Two Weeks Left

Dear Mom,

now I'm writing to Joshua,

Dear Elder Joshua Elery Walker,

I have lots of things that I could say about how to get along with unmotivated missionaries, however unfortunately I'm not making the time today to respond to that question... I'll do it later, I just made a note to do so.

I will probably not send you another letter while I'm on my mission, because I only have one more Monday to get things ready for an upcoming event. Alas, I promise to send you letters when I get transferred in a couple weeks. (I haven't stayed in an area more than 6 months before, so it'll probably happen.)

Back to mom

I am more than happy to attend seminary when I get back. It will be fun. I do want to make note than the plane will land in Modesto approx 1 or 2 am Georgia time and I have stuff I'm going to do and will not go to sleep during the flights (another note: I don't really care either, I will attend seminary, I'm not even sure why I want to emphasize that). I will need to figure out what the new scripture masteries even are before then somehow (probably morning of the 15th), I haven't seen the new one's yet, I'm probably already familiar with whatever they are though. It sounds like fun, I'm all for it.

20 minute lesson for Family Home Evening? did family home evening get shorter since I left? they used to last hours didn't they? ok, I guess I might be able to prepare a 20 minute lesson, we'll see...

Did I ever tell you about Franky, from the Bible study group that we go to on a nearly weekly basis? The one who read the whole BoM in two weeks? Well, this past week we had him download "lds gospel library" and he read the entire Pearl of Great Price and the first 36 sections of D&C. We gave him and his parents (the Dad is partly anti-mormon) a Church tour. It went wonderfully. They all surely felt the Spirit. Bill, the Bible Study group leader is going to be a Reverend in a couple of weeks and this Thursday we'll be giving him a Church tour. He's a pretty awesome person too, He's seeking for all things of truth. He told the Bible study group (around 15 people yesterday) that somebody asked him about why he had Mormons coming to his Bible study group, Bill responded something to the effect of, "They come to be with us in the Lord, and why aren't you coming too?" To which Bill was responded, "Uh, I don't know". 

There were two baptisms this past 3 days, one child of record and another sister named Samantha Gordon. It is fun to have baptisms. The only stressful part about baptisms is all the preparation that goes into it. However, both of these baptisms went pretty smoothly, and there were plenty of people we introduced the Restoration of the Gospel to during the time the baptismal candidates were getting dressed following the baptism. 

I prepared a talk on "courage/strength/assurance" using a talk, but I didn't get the talk to take stuff from until Saturday, I read the 5 page talk Saturday night, and didn't start writing the talk (I did jot down notes of things throughout the 2 days prior though) till the first Sacrament meeting on Sunday. I didn't use anything from the talk at all, it was a good talk though, Gordon B Hinkley said some inspirational things about not having fear, I just had a different direction I wanted to take the talk so I didn't use it. I was well prepared before the first speaker finished. I was listening to her talk too, and she gave a good talk. (I made good notes, just had to organize them) I was the last speaker in the second Sacrament meeting and I was expecting to have 20 min left over. There were three speakers, a RC went first, Sister Russell went second (a sister missionary in the ward), and I was to go third. The other two talks together should have taken about 20 minutes. Sacrament meeting should have been finished by the time I got to the pulpit. I asked the bishop as I walked up to the pulpit how long he wanted me to speak being aware of the time, he whispered 2 minutes.. OK. So I gave a 3 or 4 minute talk. I felt super prepared for the talk though. I'm sad I wasn't able to actually give it. I feel like I could have spoken the entire sacrament meeting and everyone would have still been listening intently at the end. Oh well. I'll have to do it again some other time. I feel like my focused studies are getting better and better and I'm becoming more and more acquainted with the scriptures to pull examples from the scriptural events that took place.

I ought to be sending a package home today some time (hopefully). So you ought to receive something of the sort later this week.

I love you all lots!

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Teaching

Did I say Elder Kato? I meant Elder Sato. He's been studying about the driving stuff for a while. Probably today or Wednesday we will have him take his test. There is a bunch of headache stuff he needs to get in order to get a drivers license because he's from Japan. For instance: a SSN denial letter. Multiple proofs of living in Georgia, etc. All will go well though.

Thank you for the idea about mailing the bike to Alexandria, I will certainly do that.

I'll probably take up Bro Lung on the fun activities of doing some manual labor, sounds like a blast!

Thank you Joshua for the remarks about the Holy Ghost. That is a good scripture to use. That topic has been on my mind a lot lately too. I've used the importance and significance of having the gift of the Holy Ghost vs the influence of the Holy Ghost example in many talks, trainings, and testimonies over the past 5 months. I also have learned that just about all of the things that we do are to help us have the spirit be with us.

I specifically remember thinking before my mission and during the first part of my mission that it would be hard for me to give trainings or talks that last for more than 10 minutes... If I had complete control of things, which I don't, and should share the time anyway, I'd have everybody come together and unload for 3 or so hours with great trainings and spiritually uplifting things. I plan on taking some family home evenings (if that's ok Dad) at home to teach some greatly motivational things (I'll break them down in 40 minutes segments). Thank you for inviting the Lungs to my home-coming talk. I plan to do that same with many other people as well.

I am going to train tomorrow on "Eternal Perspectives" and on "motivating missionaries for missionary work." Should be great! The other trainings will also go great, I'm aware of a few of the trainings and how they are going to do them. Should be awesome!

We have been in a 3 pack temporarily for the past week and possibly till the end of the transfer. We have had lots of fun together in the 3 pack too. We cover 2 wards and get to combine the dinners of the wards (which means there's an averages of 1.3 meals given to us a day including lunches) and get to traverse the whole place. There are 2 particular investigators that are super super smart, kind of like Dad, except w/o the HG. One of them is a quantum physics guy and the other already read the BoM in two weeks. Both are looking "beyond the mark" though. They both flattered me though. One of them gave me a sincere compliment and told me that he thought I was very passionate about the missionary work. While we were teaching the other, his acquaintances told me that I seem to have a lot of the qualities that this guy has of whom they all esteem as super smart. =-) Blessings of being on the Lord's errand I guess.

Love you all! I've run out of time though, ta ta for now!

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Old Friends

Ha! The cardboard missionaries are kind of funny idea.

I would love to give a talk at Colton's baptism! I'm more than happy to do that. (topic: baptism? confirmation? both?) I'll ask you about it later. You can just remind me about it later actually. (Thank you).

I did remember who the Hanson family was the first time Bro Jensen (uncle -ish) mentioned him to me 3 weeks ago. It was fun time spent with them. [The following pictures come from them].

On Friday night, we went to Natalie's uncles house to have dinner with his family and the missionaries happened to be there. 

Elder Walker gave a great message from Alma 5 regarding leading by example and lifting people like Christ does- it was a great Christ centered spiritual thought. We are very proud of Ben, he is a great missionary! It was really nice to see him.

I am pretty sure mother that I've sent you that talk early in my mission... if I didn't send it, then I wrote to you about it, or I told you about it. I think you just forgot, good luck remembering it the second time. =-) (love you mom). I didn't read that article, or even see it, in the Ensign yet. If I were to guess, it was given 10 years ago at some fireside and they finally printed it in the Ensign. (That information can be found at the end of the article.)

Joshua, I'm going to write you a letter today and answer all of your questions from your various letters you sent me in in one letter, including the question from last week about reincarnation. I think it's interesting that I came up with many of the same questions earlier in my mission, but I discovered the answers since then.

I am having so much fun with Elder Sato he is a spectacular missionary! He is a very humble person. We have near daily occurrences where Elder Sato has what I call a "language barrier" where Elder Sato says, "yep...ok...uh huh..." then afterwards I ask him if he understood anything and he says, "uh, no I didn't understand any of it". It is very funny when this takes place. I get to teach elder Sato how to drive this transfer too. He's got a Japanese license but not a american one. It'll be fun to do that.

We had a ZTM (Zone training meeting) meeting a MLC (mission leadership council) and other cool stuff take place this week. They all went very well, and I had lots of fun with them.

Unfortunately for reasons that I'll tell you after my mission, my time is spent today. Love you all! see you later,

Companion and Investigators

First of all, I wanted to comment on Joshua's email... That kind of lesson is actually normal for us, the only difference being that I don't sing in lessons and the investigators usually don't laugh. In fact the last lesson we taught (yesterday) was with a Jehovah's Witness pastor. Our area I live in now is the suburbs of Augusta and a large percentage of the pastors for an 1.5 hour radius live in this area. I've got speculations why, but I shall not say... but I did want to make the note that Joshua's lesson he had is quite normal here. I've got another story for you along the same lines: On Saturday we had another lesson like this one, this particular person was anti-mormon yet is nice at the same time. They were saying some bad things about the beliefs we have and my companion (Elder Sato) bore a powerful testimony, immediately following I ended the lesson and we left. Not ten minutes later they texted us and invited us back for dinner... unfortunately we declined because of other appointments we had, but instead they invited us over next Saturday for dinner. I did not expect them to do that... There is a "sweet spot" in lessons when you hit them with the Spirit really hard then leave them hungry for more. I love to do that. It works better than defending our doctrine or going into unnecessary depth of doctrine every time.

Elder Sato is from Japan. He didn't speak English before he came to the America's. He is a wonderful companion! I really love him lots. Turns out we have 8 different families that can speak Japanese in our ward. How often does that happen? It's probably due to it being a military ward and having had a lot of members go on missions. It is so much fun to help him learn English too. It reminds me a lot of my desire to learn Spanish when I get back home. (He's a year out on his mission, but still gets to have an hour of language study a day. Fluent, not eloquent, and regular grammar problems in speech.) We had dinner with a Japanese family yesterday in our ward. Elder Sato had so much fun, this may have been the only time his whole mission that he'll have an experience like that. Something else interesting, he has his Japanese Bible and Triple Combination and he always looks up the references in Japanese first, then in English. It's funny to watch and it makes for great conversation starters when meeting new people. (I think that's an awesome talent to have.)

Just so I don't forget in the future, our next door neighbor, in the Stevens Creek Ward (we live outside of our ward boundaries with the Steven Creek elders) is an amazing person too, I'll be sure to tell you about him another time.

I think the member G. Jensen in our ward is the uncle of Bro Hanson. We will be eating dinner with Bro Hanson and Bro and Sis Jensen on Friday. That's going to be fun. I bet that doesn't happen very often on missions.

I love the plans you've made with the new house! I think it's brilliant. I've already thought of ways I'm going to request of you that I use it too.

Oh, I've got a really funny story that I've got to tell you:

So, the only Japanese speaking members that I new before Elder Sato got here is the Jenkins family. Bro Jenkins is the 1st counselor in the bishopric and served a mission in Japan, and his wife is from Japan and went to school at BYU-Provo and they have 4 kids all of which speak Japanese. They speak Japanese in their home (same family that fed us yesterday). So, right when I got here, 4.5 months ago, we bluetoothed all of the contact information from the sister missionaries phone and deleted everybody that wasn't included on the roster so we had the ward members numbers on our phone without having to put them in ourselves. One of the numbers was under the name of "Bro Jenkins" not on the roster. We called the two numbers for the Jenkins family on the roster, neither answered. We were going to have Elder Sato just speak Japanese to them. We thought it be fun for Elder Sato and Bro or Sis Jenkins. We then proceeded to call the third phone number under the name of Bro Jenkins, The conversation went as follows according to my memory (Elder Sato helped me with the Japanese =-))

Elder Sato: (I have to be on the right computer in order to get Japanese characters, unfortunately, this one doesn't have it)

"Bro Jenkins": Hello?

Elder Sato: 

"Bro Jenkins": Hello?

Elder Sato: 

"Bro Jenkins": Hello?

Elder Sato: Is this Sister Jenkins?

"Bro Jenkins": Hello?

Elder Walker: Hello, is this the Jenkins family?

"Bro Jenkins": No, this isn't

Elder Walker: Oh, if you're not brother Jenkins we don't know who you are

"Bro Jenkins": Hey are you the people that texted me about the bible study?

Elder Walker:   ... yes, I think that was us

(Recollection of us texting this number the week before... this is the text verbatim we sent this number which we never got a response for: Hey Bro Jenkins there is going to be a baptism next week on September 7th  at 10:30. Would it be good for it to be announced at church for opening announcements?)

"Bro Jenkins": Oh ok, I'm <name>, I wanted to come to that. May I bring my daughter, <name>, too?

Elder Walker: Of course, that'd be great, May I text you the time and address?

"Bro Jenkins": Ya that'd be great!

Elder Walker: I'm Elder Walker. We'll see you there!

(I then proceeded to give her the address of the church building and time of service and also for the baptism.)

What makes this whole thing funnier is that Elder Heyland wanted to video Elder Sato speaking in Japanese, so he got the whole thing on video, I'll try to get the video and email it home!

Love you all!

Thanks for the spiritual thought mother!

Love you lots!

I taught the lesson yesterday. It was on the Word of Wisdom and I gave a great analogy using Alma 47 (I think) with Amalickiah.

Missionary Meetings

We had another super awesome last-second meeting, this time only with the ZL's and sister training leaders, and the APs and Pres. and Sis Cottle. It was with Elder Giddens of the 70. Do you recognize that name? That is the same person that I met with Elder Gonzalez of the 70 over a year ago. Elder Giddens came directly from the Atlanta mission conference to us. So this past Saturday we had a meeting with him and drove out to Macon and back. Took pretty much the whole day also. 2.5h drive each way. I am very blessed. He talked all about leadership. It was a very powerful experience. He certainly knows his scriptures and D&C 84:85 was pretty evidently used.

Also I gave a talk yesterday it was going to be 5 minutes, but the main speaker called in sick and they asked me before Sacrament if it could be 15 minutes. I'm pretty good with planning talks on short notice now. They're lots of fun too. I certainly will keep that skill handy for the experiences I'm bound to have. I started my talk with something similar to what Joshua ended his last email letter with, "I'm really excited to give this talk, I just hope it turns out as good as it did in my head..."

Something that they've been doing in our ward is they are having the members of the ward that are preparing for or have their mission call (each out of high school and seminary) become a teacher's aid for the seminary classes. There are two in each class for the seminary classes here. They are only each doing it for a couple months because their calls will send them away, but it seems to be a great experience for those to help teach the gospel by teaching it to seminary with the teachers. Just an idea.

Btw I am more than happy to help build the fence. I'd love to do that. Sounds like fun.

I received your letters and I thought they were great... unfortunately I'm behind in replying to the letters I'm getting so Mother, I will not be able to send you a happy birthday letter. I hope you know that I love you lots and that I'm thinking of you today. And as I pondered on that this last week I realized that I may not have made any mention of Dad's birthday! oh no... I felt bad for a little bit. I got over it quick, he'll be ok. (Dad has Rhinoceros skin, it's 2 inches think, nothing can get to him!, so I'm sure he's fine.) Odds are that I'm going to be transferred before the family of four we're working with is going to be baptized on the 7th (transfers is on the 3rd). That's the way of the mission sometimes, leaving the field with plenty to harvest.

Note for Joshua:

Elder Tanner Heyland, who lives with me, currently serving in the Stevens Creek Ward, is from Draper Utah, if you happen to be in that area, he's got some friends that he wants you to teach, so let me know if you do or ever are in that area, one of which who he told me about is less-active and thinks that talking with missionaries will help his out. He's from the Draper 4th ward.

Sincerely,

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

Last Call Home

You are such a good missionary mom! Way to share the gospel with the neighbors. The hardest part of sharing the gospel is the invitation to learn. The rest is easy, because now that you've planted seeds, others tend to be inquisitive and all the questions and thoughts take care of themselves by the promptings of the spirit; they are headed towards the gate that opens up to the path before they even know it.

Mother, I must say, you had a couple moments of looking defeated when you couldn't call Joshua on Skype and join him in the group 3 way conference skype call. Joshua eventually figured out that he needed to accept us as friends or add us as friends to do so, it's too bad his Skype wasn't up to date either, thus only sound came through in the conference call. I'm glad things eventually worked out.

Yesterday we were given the opportunity to teach all of the YW 12-18 as the Women were doing their Mother's Day RS thing and the Men were filling in in primary and other areas of the ward the sisters usually do. We were told Saturday night that someone heard that we're teaching somebody somewhere on Sunday, then it was confirmed to us 5 minutes before the actual class that we were teaching it. We had a good lesson plan made Sunday morning; I would have been disappointed if I had no been given the opportunity to teach the class. (partly because we brought with us 32 copies of the Book of Mormon and we planned on giving them out to be handed out ... and need I note that we biked to church and didn't want to bike back with them?)

Saturday night I decided (on a whim) that I'm going to have memorized the entire Pearl of Great Price over the next 2 years. It will be quite the challenge. I just finished memorizing D&C 121:34-46 and decided that it wasn't that hard to do so and the whole PoGP ought not be that difficult to keep memorized including individual references (so I can quote singled out scriptures within it). We'll see if I keep this up. You'll have to ask me how much I've memorized by the time I get home.

I know you may wish I would think otherwise Mother, but I did not feel a great desire to Skype home so immediately. It felt like more of a missionary phone call when I talked to you Saturday night to confirm Skyping time on Sunday and it was great to see you all yesterday, but it's no big deal, I mean, I talked to you not that long ago during Christmas. I know why I'm on a mission, and I have not and will not get homesick about it. I've got a purpose in my being where I am and I will not depart from it until I've done what the Lord has required of me to do while I'm here. I'll talk to you again in the Sacramento, CA (that's the one we went to right?) airport next time.

Love you all,

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

P.S. it was good to meet you BJ

Day of Service and Transfer

I also participated in the Day of Service and wore a "Mormon Helping Hands" vest. We did a lot of tractor, painting, digging, re-shingling, pressure washing, cleaning, and hauling work for a Boy's and Girl's Club that use an unmaintained Methodist church building that isn't used for church and is in a run down neighborhood. I tell you what, the Orangeburg ward knows how to find great service projects.

I'm being transferred this Wednesday and I'll be a district Leader in another area. Training was lots of fun, I'd be more than willing to do it again any day of the year.

Out of all of the areas I'm sure to come back to visit, I think I might spend a week in Orangeburg. Joshua, you say that members feed you a lot, this past week we had meals every single day, usually lunch and dinner. I could live on the food they gave us alone, and it's almost always all homemade stuff. We've had more member involvement this week (as far as coming to lessons) than I have ever seen anyone ever do. We had an average of 2 members come out with us every day for 1-5 hours taken of their time each.

I look forward to going to a new area. I would have easily accepted staying in this ward for the rest of my mission. The Lord has other plans for me. I love the Gospel, I love the ward.

And without reservation:

I love all of you.

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

To My Little Brother

Dear Robert James Walker,

It's probably really odd to be the only boy in the home. There is only two of you left. Monica and you. Robert, I'm super proud of you. For the longest time I thought you were 12. Turns out you are 13. In this ward, the Orangeburg ward, I am well acquainted with the 12 year olds and I am surprised how grown up they are. I was thinking they were older than you (you were younger than they now are when I left). Upon discovery of your real age, I've come to realize you are a lot more grown up then I remember you being. Both in height and maturity and strength and wisdom and knowledge. Wow. You are probably amazing.

Don't forget to keep up with daily scripture study. Read the Book of Mormon if you haven't read it by yourself yet. Start by prayer to help you understand the scriptures.

You are a leader. Part of the responsibility of being a leader is to figure out how to lead. This is done by prayer and fasting and searching the scriptures. If you ever have any questions about anything I recommend asking Dad; if he, or Mom doesn't know the answer to the question you might pose, ask Monica. If she doesn't know, ask Alexandria... Oh wait... Scratch all that, ask me first (after God). =)
I love you lots Robert. You are super. I look forward to seeing you in October. Hopefully you get this letter before you leave to Idaho... Second thought, I'll mail this letter to Alexandria, then you'll get it for sure. Now that I'm going to do this... are you surprised you got a letter in Idaho? Hahaha.

I read somewhere that one of the biggest sins members of the church will commit is that of ingratitude  We are so very blessed of God. It is amazing how immediately he blesses us (Mosiah 2:24). Be sure to remember what a great son you are of God. You have divine potential. I cannot even fathom what that means. You are developing characteristics unto perfection. Learn the gospel. I promise, Robert, if you learn about the Restoration, about the Plan of Salvation, about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and about the Commandments as given to us in Preach My Gospel chapter 3 well enough to teach the lessons before you are a missionary, you will have much the advantage in the mission field.

Take time from Family Home Evening to practice teaching parts of the lessons to the rest of the family. Teach one principle at a time until you can teach two principles at a time and sooner or later teacher all the gospel in full before you go on a mission. Invite your friends to church. Invite your friends to scout activities. Invite your friends to service projects. I wish I had done this more. It's the same thing as your friends inviting you to go fishing with them or to a birthday party. Except you will be offering a much more important and eternal blessing to your friends. If you really love your friends wouldn't you share with them the most important thing in your entire life that they can get, for free? Bear your testimony. One of my favorite quotes is, "Personal testimony is the strongest arrow in my quiver." Keep the highest expectations for yourself. Mom, Dad, Joshua, Alexandria, Monica and I have really high expectations for you. We've all seen you grown up and we all love you and know where your heart is. But not as well as Heavenly Father. He knows you perfectly, better than you know yourself and He is preparing you to be divine. He has perfect expectations of your. When God says you can do it, He's right, you can do anything with the Lord's help; just remember to ask for help. Develop meekness (great power unter complete control). I feel like that will be part of how Heavenly Father is going to use you in the future. You will be a great tool in his hands due to your meekness.

I would encourage you to write in your journal daily. Ask Alex for one if you don't have one. She's sure to know where to find some. Every day write down in your journal what you are thankful for in that day. I promise you will find strength in this when you go through struggles and need to feel the spirit, if you go back to journal and read those things you have been thankful.

I love you lots Robert,
Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Inner Commitment to the Savior

So to answer the question: [The news that missionaries can email more individuals] was a letter sent from the "brethren" to all the mission presidents in the world with those facts in them that we can email "priesthood leaders," "friends," and "recent converts" with all interpretation of those definitions left up to the mission presidents. Time is also left up to the mission presidents. I am allowed 75 minutes of email now.

Mother, I get dessert at every meal too. =-) I still eat till I'm more than full at every meal and am usually always served desert afterwards.

From what it sounds like the "Adam God Theory" that you mentioned mother I think I know what Joshua is talking about. I have actually read a couple pages excerpt in the Journal of Discourses where Brigham Young (I'm pretty sure it was him) went into great detail on some theory about how Adam was actually the person who was Jesus' Father. It was a conversation of sorts and they explained how some other person came to that conclusion and it made sense the way he explained it (but of course it didn't feel right), it was very detailed and specific for how the other people came to that false conclusion, but at the end he denounced the theory as an abomination.

This past week was fun. One of our investigators is going to the Philippines in two days (on Wednesday). But our discussion we had with him really impressed him and he invited us to speak to his security team. He owns a company that does something with a security team. He set it up at the mall of Saturday morning and gave us 5 minutes to speak. We weren't sure how long we'd have to talk until we got there. We figured at worst 5 min and best 2 hours. We ended up taking 10 minutes though. He started his meeting talking about how he's leaving to the Marshal Islands (I guess he's going to both places) in a couple days and he talked about tolerance. He introduced us and told everyone that he was really impressed with us and invited us to speak to them for a few moments. He said that he asked us some "very hard questions" and was "very impressed with the answers". He must have felt the Spirit when we answered, because these were the "very hard questions" he asked us a few days before:

He said something to the effect of: "Is it ok if I ask you some hard questions? You two are great guys and I'm asking sincerely and not trying to offend you. Are there girl missionaries?"
We said "Yes, and there are a lot more coming on the way into the mission too."
His other "hard question" was: "I've never seen a Mormon that is African American, Mexican, or Chinese, are there any?"
This question was particularly humorous as half our ward is Mexican or African American. We answered, "Yes, there are lots of them."

That was the extent of his "Hard questions."

He had 14 employees in attendance in this meeting in some back side room of the mall. It was fun. We left lots of media for them to take freely of with our investigator with a list of our contact info and church time and location.

I recently stumbled upon "josephsmithpapers.org" as I read everything about the new scriptures the church is releasing in august. That is very interesting. I'm going to look into that after my mission a lot more.

This morning I decided to finally start reading some of my family history stuff Grandma and Grandpa left with me. I made it a goal, I'm pretty good a making an effort to act on my goals too. I'm actually interested in learning a little bit more about my extended family now...

I believe one of the greatest measures of my inner commitment to the Savior is doing what is right in whatever circumstance I happen to be in without thinking about it, just out of instinct. I find that in dreams there really is no time to ponder at all, you just go and do. I have also found great purpose driven and uplifting attitudes result from realizing that I made the right decision without thinking about it, such as in a dream, which to me means that it may be part of my second nature self. That is probably comforting, Monica, that you automatically had that desire to find the Savior.

Love you all!

~Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Learn Your Language of the Spirit

I had a point in my life (when I was pretty young I'm pretty sure) where I didn't think meetings could ever be interesting because I became so easily bored. I love meetings now. It is a privilege to hear members of the 70 and Quorum of the 12 speak. They bring the spirit really strongly. The baptism did go well, You'll receive pictures eventually. We forgot to take pictures before the baptism happened so, we're all dressed up in suits.

I find it interesting that Sister Bassett talked about the language of the Spirit. Several months ago I decided to read chapter 7 of Preach My Gospel, which is the language chapter. I read it with the mindset of everytime it said "learn your language" I added "of the spirit." It was a neat study. It gave me good excuse to read the chapter.

Something else I've come to learn while I have been a missionary is that the Lord rewards diligence. I've found that even if we desire something evil, he will eventually reward us with our desire, but there would have always been something better you could have had. The Lord knows best, thus it is a good idea to trust him and seek his will for us.

And now I come unto you again, in the evening of the day, to rehearse unto you the things I have learned from my Father in Heaven. I have searched continually by study and also by prayer that the Lord would give unto me the secrets of kingdom regarding faith. I have read the book long and hard that I might receive even a witness of the governing principle of faith. I have a work to do in the book which holds the secrets of Godliness. I have established a firm foundation in the words of the book; my works have reached that of Jacob chapter 7. I am pressing forward feasting upon the words of Christ and will endure to the end of the month in finishing the book with a constant battle of more than 9 chapters per day. The 20 chapters behind cannot stop this work from progressing, though persecution may rage and mobs may combine; with God all things are possible. I will firm up my foundation of faith, even in Christ, when those earthquakes come upon me, even the mighty winds; they shall have no power over me to drag me down because of the faith in which I will have. The spirit maketh all things known unto me. Wherefore, I shall not fail.

Hmh, I remember that Joshua asked me something in the last email I received as a letter... I don't remember what it was. Maybe I'll write you a letter today Josh to answer your concern. It's lots more fun to add all the scripture references anyway.

As far as your teaching with seminary, mother, I too have come to realize, because of the new way they are teaching the Sunday school classes, that information isn't the goal. Rather participation and the teaching them how to fish for themselves is the goal. Sounds like you are doing a good job though. Praying with all the energies of your soul will bring you the answers for your seminary class that you need. Promise. I've seen it happen a couple of times in other ways for teachers and leaders seeking for what they should share with the people they have responsibilities over.

Love you all!

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

"I Know He Will Be Ok"

There will be a baptism this Saturday, it will be great. He's made quite a change in his life, and he's going to be an awesome member.

The lesson I didn't end up attending [mentioned last week], I really wished I was there before it happened and afterwards too. Apparently he wasn't very receptive, but that's not going to stop us from having dinner with him on Sundays.

I have some friends from South Jordan too. Missionary companions (2 or 3 of them I think) Elder R. Scott Cahoon & Elder Trevor Peterson. They both finished their missions recently. If you ever run into them Joshua, tell them you're my brother. Actually, the missionary in Modesto Ward might know one of them too.

[The following is an insert from Elder B. Walker's mother's email to give you context of what Elder B. Walker talks about following the insert.]

The other day Monica and I were speaking about a myriad of topics and the subject of your leaving on your mission came up. She told me about an experience that she had which she had not shared before with me. Reminder of the background. The Sunday before you left you spoke in both our ward and the Singles' Branch. We were all excited to hear you speak and so proud of the decision and preparations you had made to serve the Lord. Early that Sunday morning, we received a phone call from your Uncle informing us that his 37 year old daughter, Natalie, a mother of three small children, had passed away in the night. Although she had had a physical only one week prior, she died unexpectedly from a heart attack. Dad and I were shocked, and sad. Dad kept thinking of the tiny niece he had seen grow from a baby to Young Adult. It was just hard to believe. Monica was sad, especially when she thought of the three little children, but Natalie was in a generation that she didn't really get to know. A few hours later, I received a phone call informing me that two girls formerly of our stake had been hit by a train in Utah. I was asked to go through my pictures and put together a video for the family. (Turns out I had over 300 of them from over the years.) One of the girls was Monica's age. So, with all of that going on, you leave for your mission. Monica tells me that when you left she felt she was being torn apart. (Her eyes teared up again as she shared this with me.) On an emotional level, she felt as if she might never see you again. It felt to her as if you were dying too. As she carried this burden with her for a few days she found herself praying. Praying for you, pleading with the Lord that he would protect you so she could see you again (in this life.) I don't know if she received her answer right then, or if it was later as she pondered, but at some point a feeling of peace, calmness, and assurance overcame her as the Spirit testified to her that you would have the Lord's protection. She was promised that you would return.  As she told me this, we were both crying of course, but then her eyes dried and she firmly stated. "And Mom, I don't worry anymore. I know he will be OK."

You know what that story you told me of that discussion you had with Monica reminded me of? King Mosiah's promise he received that his sons would be ok. Then that later account of looking back on it after Ammon cut off all the arms of the Lamanites and it is written that the Lamanites didn't know that the Lord promised that Ammon would be ok and wouldn't be able to end his life as he desired. I don't know if Ammon knew that at the time when he went forward cutting off all the arms of those who opposed him if he was protected or not, but if he did, that may have been that assurance of his actions to go forward with trust in the Lord. That is very comforting to me that I will make it home safely. I imagine that Monica wouldn't be comforted if she found out that I came home as a result of being arrested or false charges. Maybe this is my opportunity to be arrested for only one night then because that's not going to happen. (Although the other sons of King Mosiah, such as Aaron, were arrested, though and they had that promise for them as well, but they still finished their missions over the next 14 or so years.)

I finished an amazingly large project (to me) in an amazingly small amount of time from Wednesday to yesterday. Especially because the days were packed full of appointments and I didn't work on it when I wasn't supposed to anyway. (I didn't take time away from proselyting in other words.) I'll be sure to tell you about it sometime. I mentioned it in my journal, and I more thoroughly mentioned it to President Holm in my email today. I'm sure you'll read about it someday.

We had a meeting with Elder Marcus B. Nash last Wednesday: Feb 27, 2013 (did I already tell you that I was going to have that?) I cannot remember. It was a really good meeting, all five hours of it. I started out tired, and gradually became less tired. By the end of which I was not tired at all. Members of the 70 have such good trainings and insights on the scriptures. I'm glad that missionaries get to have these kind of meetings. It's lots of fun.

Several people came to church yesterday too. The people that were supposed to be baptized in a couple weeks didn't, but we still had 7 investigators show up.

A mission could never be the wrong

Be Bold, New Mission Boundaries

Yesterday was our ward conference. It was amazing. The spirit was very very strong. It had a conference atmosphere in our ward meetinghouse. I felt the "burning of the bosom," "enlighting of my mind," "still, small voice," and "peace to my soul" on several occasions yesterday during the 3 hours of church.... I made a mistake to not make a point to write down my impressions... and I can no longer figure out how to describe the atmosphere of the spirit and the things I was inspired to do I cannot remember, except for wanting to memorize D&C 64:33.

One of the things I am learning very fast with Elder Johnson (have I told you he's from Pleasant Grove, Utah yet?) is to be very bold. That kind of boldness that you had mother with that lesson you took part in over a year ago.

I am going to type up two examples of some conversations I had with some people in the last two days:

(outside in an apartment complex in the dark)

There was this guys we met that wasn't actively interested in learning about the gospel and he said, "I come and go, I'm not always around."

I said, "Great! that'll work perfectly, you can come to church and go after it's over." (I thought it was very clever).

(There is a family (of 2 non-members, 2 active members, 2 recent convers (also active), and other active kids) that we eat dinner at almost every sunday after church.)

One of the non-members has never gone to church and has no excuse to not go. I invited him to come to yesterday's church service last Sunday and he gave a without a doubt "no" response in a sarcastic "yes" answer (he's a jokester). Yesterday, as we were having dinner with them after talking for a couple minutes about him not coming to church when he said he would, his response was that he had something to do (which was to sit on the couch). Somehow in the conversation he brought up that he wanted us to make him dinner and I told him something like "I'd love to, but we don't make time to spend with people that don't keep their committments." He further asked us what day this week we wanted to go out to eat with him at 12pm. We told him a day that would work. (That is a big deal by the way, I don't think he's ever done that before.) He asked us how much time we had to eat and I told him, "Usually we keep our meals under an hour" and my companion added "...but we can spend a little more time afterwards if we teach a lesson to somebody". It was really funny, and he very well may accept to be taught the gospel after the lunch he is taking us out on on Thursday. Unfortunately, I may not be in town because of one of the exchanges that I'm going on.

Oh, I have to say something about the weather here. Almost every other day, or every other two days, for the past 2 weeks have flip flopped from about 70 degrees one sunny, no cloud in sight day -- to raining all day at 40 degrees with no sky in sight the next. That's South Carolina for you.

Robert, I am excited to read your talk. I really am. My heart already warms as I think about what you probably said.

Love you all lots,

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

P.S. We heard an early announcement, because it's affecting out mission, that 48 (I think) new missions are going to be opened up as of July 1st. One of which is the Georgia Macon Mission (it was disolved right before President Holm was the mission president). So there is a possibility that I will be in another mission on July 1st. I don't really want to. But there will probably be a couple missionaries that end up being part of that mission as this one splits. And combines with broken off portions of other missions.

Baptism, Soon to be Training, Testimony

The baptism of Abigail went well. She's nine years old and I am super impressed with her commitment to Heavenly Father. There was great nurturing of her seed of the Word of God and her faith is unmistakably devoted to God's will for her. She probably knows more about the gospel for going to church for the last 3 or 4 months than I did at that time when I was nine. I'm very impressed with her.

Since I've discovered that you'll probably find out anyway because there is probably a letter like the last one you got that is going to come to you, I'm training a new missionary as of Wednesday Feb 13th here in Orangeburg; and I'm really excited for the opportunity to do so. (So Joshua, if you have any questions or suggestions about training a new missionary, I'd love to hear from you.) I probably won't have time to write any letters today. There is a lot of stuff to do... members always want to take us out to eat or make us dinner and with the time crunch with Elder Gonzalez leaving, it includes lunch too.

We are doing a pretty good job at involving/inviting members to do missionary work with us. The ward has developed a great relationship with the missionaries and they are praying regularly for "the missionaries" in our ward and for missionary opportunities for themselves.

Side note: next week is some sort of holiday, the library will be closed then. So expect a delayed email or perhaps an email sent on Tues.

I don't know why I'm all of a sudden out of things to say. I always have so much I want to tell you about right up until I start typing it all, then I forget everything or sum it up in a single sentence.

The work is definitely hastening. That I've been a witness to even in my isolated location of Orangeburg, South Carolina. It's a good thing the Lord's in charge concerning his work; you'd have to be a pretty good planner to figure out who goes on a mission or receives a calling when and where in the entire world to be the most effective about spreading the gospel to all nations, kindred, tongues, and people.

You are a good missionary mother! Keep it up.

I had previously always thought it was odd that sometimes that you (Dad) wait till the last minute to start packing for your week trip to Albuquerque. I have since learned that it really doesn't take that long to pack. If you do it enough times, you know exactly what you need where to get it and how to pack it.

I don't know why I'm out of things to say, but I am.

I'll just bear my testimony then:

I have come to realize in my life that the spirit influences righteous actions as long as I'm striving to do my best. Whether it is in planning for the next day, tracting, making phone calls, or visiting LA, former investigators, or presenting ideas to the ward council, etc, as long as it persuadeth men to believe in Christ and inviteth men to do good, it is from God (thanks to Joshua: Moroni 7:16 and surrounding verses). I know that this work is divinely orchestrated for our benefit. I have gained a testimony that no matter the circumstance, honesty is right 100% of the time and being a good example in difficult circumstances is always the right thing to do. I'm very grateful that the gospel blesses my life so much. Blessings are predicated upon the obedience of the law that God has established. It doesn't matter if you're living in a cardboard box eating bugs. When positive changes in life are yearned, pray earnestly for direction, then follow through with that direction, such as being worthy of a temple recommend including paying tithing. I know the gospel is true. Or I would have figured out I'm wasting my time and left the mission already. Ha! The Holy Ghost has manifested to me these things and witnessed to me of their truthfulness.

Help Investigators Find Their Own Answers

I need to apologize mother, Joshua sent me a letter to forward to you that I didn't do last week because I wanted to write a letter to the family too that I didn't have time to write. It'll get it to you eventually. I just need to add something of my own to it.

I appreciate you reminding me once again to help investigators find their own answers. I get caught up sometimes about just giving them answers. It sounds like you get to have a great scripture studying/pondering time for seminary. I think it was an inspired calling for you because now you are more evidently setting the example for Robert and Monica ... and Dad, and ... nope that's it ... nobody else lives at home anymore, for them to receive their own revelation on life's various situations.

This past week was a very good week. We invited a lot of people to repent and a lot of them accepted the invitation to repent and be baptized, but not very many of them are following through and actually coming to church, they are working on it though, I'm sure they'll come around eventually. We had an interesting day on Saturday and on Sunday (yesterday) the 19th and 20th of Jan. I should tell you about it sometime. I will say this though, we spoke to Elder Gibbons of the 70 on Saturday. And we solidified two people that have chosen to be baptized in February  You'll probably figure some other things out about issues that came up from some pictures that I took that I probably shouldn't give you but will anyway because by the time you'll get it it'll be all over with.

Love you all,
Elder Walker <-- which one is it? (hint: my middle name ends with a 'y')

Sorry my email isn't very long

Baptism and Investigator

The baptism here went well. The tie is very nice also. I don't know how you find such good ties, but the ones you have sent me are great ties.

I'll send you the envelope with the different pictures in it, I'll try to put something a little bit stiff in the bubble wrapped envelope so that the memory card doesn't bend and get damaged (remember that case that holds the memory card? it's still with you.) You'll probably enjoy the videos, you will just have to turn up the sound a lot. Also, for the Christmas skit that I was a part of, the Elder recording couldn't figure out how to record, so he missed the first couple minutes, the last video comes to a halt, because that is where my camera battery died.

I received three letters from Joshua, one forwarded from you mother, another that I will forward you from him today with the memory card. I received them all on the same day too, that was kind of cool. If you dear-elder-ed it the same day that Joshua had his preparation day (Monday?) then they traveled together and got here both at the same time.

We had a crazy lesson this past week with someone that has come to church 3 times now. He received a gospel principles book the first week he was at church and we've been continually asking him to read and pray. So he did read; he read the gospel principles last then first couple chapters. (Last chapter: exaltation, first couple all hint at exaltation). So I called him Thursday morning to confirm for our Friday appointment and he told me what he had read, that it presented "ideas that I had never even considered before" and requested that our topic of our lesson be on "The Nature of God". We brought a great member with us (Bishop Ross's father) and the lesson went great. It started with him saying "I hit a brick wall when I read that" and "It sounds utter blasphemous, but I'm sure you'll tell me otherwise" to ending the lesson with "Ok, I'll give it a shot to find out if this is true". It was an awesome lesson, completely had nothing to do with what we ought to be focusing lessons on, but it sure was still lots of fun, I hope we don't ever have a request of a lesson like that again though. That kind of doctrine too soon can easily go the wrong direction before they have a solid testimony of some of the more basic principals. We were talking about it later though, and we decided that he's going to figure the doctrine of exaltation out sooner or later, so it might as well be from the right source, the gospel principal book. Then, yesterday, we had stake conference broadcasted to our building and he was at church and the first speaker was President Baughman, the South Carolina Columbia Temple President, the second speaker was the stake patriarch, and all of the talks after it had a connotation to exaltation too. It was an awesome stake conference and I'm really glad he came. The different topics for the many speakers tended to be exaltation, temples, or patriartical blessings. Unfortunately many other people we have been working with that really needed to hear some of the things that were spoken about didn't. Specifically people that we just had temple lessons with and were working toward the temple and other people that we had recommending to go and get their patriartical blessings.

Mother, what a great privilege you have to serve as a seminary teacher. It helps to focus personal study when you have an objective behind studying.

P.S. Monica, I'm unbiased too, you're gorgeous. As a caution: Don't let others take advantage of you. =-)

Love you all,

Elder Walker (ooo now you are going to be confused because I didn't tell you which 'Elder Walker' I am)

Terrific Sacrament Meeting

Hello my missionary Mother,

It still gets cold here, don't put up South Carolina's weather too much, it actually snows here once ever 2 or 3 years. Modesto doesn't ever have snow. That's pretty funny about Joshua's and Robert's suit jacket's getting mixed all up. I can't remember if you already sent me Joshua's mission office address, would you send me it again? Not the MTC address, the mission office, he'll only be there for almost 2 weeks. Please and thank you!

Yesterday we had a terrific sacrament meeting; great testimony's were given. Brother Holstad was one of the people giving a testimony and he spoke of one of his testimony builders of the priesthood. He was in Salt Lake City and was very very sick, he got on the plane to fly back to here and took himself off of the plane before it left the airport because he didn't think he could make it. He talked to the airport people and they got him a hotel room and another plane ride the following day. He was sick all night long, once again, he got to the airport the next day and didn't think he could make the flight, then he saw a group of brand new missionaries that were headed to Korea and he stopped them and asked for a blessing. Brother Holstad said they parted like the red sea. They were scrambling for the oil and words to say and Bro Holstad told them that he had oil and that he had the words if they needed it. They gave him a blessing. Brother Holstad got on the plane and the closer he got to South Carolina, the better he felt, till the plane landed and he felt all the way better, just exhausted, but no longer sick at all. it was a great testimony. He also spoke of a the time he went to temple square and he was looking for the temple and could find it because of all of the other tall buildings around it till they were almost there. He compared ourselves to temples in the midst of all the rest of the world and said "but it is us that makes the difference. We stand in holy places." I really enjoyed his testimony. There were several other great testimonies that meant a lot to me, but that was the only one I wrote parts of down.

I've been listening to talks (I've obtained quite a collection) and one of the talks I have says something to the effect of a 5 minute vision of heaven will teach you more about heaven than you can get from all of the scripture about heaven. If we aren't seeking the spirit to be teaching us, then we are missing out on a lot of revelation. He said it a lot better than that, but you get the jist of it.

I completely understand if you cannot write us both a letter every week. Let's not tell Joshua that if it comes down to it, he'll have to miss out on a couple weeks of email. Ha ha ha just kidding. If it comes down to it write him a letter instead of me and just cc it to me. It's kind of weird to have a brother on a mission too. It'd be weirder if I saw him as a missionary. I'm going to see him a total of >3 hours over the next 2 years, how odd. I wonder if we can have a duel Skyping adventure on mother's day, that would be pretty cool.

An investigator we've been working with will be baptized this Saturday.

Love you all! learn lots Monica, stay helpful Robert, keep being a dad Dad, keep being a mom Mom.

Whenever I receive the other memory card back, I'll send you the one I currently have with pictures and videos and past Christmas stuff.

ta ta for now.

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker