May 30, 2016 - 3rd Times The Charm?

                                                 Birthday Celebration With Sister Estela

                                             Best Gift Ever - A Baptism On Her Birthday!

So transfers are in! In short, our area here will be closed now until the members learn how to better care about missionary work. Sister Estela is going to Maceio and I am going BACK to the first zone I stayed in for 8 months in Sergipe! I’m going to Lagarto now instead of Itabaiana or Estancia. And I’ll be companions with.... drum roll please.... Sister Barbosa!! hahahaha I couldn’t stop laughing when I found out. Either we work really well together or we are the problematic sisters no one wants to be with... haha. But seems like most of the mission is getting transferred back to Sergipe now... weird. 

New pants news since everyone seems to be super interested: yes we can use pants! No its not a rule right now, only if all of us start getting dengue then it’ll change. We can also use dark sunglasses and sun hats woop woop! Pull out my floppy beach hat from the back of the closet, all bent and crumpled. 

I’m sad to leave Sister Estela because I found a real true friend with her, someone who just serves and serves and doesn’t look for anything in reward. She’s a lot of things I always wanted to be; brave, courageous, strong, sure of herself. But she’s planning on meeting me at the airport on my connecting flight to Sao Paulo in December so it’ll be okay :)

This week was one where I learned a lot about the Lords plan for us and how we have to trust in that plan even when we don’t understand why. The other brother of Marias family got baptized this week on my bday (Holla). Sad to say there were 0 members there. But I have learned so much with that family, they will always hold a special place in my heart- they were the only ones who knew it was my birthday, but they don’t have any money or any furniture, or anything really. But as we were going to the baptism, Maria was carrying a little red sack and she told me she had found a little money and went to the store to get me a present and she handed me the sack with a bright red belt inside of it. I had to bite my tongue not to cry. A family that didn’t even have anything to eat that day, who has 3 pairs of clothes, who sleep on foam mattresses, had pooled their money to get me a gift for my birthday. Marias belt is a story I’ll never forget. 

Arapiraca was a place I learned a lot of things, I’m sad the members will have to be punished now for our many cries for help and attempts at changing their perspective on missionary work. Now we´ll be known as the sisters who closed down their ward- but I was feeling so heavy in the work here, I didn’t realize it was the spirit telling me that the Lord wasn’t going to permit any more work to be done and then wasted at the hands of the members. He really does know what He’s doing. 

Well I’m off to Sergipe tomorrow 5am! I love you guys! Thank you for the birthday wishes! 20 years young wooohoo!!

Sister Walker

May 23, 2016 - PANTS

                                                  Baptism of Maria (18) and Anderson (15 )

                                                Preparing For 'Game Night' Ward Activity

Let me just give a public service announcement since my mother thinks I am breaking one of the 10 commandments LYING to her, my leg rash has been cured! Through the marvels of modern medicine it is all gone. Pics to prove will follow if I remember...

So this week was a whirlwind! We finally got a bone thrown to us from the members and our LMA helped us plan the ward activity game night which was super great. It was supposed to be an event to invite your friends and integrate new members but unfortunately the members forgot about that part. Next time. But they had ´´guess the music´´ and races holding a broom on your palm and I remembered in my past life how I used to be really competitive... 

In other news I’m sure everyone is freaking out about the new rule that sisters have to use, yes, the dreaded, work pants for proselyting. So I’m in Maceio right now to renew my passport and tomorrow we have a meeting here with all the sisters in the mission to find out what the regulations will be exactly for sisters here. I’m gonna look like the biggest loser wearing work pants walking around when no one here even wears shoes on the street. 

But this week was great because we got to finally have the baptisms of our investigators, a great family of siblings, Maria and Anderson. We´re teaching their other brother too but he got scared on the day of the baptism and bailed... but they are a wonderful and simple family who have taught me a lot about just how spoiled we are in the states. It’s just a little sad to me when we work so hard for these baptisms and then 3 members show up and 1 is the bishop... 

In other news yesterday at lunch with a family somehow it got let out that in my house we have a garbage disposal, a dryer and washer, and a dish washer. The women were so surprised they asked ´what does your mom even do all day?? Americans are so lazy...´´ hahah. But hey to me it was smart to invent something to not have to do the work! Am I right? 

But this week I’ve been thinking about how truly humbled I’ve been forced to become, how you realize how little the material things matter. How if you aren’t well spiritually, if you don’t have  purpose and love in your life, you could be a billionaire but still wouldn’t be truly happy. Is it possible that I got more hippy tendencies here on my mission? I just love my mission. And I love you guys! Have a great week, maybe I’ll have pics of eggs and flour dumped on my head after my bday this week! Fingers crossed! 

Sister Walker

May 16, 2016 - Good Life Experiences

                            Courtney and Sister Estela                              

 Just Came In From A Rainstorm

Hi Party People!                                                       

This week we finally had a semi normal week and got to work a lot in our area! We are working with the family members, nieces, nephews, aunts or strange neighbors of the members here because they aren’t super good at integrating anyone else. It was a great week of work but sad when Sunday morning comes and no one comes to church... it teaches you a lot about how your time really isn’t the Lords time, how you can do everything in your power but in the end have to be humble and realize that you’re just a small part of those peoples journey to come to know the truth. And maybe you won’t see the results immediately but one day those people will receive the ultimate gift of eternal life! 

 Our bishop here was released and a new one called. We went from short and serious Bishop Junior to big chubby and loud and joking Irmao Wilhames. It’s funny that the whole ward needs to trust in the callings of the lord, no matter who the person is or what they have done in the past- trusting enough in your testimony of the church that He wouldn’t call the wrong person. 

It’s fun that on a mission you really learn how to adapt- I learned a few fun things this week. Like sometimes your kitchen sink backs up and smells like baby barf and you have to clean out the food chunks while your companion stands in the corner dry heaving. Or sometimes a few chickens will run through the living room during a lesson and the baby on the floor will scare one of them and it’ll poop on the floor and scurry out and you just gotta keep it all together for the sake of the lesson. Or sometimes you’ll share your beef jerky your nice mom sent from the states for your bday with your companion and she´ll spit it on the floor because she’s never tasted something like that hahahah. This week was a lot of good life experiences. You learn that you can’t control everything in life, and you just gotta make the best of every situation and go with the flow. I love my mission! And I love you guys! Don’t forget to pray for someone that you can share the gospel with this week! The lord is counting on you!

Sister Walker

May 9, 2016 - Post Mother's Day Blues

                                                     Skyping Courtney on Mother's Day

Hi guys!

Happy late mother’s day! I never knew I would love mother’s day so much! It was so great to see you guys on skype, a lot easier emotionally than at Christmas but still I felt drained afterwards. But now I know I gotta work super hard these months so I’ll have lots of good stories to tell you guys! so weird to think I’ll be going home in only 8 months... that’s like no time!! I loved seeing everyone, even if you all made fun of my sad English language skills and how I have an Italian/Mexican..? (not sure how that is possible..) accent now.. I will be hooked on phonics when I get home. 

I don’t have really anything to say since I talked to you guys yesterday... haha but I just wanted to let you know I’m doing great even if I have a weird Brazilian rash on my leg that takes up half of my calf, and I love my mission! I love my family so much! Be nice and be safe! 

Sister Walker

May 2, 2016 - Feliz Dia Das Mães!!

Sister Barbosa, Sister Estela and Courtney

Hey everybody!! So I’m gonna keep this email short so we have lots of stuff to talk about on Sunday. Who’s excited please raise your hand!!! But seriously I am. I think I’ll try to be online about 6pm here so it’ll be 1 pm over there.. Is that correct? Hopefully the internet will be better than the last try... but your church is at 9 am, right? 

Anyways big b-day shoutout to our b-day girl JULIIIEEEE cuhs when you’re 16 and someone tells you they love you.... it’s probably Duddy.... remix. But I love Julia because she’s funny and eats cream puffs with me and watches netflix all rolled up in fuzzy blankets. And because she’s not afraid to wear her overalls and talks about political issues with me. We are the perfect couple <3 

This week I learned some info about packages; so you can’t put on the description exactly what’s in it or people will wanna snag it. You gotta be really vague on what’s inside like ´´office supplies´´ or ´´books´´ or something lame people won’t want. 

But anyways this week was hurried because we had yet another conference in Maceio for the leaders of the mission to talk about how the mission is baptizing more than the other month but this month needs to be even higher. Gee whiz! It’s funny I realized that my mission is really small compared to some others, it only has 154 missionaries so you pretty much know or have heard of everyone here. But we learned a lot about how to focus on the doctrine of baptism and how it will help everyone in whatever circumstance they’re in. It’s good to focus on something so common in religions, because everyone knows Jesus says you have to be baptized to enter the kingdom of god, but then comes in the question; how should we be baptized or what church should we be baptized in if they all claim to be the right way? So it’s perfect because it’s something simple but profound that our investigators usually get hooked on.

I also found out a girl serving here is from Forteleza and has met Melanie before! She said she went on splits with Melanie one time. I’ll try and remember the name of her ward. But this week we taught Mateus and his family again and they are slowly warming up to religion. But Mateus is way ahead of the game and when he prays in the lessons he stops everything, kneels down and starts talking with god, it is the most wonderful thing to see! In one of his prayers he said ´´please help all of the people out there using marijuana that they can be cured´´ hahaha. I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing most of the time. But he´ll be baptized soon enough ;) Anyways I’ll talk to you guys this Sunday!! Happy almost mother’s day! Love you so much!

Sister Walker

                                               

April 25, 2016 - Lord Of The Flies

                                                            Courtney's Previous Zone

Hey everyone! 

We had kind of a slow week this week with lots of random things happening that sometimes stopped us from being able to work, like my companion getting sick, or the secretaries calling us to say we had to move the next day to our new apartment and things like that. But hey we moved! I am an expert mover. My motto was like dad: ´´if we haven’t used it in the last 4 weeks, throw it out!´´ Sister Estela is more like mom: “but what if we´ll need it one time in the next few years...´´ haha. But our new apartment is actually in our own area and had a hot shower for one day but then broke... oh the wonders of mission. 

I’ve gotten frustrated with our tactics of meeting people just by talking to everyone on the street, it’s not very effective and you don’t meet people super interested. So we´re gearing our efforts to work with the members to teach their friends and family. It’s a slower process but you get better quality results. We met the sister of a man in our ward and her family, Sandra, Cisero and Mateus their 10 yr old son. And let me tell you that little kid is one spiritual guru. He had SO many questions for us about religion, like why Catholics have a certain prayer different than ours or why some people think Mary is a saint and some don’t and why there are so many churches. He told us ´´I worry myself sometimes so tell me this; when Jesus comes back, what’s it gonna be like? Sometimes Satan tempts me to do bad things but I usually don’t do bad things but sometimes I do...´´ lol! We´ll get to tell him the answers to all those questions this week!

The other funny thing working with members is that we´ll be talking to them about missionary work or walking around in a neighborhood and they ALL say ´´yeah there are a ton of less actives that live here! You guys should go visit them sometime!´´ and I just want to bean all of them on the head, because they all think it’s only the work of the sisters! I just think ´´you guys all know where they live, what their problem is, what their background is, and we´d have to search around to find out all of that when you guys could just go visit them on your own!´´ but hey we all have our own difficulties in life.

I think a lot about how my family being strong in the gospel, how I was born and raised in the truth, and knowledge that I have has influenced me. It is very very rare to have such a firm family where everyone is active in the church here in this area of Brasil. Very rare! I think of how much Heavenly Father has put every single little detail of my life in order so that I could make it to this point in my life and testimony, and be here sharing these truths that have changed my family’s life with other families.  I love my family so much! Thank you for being wonderful examples of diligence and faith to me! Talk to you soon!

Sister Walker

April 18, 2016 - Another One In Good Ole Arapiraca

                                                          Marcos Getting Baptized!!
                                                      With Courtney and Sister Estela

Sister Estela and I are staying together here in Arapiraca wooohooo!! Maybe this transfer will finally be a semi--normal one.... 

We had an AMAZING week, even though it was crazy when I was traveling to different cities to go on splits with other sisters. I also may or may not have gotten lost in Maceio for a few short hours because I got on the wrong bus. But as usual the Lord provides a way to help you out! 

But we had a great week because first of all, a friend of Wendel, our recent convert, has been coming to church and seminary for a few weeks and we´ve been teaching him. And he got baptized on Saturday!! It was so great. He’s 16 and a wonderful kid, very responsible and really dedicated to God. I asked him in one of our lessons why he wanted to be baptized, and he said ´´I want to be part of the kingdom of God here on earth´´. That was a pretty good answer for me! I’m really grateful for lessons like those that remind me why I came out here, to find people like him and clear up all of the blank spots that he had his whole life. 

We also are teaching an amazing 14 yr old girl named Laiza (i promise we´re not just teaching kids and baptizing them against their will). She reminds me a lot of Julia in how she is just friendly and inclusive. But she is sooo smart holy cow, she asked us when we taught the restoration who the 12 apostles were that Joseph Smith called when he reorganized the church... I was like yeah ill have to get back to you on that one... 

It’s also funny when you find out why your area got switched to sisters instead of elders when all the members talk about all the rule breaking they did... haha. They’ll say ´´how come you guys don’t hang out at our house?? Elder so and so were here every day for 3 hours!!´´ Or the women sometimes say ´´sister if you need to, you can use my phone to talk to your friends and family on facebook, the elders always needed to when they came here´´. So that goes to show you that the phrase ´´no one will ever find out´´ is sadly untrue! And I will be chatting with those elders soon enough...

But really I’m doing really good here, some of the fun elders will be transferred from my zone this transfer but I’m sure we´ll make it fun either way. I was studying this week about the talk that Syd sent me, and it talks about how we need to have faith and hope for good things to come. That when the scriptures talk about how we need to ´´be not afraid´´ or ´´be still´´, and how it is only someone who truly has passed through all of the darkness and sickness and pain and trouble that we feel that knows the right counsel to give us-to be hopeful! So that is my message for the week, that if we have the gospel, we always have reasons to be hopeful. And it is not despite but exactly because of our trials that we come to understand the grandness of the life of the savior and the power he promises for each one of us if we are willing to reach out our hand. How great is this gospel! I love being a missionary and I love you guys! Thank you for your wonderful examples and support! 

Sister Walker