't let you watch certain movies? They talk about bad things and they sometimes do bad things, the swearing is part of it, but sometime they show or do other bad stuff too, that's part of the law of chastity. Don't look at bad pictures. I did a quick search of lds.org and came up with this: Chastity and Modesty

Seems to teach it simply pretty well.

It might be something worth while to give the parents to and have them teach their children the LoC (to a greater extent than we do) using that link above as a guide.

Dana and her family are awesome! They are definitely going to be baptized. A lady named Kelly that I found a while ago came to church today and thought it was great. I taught the gospel principles class. I'm more than willing to teach any class any day of the week. I wanted to be called on to give a talk yesterday too, which I didn't get to give. I thought the bishop was going to surprise us on the ward program with the opportunity to speak to the ward. He told us he's going to assign us to speak eventually, but didn't tell us when.

It's fun to go on exchanges we get to organize a lot more of them because of my assignment.

It's fun to help organize the mission meetings we have, and to address my ideas to the mission leadership. As President Hinckley once said to those close around him, "I want a lively debate, but after the decision is made the debate is over." I offer some good debates sometimes.

Steak lunch ($60 slab of meat, provided, we cooked), steak dinner (surely also expensive but provided), 5/6 bowls of cereal for breakfast, then an eating competition to eat a large 3 patty burger, a large drink, and a large plate/tray of fries under an hour, all back to back. I didn't eat the rest of that day. I got my picture taken though and put on the wall. (1/3 of the pictures on the wall are missionaries that served around the area in the past. lol) The next day during lunch time we tracted into somebody moving, we helped, and they happened to own a restaurant, and called and ordered free food for us that we drove over to and ate. Then we were given a large dinner. I weighed myself immediately after the large burger and fries and drink that I ate, and I think I lost weight... The only reason that I can think of is that I'm not riding my bike as much so I'm probably losing muscle. I probably broke the word of wisdom on eating too much and not eating meat scarcely this week, but I still lost weight, that's good right?

Tomorrow we have a zone conference. Should be fun, I helped with a lot of the organizing of it.

Here's a fasting insight for you.

In Isaiah 58:3-11 the lord comes to us and says, "here I am" I'm pretty sure that's the only place in the scriptures it does it that way

Response to Elder J. Walker's Questions

Last week, Elder J. Walker posed questions to Mom and his brother, Elder B. Walker.

Mom's Advice to her son Elder Joshua Walker:

Joshua, here are the beginnings of answers to your questions, but let me tell you that as you ponder and study, the answers will become more apparent.

To start with: 1) with regards to people going to the Terrestrial Kingdom because they would not receive the testimony of Christ in the flesh. I believe that this refers to people that received a strong witness that Jesus is the Christ and they know what they are supposed to do about it, but for whatever reason, they don't want to let go of their sins (or pride, etc.) so they are unable to go forward. A purposeful choice is made of pride over Christ. They aren't evil per se, just too comfortable to change. Fortunately, it is the Lord who will judge.  We just keep trying.  Food for thought though, it is those who received not the testimony of Christ, . . . it didn't say the Church. That might be something different.

2)What is an intelligence? That could be a fascinating study. Keep your eyes, ears, heart and mind open. We know that before we became spirits we existed as intelligence. Elder Bednar also teaches that as we act in obedience to doctrine our intelligence increases. Is he referring to the same "intelligence"? I think he is. 

Josh, I would suggest that you keep a list of your questions in your journal. Then as you go through your regular course of scripture study you occasionally refer back to the questions so you know what you are looking for. Answers that you discover yourself will always mean more to you than the answers your mother gives you.

Mom's advice is good, Joshua, I recommend you follow it... 

Here's a thought for your first question... It is easier for people to repent when they have forces that try to pull you away (like temptations or discomforts that a physical body presents) that aren't available in the spirit world and that don't happen with a perfected body.

Here's a section to more in depth address your second question. It'll make for a fun study sometime. D&C Section 93.

You were right mother, I didn't keep track of Alexandria's and BJ's anniversary in the least. It flew by unnoticed (sorry Alexandria =-(  ). That can be a good thing though it's kind of weird to have a married sister to a brother-in-law I've hardly met (that's you BJ). I'm sure I'll get to know him someday.

I wrote down the names of the people that the Cooper's mentioned, if I ever make it over there. (Time's a dwindling ever so fast!)

You are super-duper Monica. That blog was an inspired thing to start. I've thought about doing something like that (in a journal), but I keep on convincing myself not to do so, because of my limited time and resources (a keyboard). 

There is "new scripture mastery"? or are you just talking about the book of mormon scripture mastery that hasn't been introduced to the seminary students yet?

School over here starts tomorrow (tues) for just about all of the public schools.

This past week our zone had a ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) I thought it was awesome! It went great! I loved it. Trainings (and those that gave them) were inspired, and all were edified. Dana and her family are most certainly going to be baptized in the near future. I've never seen somebody so excited to accept the invitation to be taught the gospel before. The member fellowshipper asked her if she's still interested in learning about the church from the missionaries immediately following our gospel principle sunday school lesson and she turned from sis dayton and looked directly at me and said, "yes! I'd love to!" How about tues! Bro Dayton said, would it be alright if we joined you at the lesson? Dana quickly replied, "no, you can't come... just kidding =-)" That family will join us all in the celestial kingdom, you'll get to meet them later if not in the next 20-30 years.

Love you all!

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Unique Missionary Experiences

I haven't been losing weight mother... no need to worry... I definitely gained weight since the beginning of my mission. I gain weight every time I get to ride a bike, and I stay the same when I get to ride in a car. I'm pretty sure I came out around 120-130ish; now I'm 155ish.

I went to a branch yesterday in addition to our own sacrament meeting for complications for needing to do an interview for an investigator who all at once decided he needed to be baptized next week. Before Sacrament, Elder Douglas, the elder I was with, was asked to give a short talk about missionary work, and we were both asked to pass the sacrament. (Only the two of us passed to the 25ish members there.) After the intermediate hymn they announced the next speakers: the missionaries, which included me. So I had a grand total of zero seconds (plus how long it took to walk 20 feet away to the pulpit) to prepare a talk. I hadn't come up with anything yet when I reached the pulpit. Kind of interesting experience. Out of it all though, It was the most comfortable talk I've ever given. Usually my pulse skyrockets when I'm in a "struggly" situation or really nervous or put on the spot. I didn't feel any of that, and it went great for the time I had to prepare. I just gave a spiritual thought about missionary work, using 2 Nephi 32:2-4 and paraphrased the parable in the end of Luke ch 16 with insights on both. Fun stuff: be one of two to pass the sacrament, give a talk, and interview a candidate for membership in the church in a branch you don't belong to the first time you ever attend a branch in your entire life. Not very many people get to do that. 

Elder Lang is my new companion here in Evans, GA in the Martinez ward. He's from Utah. Out of the 10 missionaries that go to this meetinghouse church building of ours, I'm the only one not from Utah. 

Miracles are out there! This is the time to declare the gospel more than ever before, For behold, the time is Nigh at hand.

We get to drive to Macon once a month now. That's a 3 hour drive each way...  I'm going to enjoy the meetings. but probably not the drive. I've already made that trip once for transfers. Now I'm going to do it again for Missionary Leadership Council on a monthly basis. That's ok though, Now I get to listen to 6 hours worth of talks tomorrow =-)

Zone Leader and Investigator

I was assigned to be a Zone Leader as of tomorrow (transfers are on Tuesdays now). I'm staying in the Martinez ward and they are splitting the Zone. I must say, I went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders Friday/Saturday and I decided that I didn't want to be a zone leader on my mission because they have a lot of stuff they get to do that can get boring sometimes that I didn't want to deal with. Not ten minutes after our exchange ended President Cottle called and asked if I'd accept the assignment to be a Zone Leader.... I almost choked on "I accept"... right after I decided I didn't want to do it, the Lord sees fit that I need to grow in that area. That seems to happen in life a lot. (Ether 12:27)

We're going to have a Zone Leader and training companionship in our apartment this transfer. That will be fun. It's a 2.5 hour drive to Macon, GA where we will have our transfer meeting. That is a lot further than the 1-1.5 h to get to Columbia, SC.

One of the LA members (leaving out name on purpose) we've been talking to recently has a strong testimony, just some bad habits and doesn't come to church. His best friend he talks to all of the time about the church and the conversation always reaches some road block because his friend doesn't understand the answer that his is given. The LA member has talked him up to us about how hard headed he is and how he can't get through to him and that he wouldn't accept an invitation to hear from us probably. We stopped by to see this LA member and caught him and his friend John on the porch smoking one of their bad habits. We came up and started talking to them and I changed the conversation to be more of a gospel oriented conversation and the LA member said, "Here it goes!" It was so funny how the LA member was reacting about how we taught his friend the gospel. It was certainly divinely inspired both in planning to go see him and in our teaching John. John started with some walls with tea, coffee, and the law of tithing, and those were quickly resolved: "[LA member] it makes a lot more sense why you do that the way they explained it." We spiked interest in the Book of Mormon and the more we told him about it and the more it taught about some of those prominent truths he already knew the more excited he became to read the Book of Mormon. It was a fun night last night, we taught a couple lessons, even though we biked and got wet again. Would you like to swap weather for a couple of days? You'll probably get more rain than the whole year together you normally get in Modesto if you pick the right couple of days over here.

Love you all!

Good day to you

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Teaching

I heard there is a hear wave on the west of the states. Too bad. It's actually be a rather cooler summer than normal over here. However I literally get drenched due to scattered storms while the sun is shining on average once a day. Most of the time I hear the thunder it's not raining where I'm at. There has been scattered storms on a daily basis for the past two weeks.

I have a recommendation mother for teaching investigators: "The ideal situation is to have the member invite the investigator to be taught then be present for the teaching" ( ~somewhere in PMG) set up a family home evening with the missionaries. Or invite them over for dinner, with the missionaries for the lesson to be taught at "our" home. Talk to the missionaries before hand and ask them what they'd like you to share. My personal opinion is that commitments are best taken and kept when it comes from a friend (missionaries can be friends too, but missionaries come and go.)

Elder Swenson and I made a really good lesson plan to teach to active members of the church this morning. I'll be sure to share it with you when I get home. It's probably the best lesson plan I've made in months. It's pretty member-missionary motivational. Robert will be sure to look back on those experiences he's having with gratitude. Has Robert been in Oregon for a while now? How long is he going to stay there? I don't remember hearing about Robert staying with Grp & Grm Bean for an extended amount of time. Having nearly finished the Book of Mormon again, I continue to be amazed at how powerful it is. How can anyone genuinely read the Book of Mormon and not know that it is true? You can't. Anyone that says they've read the Book of Mormon and doesn't believe it is either lying or didn't genuinely read it (or as many prophets have said "or then you misunderstand them").

I love you all! Keep praying for opportunities to share the gospel, you can do multiple families at a time you know =-)

Alma 6:6

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Service

I wish every member had your zeal, mother. The work would move along so much faster (that's not a comment to say that you're doing enough, you're just getting started.  =-) With that comes more joy though and you get to be "pretty [more] psyched").

This week has been interesting. If I didn't say last week, I started a service project for an investigator and finished it this past week. Elder Swenson and I put together a $1000 Gazebo and it took many hours to accomplish. It took much longer that I anticipated and was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. Immediately after we finished that project (which took a whopping 6 hours to finish including a 30 min meal) we went over to give a Book of Mormon to potential investigators as they had previously requested one, and offered our service there, and she almost didn't believe that we were really offering to help, and we mowed and edged the large lawn. As a result she told us that she promises to read the Book of Mormon. (The Book of Mormon was for her husband, but she promised to read it too.) 

I was drenched a couple times this week. I literally could have jumped in a swimming pool yesterday and not have been more wet. Couple people told us we were crazy for being out in the stormy weather, then didn't want to hear our message.

I really thought that I had a lot to say in this email... I don't know why I'm coming up blank. A lot happened this past week.

I'm at a loss of words...

Love you all!

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker