Last Monday on the Mission

Due to lack of time, I thought I'd make this email more interesting by including part of what I wrote to my mission president today:

I loved General Conference! I seemed to have a keen ear for hearing things about prayer. I particularly liked Elder McConkie's (of the 70) story similar to Thomas S Monson's story about setting the field on fire. Prayer is so powerful. When we are sincere, God does answer us immediately. Sometimes the answer we get is "you're not ready yet," or "not now," however I would dare say that most of the time, we don't find our answers simply because we don't have enough faith. Does God want to heal us? of course he does! Christ came to the Nephites and healed everybody. While we do frequently learn patience and to put the will of God before our own, God still wants to give us blessings and he will.

I will have the Book of Mormon study finished before I drive up to the mission home next Sunday, I am excited to discuss it with you, I love the Book of Mormon. I really do. I read 3 Nephi 26 today and I found that the plates of Nephi contain most of what the savior taught the people from the "beginning" till the earth shall melt with fervent heat and the heavens and earth shall pass away. Wow! that's amazing. He then taught the children and they taught the people greater things than Jesus spoke and all were forbidden to write those things down: For I will "test the faith" of my servants (3 Nephi 26:9). I've also come to love the chapters of Isaiah. How did he fit so much about the last days in a one page chapter? (3 Nephi 22). Joseph Smith was on a spiritual High for a week straight after the first Vision... The people with Christ were visited "oft" and he broke bread and drank wine with them "oft". What a blessed time they were in. They lived the law of consecration and were very blessed. What a blessed time we live in! I believe a speaker in conference talked about how we were foreordained to be here in this time with the fulness of the gospel available due to our exceeding faith and good works in the pre-existence. And now we get to share it with everybody.

What a great mission I've had, and to end it with General Conference doesn't get much better. Something I am going to do (since I'm a normal member-missionary next week) is take the challenge of reaching out to share the gospel with someone (although I've already got several I'm already planning to share things with) before Christmas. What a joyous time to live on the Earth!

I have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that we have Prophets, Seers, and Revelators today. I love the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true. My mission has meant so much to me. I have learned more than I ever have before about the gospel. I've come to realize the rate of acceleration the Atonement changes me as I am obedient. I love talking about the gospel, I love to emulate the Savior. I love being a missionary! and I plan not to stop being one forever more.

Love you lots President Cottle!

Love you lots Sister Cottle!

I'll see you in a couple days.

~Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

I love sharing the gospel. It is something that I'll never want to stop doing; it fills my soul with joy. President Monson started his last talk with something to the effect of "My heart is full of joy" and I can say the same. I have loved my mission. I thoroughly have enjoyed this experience; It has certainly built a foundation for me in my life that I will look back to for support for the rest of forever. I don't know how anyone could serve a mission such as this and ever fall away. I've also come to learn that Christ arms of mercy are always open, however, and no matter what we may have done or where we may have fallen short no matter how far, we can always come back. We have never drifted away too far. He is always there for us. We just need to have our eyes focused on the savior, and our whole being will be filled with light. Where can we go wrong if our whole being is filled with light? you can't, for all things will be made known unto you where you should go. It is a process, but it's more than doable. If fact everything is in our favor for us to succeed. I particularly liked the talk about being overwhelmed with responsibilities (given in priesthood session focusing of priesthood responsibilities but pertains to all callings and assignments). Sometimes we come to walls where it seems that we need to take two different routes but cannot do them both. He taught us so plainly. I thought it was a wonderful talk! He spoke on the responsibilities and the importance of finding a balance between family, callings, and our job. He gave us the process we should take to find answers to our seemingly impossible situation that we are in. He gave an example of a member that is moving himself and hurt his back mid-saturday and needs to move everything by saturday. He calls his EQP and the EQP already has things planned out for the day with things he promised his children that he would do with them. Knowing the the other Quorum members were probably in similar situations, not being able to help, as it is mid-saturday already, what do you do? I loved that talk.

President Monson is surely the Lord's prophet today. He speaks with power and authority and so sincerely. Having met several general authorities on my mission thus far (and just barely missed another one coming next week =-( ) they certainly live the gospel and they are happy people. They live happy lives. You can see it in them. They have testimonies of the gospel, their priorities are right and they know that what they are doing helps move the work of the Lord forward. And they all have a good sense of humor. I was amazed at Elder Bednar's and Elder Anderson's sense of humor. You don't see it as much on TV. President Monson's you do sometimes, but not so much the rest of them.

I love you all! I'll see some of you in a week.

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

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

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 =-)

Last time in the Columbina South Carolina Mission

I have my last missionary meeting with President Holm tomorrow. I'm sure we'll receive addresses, names, and all other kind of information then; they'll probably forward any other mail. I'll let you know next week.

Joshua, thank you for the notes your mission president gave you on the notes from Elder and Sister Cook; I really do appreciate those kind of things.

The broadcast was pretty awesome. I'm kind of excited to hear how they're going to implement the technology in the missions too. Remember during the early years of my mission I said I wouldn't be surprised if all of the missionaries were given iPads or something of the sort during Joshua's mission and perhaps towards the end of my own? Well, it's now been officially announced that it's happening. I was impressed by how many tools and how much technological preparation went into making that broadcast possible, there were so many short videos and video accompaniments to the music sang and the talks given. That's pretty awesome! What tools we don't use, we'll lose! The fireside was it's own general conference session, except it was the apostles speaking only, and it was in June rather than October or April. I thought it was pretty neat that Elder Anderson and Elder Packer spoke from not the Provo Training Center (that stuck out to me as odd too as they said it.)

We had some crazy lessons this past week. Several (at least 4) back to back over 3 or 4 days super anti-Mormon lessons. Fervent testimony was born, the spirit of contention was rejected and you know what results when that happens: CONFOUNDED! They were kind of fun lessons, I've come to know that I know our doctrine pretty well, (I also don't know it very well at the same time.) One of the Anti guys gave us an anti-Mormon literature packet and I read through it all and it's pretty dumb stuff. There are pretty easy answers for most of the questions. I answered every single one for myself, I have yet to not read anti-literature I'm given (probably not the best of ideas), and I'm yet to find an answer. Every Anti-literature document is taken out of context in one way or another. It really just comes down to knowing if the Book of Mormon is true or not, or if Joseph Smith was truly called to be a prophet or not. Once you receive an answer from the Holy Ghost which is near impossible to forget, then you know it's true, and when you hear or read something supposedly contradictory, you don't think "Oh no! now my entire testimony is at stake!" rather you think, "Oh, that's pretty interesting, if that's true, I wonder how that fits into the gospel Plan." 

Oh, before I forget, here's the scripture I'd like on my new plaque: D&C 42:61

The people here are pretty nice. It's a great couple of neighborhoods that we cover. Similar to where we live. The wealthiness per capita in this Columbia county is the highest in Georgia.

Love you all!

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

Father's Day Weekend

About 3 weeks into my mission I changed my favorite scripture to: 2 Nephi 28:30. I can't even remember what the other one was, I think it had to do something of the effect of: "with God, all things are possible..." but I don't know the reference.

I was trying to think yesterday what my favorite scripture is. It might have changed again. but for now know that I changed my favorite scripture and if time runs out before I decide, it's 2 Nephi 28:30.

By the way, I did get to see the pictures that Joshua took. You already sent it to me with a different email.

The Aususta Zone Conference was really good a week and a half ago. It probably was the same one. It was an all day event.

Something for the future: sometime in the future look up an address on google maps. We were there the other day and our appointment fell through at this address and as I was leaving a message on the phone I believe the google maps car drove past us. I don't know how often they update the maps, but it probably will be updated within the next year in which you'll then see me at that address.

The sisters in the ward made bread for every 18+ brother in the ward. So I got a small loaf of poppy seed bread yesterday =-). Good ol' sisters.

I really like being asked to give talks or teach lessons. Many of the best studying sessions I've had on my mission have been when I'm preparing to teach about a particular topic to others. It's true, when you're in the service of your fellow beings, you're in the service of your God, and he blesses you profusely. 

I must soon depart from the library. Furthermore I end my sayings thus:

Sincerely,

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

I am Blessed to Live in This Dispensation

I have been listening to 8 lectures of the "Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith" over the past week. It continues to amaze me how relevant the revelation he received is today. There were two great talks given this past Sunday and it seemed to me that a lot of the things that one of the speakers said I've heard more than once in the past week. (So I requested a copy of his talk, which he'll give to me next week.) Also, the scripture I've been memorizing I'm keeping memorized; it seems to have more and more relevance as I continue on throughout life. Somebody will say something, and I think to myself, "Didn't such an such scripture teach that same doctrine?" or "Doesn't such and such scriptures expound on the topic that was just mentioned?" or "Doesn't such and such scripture apply to what I'm doing right now and give be a clear direction of how I ought to move forward?"

Word of advice for Monica: Keep the Book of Mormon scripture mastery memorized, review to yourself every so often the scriptures. Also, when you have the scriptures memorized already. It makes a neat study, you take one phrase at a time of the scriptures and write down any insights you have on it (all doing so without looking actually in the scriptures, because you have them memorized that good right? if not, memorize them that good.) Something else that I wasn't quite expecting on my mission is the relevance of using scripture mastery in teaching the gospel. I now understand how to actually use those scriptures in sharing gospel while in seminary it couldn't quite connect the dots on how it would help myself or others grow.

Unfortunately, two of our most solid people we were teaching, as a surprise to us, dropped us. Our first encounter with one of the investigator's mothers didn't ever want to see us again at her house and gave no reason why; the other one missed his appointment and texted us a day later that he doesn't want to change, again without a reason, this being done after they both already had a testimony of the things that we said were true. It doesn't make sense to me. Why would anybody leave the tree of life after having tasted of the fruit? Both were over excited to learn more the couple lessons we had with them, then it's like they jumped off a cliff. It's saddening sometimes.

Since General Conference, I have used the talks that they gave in teaching a lot. How convenient for an apostle to teach about the Law of Chastity with such eloquence. How blessed are we to be able to learn about Obedience from a current Prophet, or the principal of faith from another apostle, or the importance of the family from servant of God. The prophets in the scriptures are great, they do great things, the current prophets give so much more direct and situational guidance. I am blessed to live in a dispensation where we have such things available to us.

Sincerely, 

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

Recommendations and New Area

First of all, to answer some questions, my GPS was within 3 days of being under warranty  so I was sent a new one, but I don't have it yet because it's wandering around somewhere in the mission as a lost package that I'm sure will show up sometime sooner or later. It's not the first time that happened, it's the second. I just received the book you sent me by Elder Bednar a week and a half ago, I haven't asked about being able to read it, but I'm pretty sure the answer is going to be "no," I'll find out tomorrow.

Secondly, I actually agree, I would say that the weather is worse over in California than it is here, except for the humidity, the once every couple years hurricane, the once every couple years snow, and the occasional tornadoes; none of which I have seen yet. However, when it does get cold, it's a different kind of "cold,"and it is very cold; last year there were only about 10 days worth of it though.

As far as the slacks/shoes/shirts/etc. I'm sure I'll be fine for the rest of my mission. The pants are still brand new except for a couple tears that was caused by the gears of my bike. I haven't used/opened a single new shirt I've been given from you, nor do I think I will, I even bought one for myself right before that that I don't think I'm going to use. One member did give me one shirt that I do use though. It seems that missionaries wear out their clothes fast, mine are hardly worn at all. My old suit is very sun bleached, I'm probably going to throw it away before my mission is over, so I bought another suit jacket from goodwill that is nearly the same color as one of the many pants I have and use that as a suit; I bought it for $5. I recommend that you don't send me any clothes, while other missionaries go through their clothing fast, mine don't wear that much at all. My shoes have been very good to me, they are worn in, but I'm pretty sure they will last great for the rest of my mission, they are still pretty much waterproof too, I just need to remember to polish them. If I receive anything at all, I could probably use 2 pairs of black socks, I think I have 7 pairs of black and two of brown which is plenty for the week, but I have two pairs of socks that are starting to get holes in them.

Oh, recommendation for Joshua: don't buy more than three dress pants for him, he'll probably wear his suit most of the time anyway, especially because it is a lot colder there than here, and we wear suits a lot. Also, I think that he'd like a nice bike too, it ought to last him for a lot of years if he takes care of it. The only hard part will be sending it home after his mission, some missionaries never want to ride a bike again and just pawn their bike off or donate it to the mission or give it to another missionary.

Tell Robert that he is already a missionary and will excel in the field when he's set apart as one. Monica too if she's going to choose to serve.

The area that the Orangeburg ward covers is exactly twice the size of the Salt Lake Valley. There are probably more stakes in the Salt Lake Valley than there are active members here in this area. We also cover another county that has a branch in it and we almost never go over there unless the senior missionaries in that branch find someone to teach, then they come and pick us up for that appointment because it's too far a drive for us to go with our limited miles.

I really like Orangeburg. If I was going to tour Orangeburg, this wouldn't be the place to go, because there is no documentable history that has gone on here in this area, but because I'm here for a different purpose, this is a great place to be.

The new thing the church was inspired with at www.lds.org/youth/learn (click "read" on "Teaching the gospel in the Savior's way") is almost without a doubt greatly inspired by the hand of Elder Bednar, because almost everything on that website I've read about includes some principal that he talked to us about. Once again, I didn't bring my journal, sorry for that, it just might not ever happen now... just kidding, I'll bring it next week.

I know that the church is true, and so do you from your scripture reference at the bottom of your email. (I'm going to get cocky for a moment here:) When I was reading your email, after I read the "Holy Ghost with the tongue of angels" and before I read the reference given" (2 Nephi 31-32) in your email, I was already thinking about the specific scriptures in those two chapters that expound about it.

My time is far spent, sorry I didn't say much today. I can never remember the things I want to say when I'm actually at the library.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

It's that time of week again

I am glad I have this opportunity to write to you today! I enjoyed Elder Holland's fireside (I watched it on lds.org during mormon.org time =-) I get an hour a week if you remember). You are right, it was a good one.

It is amazing how much more I get out of the scriptures as a missionary. It is lots of fun to discover new things and to remember old things that I remember being taught in our family scripture study when I was younger. Lately I have been studying up with a lot of the teachings of Jesus Christ. He sure did put up with a lot of the (all of the) trials that I've seen in people's life to an extent unimaginable with such charity behind every gesture of his in reply. Surely the Lord Saith that we are given the opportunity to progress to the extent that we are able to deal with every single trial. I can't wait for that day. It's reminds me of some of the times I wished I could go back in time to do-over the things I've done before with the wisdom and knowledge that I've attained since then. It's just not going to happen. Thankfully we have a God who's every effort is in the salvation of our souls. He has divinely planned out how I can go about repenting in the most progressive manner in which I may live worth of the highest blessings available to us, Eternal Life, to live the kind of life that God lives and enjoy those blessings with my family.

I have eaten out more this past week than I ever intend to do so again (about 5 times). Elder McGuire would eat out every meal if he could. I for one do not have that kind of financial abundance, and for two, don't even like to go out to eat; thus it's not going to happen much more I hope.

We have some super awesome investigators (still). All they need to do is take that leap of faith to get baptized. It ought to happen soon. Not much is keeping them back from doing so besides some of their families (which is "much" is do understand; they'll just have to gain a stronger testimony so they'll get baptized).

Thank you for all you do with the newsletters. I realize it's a lot of work, but I really appreciate it and I know everyone else does too. I'm always looking forward to hearing about our ward and my missionary friends through your newsletter.

Los Amos!

Your son loves being a missionary, if I knew how good it was, I would have pulled some strings and done it earlier.

Elder Benjamin Ray Walker

What?! You've never head of the Book of Mormon?!

It is sad to hear things like families fighting and deaths occuring. A lot of the time the best thing you can do is listen. Being on my mission many many people have told me the problems of their lives. Deaths/physical fights/family disowning new member/ losing jobs as a result of being a member/finance issues/etc. As you said, it's the Atonement that brings spiritual (and physical) healing to these things. One of the reasons we become a member of the church is so that we can be part of this world-wide and heavenly family that all cares for each other and as Mosiah 18 says, mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that stand in need of comfort.


I am learning more and more every day how to be more bold. I have recently recognized in part how effective it is to express enthusiasm with the people I meet about the gospel... Our mission president has started a program with our missionaries called, "The Big Lift." There are a select number of missionaries that travel thoughout the mission to visit all of the missionaries eventually and go on 24 hour trios with them. These missionaries are to be super enthusiastic and very bold and are to extend commitments and promises all of the time. Well, Elder Martin went with Elder Peterson and I last Tuesday/Wednesday and there were several things that he did that I saw the after effects of that were awesome but I only wanted to mention 1 or 2 of them right now:

So this one guy we talked to named "Dasman" we knocked on his door and we had a bad first impression of him (didn't look interested at all).
Elder Martin asked him is he had ever heard of the Book of Mormon before.
He said no.
Elder Martin's reaction was done with great body language too: "What?!? You've never heard of the Book of Mormon before?!? THIS BOOK HAS CHANGED MY LIFE! [then he talked about it a little bit]. Dasman, have you ever been Baptized before?"
Dasman: "Yep".
Elder Martin: "Now, have you ever been baptized with the Priesthood authority of God?"
Dasman: [Thinking for a minute]"No". (I didn't expect people to know that they were baptized without authority... surprised me: everybody he asked said, "no". It's the way he said it though. Not the question itself.)

You get the idea... but this guy we did not think had much potential to progress right now in his life. but we made a follow up appointment with him last Saturday, this is how it went:

We get to his apartment and some other guy answers the door (didn't live there probably), "What you want?"
Us: "We're looking for Dasman may we speak to him?"
I'm sure the thought crossed his mind to lie to us, we could see it on his face...:"you just wait here a minute."
He walked into the other room then you hear Dasman tell him to let us in, "I told them they can come and talk to me. Tell them to come in."
We came in and Dasman was giving one of his black friends a hair cut. There was profane music being played around the house, they were throwing in swear words to each other every other sentence in their conversation, and his humongous tv was on and nobody was watching anything. (Second impression of him: really bad).
After he finished with his buddy's haircut we sat down on the couch and I invited the other two to join in our discusion after removing (turning [cutting] off) the distractions.
One of them (Richard) asked, "What are you talking about?"
I explained: "We're talking about the Book of Mormon, have you ever heard of it before?"
Richard said, "No."
I said "What?!? you've never heard of the Book of Mormon?"
Dasman said to Richard: "I know! can you believe we've never heard of this book before?"

Now the way Dasman said it was in knowledge that this was a very important book to read. Very important. You could hear it in his voice. Now he would not have had this great impression of how great the Book of Mormon is if we didn't show our enthusiasm for it from the beginning. Too many times we take this stuff for granted and, as missionaries, do not express the great message in such an important and urgent manner.
We had a marvelous restoration of the gospel lesson with them and they know that the Book of Mormon is true even though they haven't read it yet. They committed to read it. and would have come with us to church yesterday if their own didn't confilct (but will this upcoming Sunday probably).

(This is why I don't write in my journal very much. These things happen all of the time. You know how long it'd take to write this down? more time than I have)

New Year's Weekend

Elder Walker was able to Baptize someone over the weekend! What a great way to begin the New Year. It sounds like the work is going pretty well for him:

An investigator was baptized by me Saturday the 31st of Dec. Sunday he received the Holy Ghost by a member, and before church on Sunday he was interviewed to receive the Aaronic priesthood and received it in priesthood meeting. During priesthood he realized that he didn't have a home teacher or a family for him to visit and approached the elder's quorum president on his own to get an assignment. It was pretty funny to watch. Something else with the new member is that in priesthood they mentioned that if you can't get your home teacher companion to go with you to do your home teaching, you are welcome to call the missionaries and they would love to go with you, especially if the home teachees are less-active. He heard this and told us he wanted to go out and teach people with us when we have a opportunity to bring him. He's going out with us tomorrow to see some of his acquaintances (I'm not sure if they are friends) that we ran into a couple weeks ago that know him already.

This past week we invited a great number of people to church. everybody. and nobody I expected to some did, but we did have two other people come. There was a person that we met as a street contact that we had given the church address to that I didn't recognize but could tell she was lost that came. There was also an eternigator [people who have investigated much past the recommended time before baptism] that came to church. He has a Book of Mormon that is signed by the last 8 or so (or more) companionships of the missionaries and he only came because he told us a couple of months ago that he would come eventually.

I went on another exchange with the zone leaders. This time I went to North Charleston for the day. We met some pretty cool people there.

Members are great! We just had two members that moved into the ward and they both approached us and gave us their info (# and address) and told us that they would help any time they could.

In another letter he wrote home, he wrote his testimony for his friends and family and strangers:

I know that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Savior of the world. I know that it is only because of the sacrifice that both God (mentioned in John 3:16) and Christ (mentioned in John 15:13) have made on our behalf that we may obtain God's greatest gift to us, Eternal Life (found in D&C 14:7 and Romans 6:23). I know that it is through obedience in which we are blessed (D&C 130:21). I know that I am on the Lord's errand (D&C 64:29) out here on a mission. I have seen miracles and I know that they came as a result of the faith of the individuals in which were blessed. I know Christ has set the perfect example for us to follow, and that I should do all I can to emulate Christ ever day of my life. I know that answers are found through the scriptures and this is part of why I study them every day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Lastly, I mentioned in the last blogpost that Elder Walker was able to skype us. Here is a snippet of his chat with our family:

December so far

Elder Walker with his cousins Elder Austin Bean and Elder Scott Laughlin at the MTC

I'm sorry about the delay in the update about Elder Walker. It's been pretty busy around the house.

He has informed us that currently has a new favorite scripture, 2 Nephi 18:30:

For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have.

He told us about how the mission work is going in that part of the world:

We have an investigator that we found a couple of weeks ago knocking doors. He's the first investigator that has come to church with us (he came yesterday) besides the the family that have been baptized. He had problems with all of the word of wisdom and was/is addicted to smoking. He has one kid that is currently in custody (being accused of something that he didn't do as far as I know) that is one year old (has been in custody for 9 or so months). He's waiting to get lawyers to fight for his side. He doesn't have a job and has one more kid on the way...

Now, knowing all this (that he has gone through hard times in his life), he committed to keep the word of wisdom, he has relapsed once, but has keep it since even when some random person walked up to him and handed him a pack of cigarrettes. (Literally, a random person gave him cigarettes.) He ended up leaving the cigarettes on the ground. He comitted to keeping the law of chastity and we impressed upon him the importance of being married (using 1 Corinthians 6 & 7) or separated. He'll get married in April, but has decided that he will stay with a cousin until he is. He reads the Book of Mormon on his own and understands the story line very well even though he can't read very well. (I'm sure God has something to do about that.) When he came to church with us yesterday the ward did a fabulous job in welcoming him and he told us later that everybody was very friendly. He even commented in a couple of the classes (sunday school/gospel principals and priesthood).

Something funny... his roommates (1 girlfriend and 2 identicle twin sisters) texted him to ask us in the middle of our lesson if we were single.

He's also finally informed us on the name of his companion, Elder Winger. He was originally in one of the Georgia missions before it was disolved. The other two elders in his apartment are Elder Memmott and Elder Hancock. A quick story about him and life in his apartment.

I bought Cholula sause for our apartment. A couple of weeks ago I bought Cholula sause and I showed them how much I like it several times... Elder Memmott (4 elders in my apt remember?) pored it out in a cup for me to drink (about half a cup) and I did. What a waste of Cholula sause though ... easy peasy it didn't effect me at all. Yes, it was a complete waste of Cholula sause, and I won't do it again because the whole things costs about 5 dollars and it doesn't have very much to start with (and yes, we've been out for two weeks now).

The sign Elder Walker saw and drew for us.

Also, while he has been out and about in South Carolina he came across a sign another church had in their yard. He didn't inform us of the name of said church, but the sign read "Don't pray about the Book of Mormon! That's how they get you!" We've had quite the laugh over that.

He had also written his almost 12 year old brother Robert a song. It's a song that we've called Robert's for a long time, but because line 3 is different then it normal is for our family, this means he made it up. While reading imagine the melody to "O Christmas Tree":

Oh Robert James, Oh Robert James,
I truly! truly! love you!
O wobert James, O wobert James!
I truly truly do. 

I love you in the morning,
I love you in the evening,
Oh Robert James, Oh Robert James
I truly, truly, love you!

He seems to be doing well! He wants to thank those that have written to him, and he tries to get back to each of you, but sometimes it takes him awhile. But he thanks you each.