Week 33: A lot of lessons and a brown sugar miracle

Hola hola hola!!

On Tuesday the Manwarings brought us food at district meeting! They made blueberry muffins and this Mac and cheese thing and it was glorious. I think this was the longest time I'd gone in my life without eating Mac and cheese.

This week we wanted to make cookies and so when we went back to our piso at night we were going to make them and take them to some members and investigators, but during the day we realized that we didn't have any brown sugar which we needed for the recipe. And we weren't going to walk 20 minutes both ways to go to Mercadona and buy some, so we decided we were going to just check in the mini-grocery store that's right below our piso to see if they had brown sugar. But the thing is, this is like a REALLY mini grocery store so we were like 90% sure that it wouldn't have brown sugar. Well we went into the grocery store and I'm pretty sure I've never seen brown sugar there before, but we looked by the normal sugar and there was one little bag of brown sugar sitting there on the shelf all by itself, just the amount we needed. And those cookies ended up being really good, because we got to visit a few people who normally aren't as interested in talking to us because we had an excuse to visit them! So I guess we were really supposed to make those cookies.

We have found a few new people to teach this week! Almost 9 weeks of being here in Puerto and talking to a lot of people on the street and knocking on a lot of doors has finally started leading us to more people, which is a good feeling. It has been a really good week, and we have taught a lot of lessons (it always is nice to just teach the "normal" lessons) to people and given out some Book of Mormons to people who really seem interested in reading it. We're excited to hear what they think of it and hopefully will get to meet with most of them again this week.

Andres is still a funny 82-year-old and we are still working with him. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and telling us what's going on in it and so that's really fun.

On Saturday we had what was probably the best lesson of my entire mission with Jazmín! We asked her if she had read anything from the Book of Mormon... yeah, a little. How much? 40 pages! Go Jazmin! And she has a testimony that it's true and wants to get baptized! She is someone who the Lord really has prepared for this gospel and it is super awesome. She came to church yesterday and we are going to meet with her again this week. She was so cute, on Sunday morning she sent us a picture of the dress that she was going to wear to church to see if it was okay to wear haha.

On Saturday night we played fútbol again, and I think we are all in agreement that we are (VERY slowly, but regardless steadily) getting less-awful at fútbol. We played us 4 hermanas against the 3 boys who came. One is like 13, one is 16, and one is 19 but has a broken arm. We were actually pretty evenly matched teams haha.

This morning I read Jacob chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon and it was AWESOME. If you don't know what Jacob chapter 5 is, it's just a chapter in the Book of Mormon that has a reputation for being a little... hard to understand. Lots of symbolism and things that don't exactly make it light reading. Well I read Jacob chapter 5 today and I LOVED it. I've been reading some chapters in the Book of Mormon with the help of the Book of Mormon institute study manual (it's in the lds library app) and that helped a lot. I would definitely encourage you to go back and read it if you've kind of skipped over it in the past. I was reading in Jacob 4 yesterday where Jacob says, "I cannot write but a little of my words, because of the difficulty of engraving our words upon plates... and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts." The Book of Mormon was written over a period of about 1000 years by various prophets in the ancient America's and they engraved it on metal plates. It took them a LONG time to write this record down, and every word in this book is valuable (if it wasn't, they wouldn't have bothered to write it down!), so I am trying to really appreciate it (all of it!) and have been able to understand and learn so much from it and invite you all to do the same!

Love,

Hermana Walker

Christmas caroling picture Holly just sent me. It looks like fun!

 Holly's teaching her companion how to play the piano.  They have this keyboard in their apartment.

Holly posing with some cool artwork in her area.

Week 32: Bienvenidos al siglo 21 (Welcome to the 21st century)

Hola hola hola!!

This week we got to visit a recent convert in our ward named Manuel! (he's the one who gives us weird foods and hats). He showed us this planner he has, where instead of writing "do the laundry" and boring things like that, he writes down when he prays and how many pages of the scriptures he reads! He is awesome! 

On Tuesday we got this random phone call from an elder at the London visitors' center, it was a reference for someone who lives in Puerto (actually, she lives in the other hermanas' area and they're teaching her now). I think that was the first and probably the last time I'll get a phone call from London.

On Wednesday we dove into the swimming pool that is the 21st century (I miss swimming) with an 8-hour long conference on technology, where we got our very own SMARTPHONE! It's an Android and is equipped with all sorts of things, including FACEBOOK and (more importantly) WHATSAPP! No one here in Spain uses normal texting, everyone uses this app called WhatsApp. They don't often answer their phone and normally can't recieve normal texts either. You can imagine that this made it kinda difficult with our nice 12-button phone before. Well, we finally have this app too! We have used it to get in contact with several investigators and members and are really excited to use it to get in contact with even more people. We have Facebook too, like I said, but I don't think we'll be using that nearly as much as WhatsApp. Also at the conference, all four of us Walkers in the mission (still don't know if any of us are related) were together since we're all in the same zone, so we took a family photo.

On Thursday we met with Andres, our favorite 82-year-old investigator! He's a character, but he's great. He's been writing down where he is reading in the Book of Mormon too, since we always ask him. 

On Thursday afternoon we got to meet with a member who we didn't really know, named Loli! She was baptized a few years ago (like Hermana Moncayo!) and we had a good lesson with her, getting to know her and things. She also asked us some really good questions, like what she's supposed to do now that she's finished the Book of Mormon--read it again? (hint: the answer is YES) She told us we should come visit her more often.

Thursday night we had English class and then noche de hogar! Hermana Pinkney's birthday was on Friday so we had a little birthday party for her there, it was fun! The English class crew is definitely a funny little group...

 

On Friday we went to Rota. It's mostly a touristy town, and since it was January 19th there weren't a whole lot of people there. We were knocking doors on one street and everyone kept talking to us through their timbre (doorbell... but with a speaker? Intercom? No sé) and telling us to leave them alone, our companions had JUST come by! We were very confused. We are the only missionaries assigned to Rota! After being told this about 5 times, one lady finally pulled out the pamphlet she had just gotten from these other missionaries. Not our pamphlet! It was from the testigos. That was kind of funny. Different church! Also, on Friday we got a phone call from a Mexican (hermana Moncayo says the accent was a Mexican accent) in Kentucky, which was another reference (again, for someone in the other hermanas' area). I think that might also be the first and last time I get a phone call from Kentucky, unless I move to Kentucky someday.

Saturday we finally got to have another lesson with Jazmin! She only had a half hour to meet but we did get to teach her the first part of the plan of Salvation, and the lesson went really well. She was one of the people who we were able to get in contact with through WhatsApp this week! Hermana Moncayo liked finally meeting an investigator who's not 82, lives in our city, and has two fully-functioning kidneys. Jazmin told us she was going to come to church on Sunday, but then we messaged her before church and she told us she had been asleep, so she didn't come. Next week!

But on Sunday someone who DID come was this 17-year old, Joselito, who hasn't come to church since I've been there! His whole family is members but none of them have come for a long time. We told Joselito we were going to pick him up on Sunday morning, because he always tells us he'll come and he never does, and we did go to pick him up but we sent him messages and called him and he wasn't responding so we had to leave to go to church. Then we're sitting in the American branch and in comes Joselito, white shirt and tie and all! I guess he felt bad that we went to pick him up. He stayed for Spanish ward too. Go Joselito!

Today we went on a hunt to find the post office. We searched for the post office in our GPS and two came up, but one was closer to mercadona so we decided to go to that one. Mistake--turns out it was just leading us to this plain, old, ordinary mailbox of disappointment sitting on the corner. It's fine, we're not upset. WHY that was in the map as a post office, we do not know. Then we went to the other post office, which luckily DID turn out to be a post office.

This week at the zone conference where we got our phones, we watched some training videos about not getting distracted on them and only using them to fulfill our purpose as missionaries here in Spain. One thing that someone said (I don't remember if it was in a video or not) was that mobile devices are a tool. They help us stay in contact with people, maybe take a picture every once in a while. So you take it out when you need it, use it, and then you need to put it away! I know that before coming on a mission I definitely used my phone too much. I think we all use our phones too much. And when the person speaking talked about taking a tool out of a toolbox to use, using it, then putting it back in the toolbox, for some reason I got this really funny visual in my head of someone taking a hammer out of a toolbox to, I don't know, hit a nail into the wall. And then, when the nail was hit into the wall (or if we're getting symbolic here, when the text was sent) this person kept the hammer out of the toolbox and started hitting other things around the house, just because they already had the hammer out. Maybe they hit a wall, or a table, or a cup (aka, they decided that as long as their phone was out they might as well skim through facebook... or go on the discover page (does that exist?) of Instagram just to see what's on there). I don't know, but to me it seems kind of pointless to use the tool that way. Not that Facebook is bad or anything--I've got it on my tablet now. But I would like to invite you to try to avoid getting distracted on your phone this week. After you send that text or whatever you're doing, put the tool  back in the tool box and do something worthwhile! I am really grateful that we get to use technology in this mission so that I can develop habits here that will help me after the mission too.  I took a picture with all the other Walkers in the mission since we are all the same zone.  There is one Elder Walker and 3 Hermana Walkers.

Also, this week we got a new president of the church! The church today is led by a prophet, his two counselors, and a quorum of 12 apostles, who are all led by God and called of Him too. The way that a new prophet is decided is super simple--the person in the quorum of 12 apostles with the most seniority is the new prophet. I am so grateful to be led by so many people who are called of God and led by inspiration from Him to direct His church and I know that they really ARE prophets for us in our day! God hasn't left us alone--He loves us just as much as He did the people in biblical times, so He also speaks to us today through living prophets (AND personal revelation, AND the scriptures!). I am so grateful for this amazing blessing!

Love, Hermana Walker

Week 31: Pachangas

 Hola hola hola!! 

On Monday night I left mi querida compañera hermana matsu and hopped on a train to Sevilla, where I stayed the night with some Hermanas there. Then on Tuesday morning we went the rest of the way to Málaga. It was super weird to get to the train station there because I'd spent so much time in Vialia during my first three transfers! We went to the mission office for a meeting with all the trainers, then went to the mission home to meet our new companions! We had to hide out for a while on this patio area below the house while the office elders shuttled everyone from the office to the mission home, then we went into President Andersen's office and had a meeting with him, and then we finally got to meet our new companions! My companion is named Hermana Moncayo. She's from Ecuador but has lived in Madrid for the past 10 years. She's 21 and a convert to the church of 3 years and she is AWESOME! She loved going out and teaching with the missionaries in Madrid, so she already knows how to teach lessons. Actually, she started teaching lessons before she was even baptized because she had to wait until she was 18 to get baptized and the missionaries had run out of things to teach her so she started teaching them! I AM NOT EVEN TRAINING HER! And she has such a strong testimony and is such a sweet, loving person. Plus her accent is easy to understand (and she tells me the accent here is hard for even HER to understand, so that makes me feel better about still not understanding the people here sometimes haha). Anyway, basically she is the cutest person and I'm so excited to be with her for a while! She speaks a little English and understands a lot, but we always speak spanish.

On Tuesday night we spent the night at the mission home with the 10 other new hermanas and their companions! It was really fun. I didn't get to go to the mission home when I came into the mission, so it was fun to finally get to see it. It's beautiful!

On Wednesday afternoon we headed to Puerto. It was a long train ride, but it was a good chance to get to know each other better and also sleep a little haha.

On Thursday we did weekly planning, then taught our investigator Isabel! Her piso is normally super loud and crazy so it's hard to have a spiritual lesson, but we walked in and it was so quiet we could hear the clock ticking. Milagros! We had a really good lesson with her. Her husband is still recovering from his kidney surgery, but when he's better she is really hoping she can get baptized. We will see how things go with her!

On Friday we got to teach Andrés. He is so funny and so old. But he loves reading the Book of Mormon and takes his prayers so seriously that he actually writes out what he wants to say beforehand, just so he doesn't forget anything. It's like a little letter to Heavenly Father, it's super cute. On Friday night we were able to watch President Monson's funeral. I loved the talk that his daughter gave, about how he was always just trying to serve others and be loving to everyone. Although we in no way worship the prophets of the church, we do look up to them as really great role models and I hope that I can develop that same love for others that President Monson had.

Saturday was a day of finding. We knocked a lot of doors and talked to a few people who would be interested in having us come over another day. We also went to eat with brother and sister Fry, which was fun. Sister Fry speaks Spanish okay and Brother Fry really doesn't speak at all, but between my Spanish and English, Sister Fry's Spanish and Hermana Moncayo's English, we actually had a really fun time! We ate tacos. Then that afternoon we went to visit a less-active member! She was super friendly and a little upset that the missionaries hadn't visited her in so long, but she really wants us to come back again so we will! Then on Saturday night we played fútbol as usual, except it started to rain (actually it was raining off and on all day) so we had to cut it short.

Sunday we basically were in the church all day--that happens when you go to two sacrament meetings, then an hour of Sunday School, an hour of primary (they needed music people), and then a couple hours of meetings with ward leaders and the bishop. Sometimes it's a little annoying to have to be in so many meetings, but everything works better when we're all coordinated so I understand why we have them.

Another thing about Hermana Moncayo, would you believe me if I told you that not only one, but now TWO of my companions love to cook and want to be chefs? I WIN THE COMPANION GAME! We will be eating well this transfer.

This has been a week of lots of change and this coming week will be too because on Wednesday we are getting SMARTPHONES! We are also going to get Facebook, messenger, and WhatsApp. It's always a little scary to go through changes but overall we're excited. On Facebook we will be using it to communicate with people here in Spain and not so much as a way to talk with family and friends, so if you send me a message or comment on something and I don't respond, don't feel bad. I still like you and will respond in like 11 months haha. I think we all have kind of mixed feelings about the technology, but one thing that's really cool is that the missionaries in the Madrid mission, where Hermana Moncayo is from, have had these things for 5 or 6 months now. And so she's seen how missionaries can use technology to help in the work and how good it is! 

My Spanish is weird. In high school we learned more Mexican-type Spanish, then I came to Spain and learned Spain Spanish, but then with Hermana Encarnación I started learning Dominican Spanish and now I'm with an Ecuatorian so that's just another flavor added to the Spanish cake. I learned the word pachanga this week, which is fiesta (party) but way more fun to say! You can also turn it into a verb. It's definitely the word of the week, and hermana Moncayo and I will be pachangando all transfer! 

Hope you all have a good week!

Love, Hermana Walker

Week 30: Everyone got hoverboards

Hola hola hola! 

Today we are in Cádiz with a member from the American branch (which is SUPER nice of her! I will have pictures next week) and so this email might be a little crazy because we don't have much time and I'm heading out to Sevilla TONIGHT en route to Málaga (I get there tomorrow) so packing my little bag and cleaning and packing Hermana matsu's life into two suitcases is just making for a crazy day. 

Here are some pictures from Cadiz.  We went up to the top the cathedral bell tower.  The view was amazing.

Anyway. Monday we started out the new year with some super super ugly hats from Manuel. They're like these sequined  fedoras that actually light up and blink!! And he told us we need to wear them tilted to the side. 

 Tuesday we tried to toc a street in our map that turned out to be an empty street in the middle of nowhere... Oops. Then we met with a less active family in our ward. The daughter (she's like our age, her name is Maika) told us she has a friend who has been asking about the church! She invited her over, we talked to her for a few minutes, and we set a cita for the next day. 

On Wednesday we went to teach Andrés the word of wisdom because he's ready had all the lessons but we were pretty sure he drank coffee. Turns out he doesn't, and he drinks alcohol free beer! Win for Andrés! Then we ate roscón, a traditional dessert for dia de los reyes (the 6th). I found the hidden bean, which normally means I would have to buy the roscón next year, but I won't be here next year, SO... sorry Andrés! That afternoon we had the cita with Maika and her friend (Jazmín). It went really well!! 

On Thursday we did weekly planning. Hermana Matsu set personal goals like "hug my mom" and "go to the temple" haha. We met a man from North Carolina knocking doors who lectured us for like 15 minutes on some weird religious conspiracy theory--it actually made less sense than most conversations we have with people, even though it was in English. Thursday night we had English class! A less active member came which was good, and she brought arroz con leche which was GREAT! 

We had run out of butano again but on Friday we got more! Hot water, YAY! We went to Rota, our pueblo, on Friday. It was very windy. We taught a lesson to a future investigator, Gabriel, and an investigator I hadn't met yet, Paula. She had a REALLY cute baby. 

On Saturday was día de los reyes, which is basically the presents day of Spanish Christmas time.

No one was out in the morning, but we cleaned the church so it was still good. In the afternoon everyone was out on their new hover boards... We are pretty sure every Spanish child got a hover board. It was crazy. I thought those were popular like two years ago...? Pero bueno. That was kinda funny. We probably saw like 40 people with hover boards in the streets! Also on Saturday, President Andersen called to let me know my next companion will be brand new from the MTC!So I'll find out who she is and meet her at the mission home on Tuesday, we'll stay overnight, then come back to Puerto on Wednesday. I'll tell you more about her next week! 

On Sunday we went to church as per usual, then did some studies, then taught a lesson to a future investigator who randomly called us and wanted to meet! We met him in a park and taught him about the restoration, and he said he wants to read the Book of Mormon! Hopefully we can meet with him again this week. 

I have been reading in Matthew this week and have been so impressed by the love that Jesus shows to everyone. Even when he is having a difficult day, he never stops serving and loving the people. I am trying to love the people here more every day and would like to encourage you to pray for charity, the pure love of Christ this week! The two most important commandments really are to love God and love others! 

Love, hermana Walker 

Week 29: Bienvenidos 2018

Hola hola hola!!

We finished our Christmas day last Monday eating with some members. The food we ate was AMAZING--turkey AND ham, if you can believe it. And they gave us more American breakfast cereal. We're loaded. It did take an hour to walk to their house and an hour to walk back afterwards, BUT it was worth it!

A picture from the Skype call with my family

Our delicious Christmas dinner.

On Tuesday we had district meeting. Afterwards we made "Christmas smoothies." Word to the wise: Christmas smoothies are a bad idea. The freezing-coldness of smoothies at the end of December just isn't super fun.

On Tuesday night we visited Isabel again. Her husband is still recovering from his surgery but he is doing well.

On Wednesday Hermana Matsu woke up with either a really bad cold or the flu-- we're still not sure which it was. Anyway, we had to stay in all day Wednesday because she was pretty dead. So while she slept I cleaned the piso, read the scriptures, read the book "Our Search for Happiness" (would definitely recommend), and we called a bunch of people. Sometimes as missionaries we kind of wish we could have a break, but I have to say that after Wednesday, I prefer working and having things to do than staying inside all day.

Thursday we did mostly inside things, like weekly planning and then English class and noche de hogar at night. We didn't want to be out in the cold for long, because we wanted hermana Matsu to get better fast so she could have a good last couple weeks of her mission! On Friday morning we had a meeting with bishop, then visited Manuel B. He gave us more weird food, including an old thing of lettuce. He also gave us these chocolate truffle things that are way too addicting.

Also on Friday, I dropped one of our glass plates on my toe. Broke the plate, and bruised my toe. So now I'm walking around on January 1st with sandals because closed-toe shoes hurt my toe. Fun times. I feel kind of ridiculous walking around in sweaters and jackets and sandals. I'm just glad it's not super cold this week!

We went and knocked doors on Saturday morning. Normally Saturday mornings are pretty slow, but we actually found several people who were interested in having us come back another day! So that was great. Then in the afternoon we went to fill the baptismal font for the baptism of a little girl that night. She's the granddaughter of a couple in our ward and she's living in Alemania with her family but a lot of her family lives here so they wanted her to get baptized here. One weird thing, turns out the bishop of my ward in Málaga is her uncle (I think?) so him and his family were at the baptism! It was fun/weird to see them in Puerto. 

On Sunday we had church like normal, then went back to our piso to do some studies and then we went over to a member family's house to eat. It was really fun and afterwards we played a couple games with their kids.

We had permission last night to stay up until midnight, so we did the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of the night (don't ask) and then watched some very underwhelming fireworks in the distance out the window of our piso. Not the most exciting new year, but it was still fun haha.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week (and started it again), and I decided that I really just love the Book of Mormon so much. The last prophet to write in the Book of Mormon is named Moroni, and he gives us what is the most amazing promise ever. He promises that if we read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, we can know for ourselves that it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

"And when ye shall receive these things (these things=the Book of Mormon), I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

We aren't going to explain why our church's interpretation of xyz is correct, and we won't pull out books on Ancient America to prove that the Book of Mormon is historically accurate. As missionaries, we invite others to know for themselves, by asking God, if what we are teaching is true. I have done this, and I know for myself, and I am so grateful for it! And I promise that if you will read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true, you can know, too! Hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Walker

Here are some pictures from the mission Christmas Party that were recently posted on the Malaga mission blog.