Week 4

Hello all,

This week was a great one!! I learned a lot... A TON!! I really think now I am hitting my stride in the self sufficiancy(sp?) department. Poor Elder Berntson haha, he is such a good trainer!! He is a great missionary and taught me how to put my shoulder to the wheel haha. That's what we have done; WORKED. I have learned though that brute work can only get you so far. We can bike, teach, contact, knock, and speak all day, but if there isn't time to think and talk it over with the Spirit, we are just working to work. Really today, I learned a lot about the will of the Lord and the truly wonderful gift of agency. Every makes a decision to act or to be acted upon. As children of our Heavenly Father we are to be agents of action. That is why I am a missionary! And I love it!!!! To give people the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ in their lives and to act of the principles of the Gospel. The problem has been getting individuals to choose to act. We have been handing out invitations aplenty!! And people have been accepting!! And we're happy and go off to the next people. Unfortuately we have run into some opposition in them doing what they are committed to do. This has included baptism. We have a ton of baptismal dates and a ton of people who are excited to follow Jesus Christ! Elder Berntson and I now have to just push it into the next gear and really buckle down and get people into that water!! To care and love for each one of those people enough to really focus on their needs and to center our teachings as to what we are there to do. We have to be more direct, and let them know; We are there to bring them to Jesus Christ. To baptize them, and to enter in on the only path to eternal salvation. To experience the fulness of God's love which is manifest through the Atonement of our beloved Savior Jesus Christ. Wow, I get goosebumps just writing that. I have to be the best Elder Tommy Walter I can and love. Love them enough to care for their eternal well being. Gosh can I just say that I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! The Lord has blessed us so much!!! Has blessed these people so much and I am so grateful for this opportunity!! Thank you for your prayers and love! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He lives, and desires all to enter into His kingdom. That we may feel the infinite love He carries. That we may choose to act on the principles of the gospel that we may become and fulfill our potential as children of a God.

This is an update on some of our investigators:

Bambi: She is still solid, she has been in Oklahoma for her mother's funeral. She is holding up very well and really has a ton of faith in the priciples of the plan of salvation. She will be back this Wednesday, where we can more effectively talk to her about when she can be baptized.

Blanca: She is so solid!!! She has kept every commitment we have left her! She has come to church read and in our last lesson testified of the Book of Mormon haha. She is set to be baptized the 12th.

Mike: Mike was a refferal from West Zone and he just dominates in getting into contact with us. He always answers when he calls and he loves when we come over. He has a baptismal date for the 19th. He loves hearing about our message and in his own time, reading. He desires to be a lot and he has the faith and the character to do it all.

Anna: Anna is going through a tough time finatially and is getting a little distracted from that of spiritual endeavors. Through it though, she reads and she prays!! She is a rock!! We pray that she will be able to come to church. That she can keep that a priority and move forward in her progression to baptism.

George: He is doing great! As teachers we are excited to teach him more. He is someone I feel like we can be up front with. He is 22 and is looking for God in his life. And because he had a good Mormon friend in High School called up for a free Book of Mormon. So we are excited to really begin teaching him.

Adrian: We taught him once and gave him a baptismal date for the 26th of September. He is so sweet!! Love to ask questions and the Lord really blessed us in teaching him. He is so great!! We are excited to come back to his house and get to know him more and teach him more.

Thank you again for everything!! Love all yall and I pray all is well with you and your families!!!

-Elder Walter!

Week 3 and Going Strong!

Howdy,

Wow, Elder Berntson and I are working!! The fruits of our labor are really showing too!! The Lord is blessing us tremendously!! Gosh, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! It is truly a miracle to see the light in the eyes of our investigators as they too come to know that this gospel is true!! That it is the same, exact gospel that Jesus Christ established in His coming to this earth. That authority is on the earth!! And to see the Holy Ghost bring that to people, is the greatest feeling!! I am just so grateful for this opportunity to be that tool in the hands of our Savior!! It is so sweet!!

This week has been hot, but bearable. It is crazy how much the slightest relief makes haha. Like biking down a hill, walking up to our apartment at the end of the day, opening the door and having the A/C smash us in the face, and overly warm water (not quite boiling). Haha but really it's all good, the heat has been a nonfactor and people are sooo nice here, often people just hand out water. Hahahah like the other day we were biking and it was like 6 and we had biked so much that day, like back and forth across our area. Haha and this truck yells at us, and our first reaction is like, "oh no..." When the man in the passenger seat hands us 4 bottles of ice cold water and peels out and continues to speed down this street. I mean I have heard of a lot of thing happening in this part of San Antonio, but never a Drive-By Water Gift. Hahah we just laughed. We had no idea who they were haha. Thank goodness for a loving Heavenly Father I guess!!

So far as people go who we are working with, THEY ARE AWESOME!!! We are seeing so many prepared people, coming out of our efforts!!

First off is still Bambi, her mother passed away and she was in Oklahoma this week, but everytime we were able to talk to her she was just so sure of the knowledge of the plan of salvation and she is just a rock!! What faith!? She is going to be great and she is going to be baptized this week!! AWESOME!!

Then Blanca!! She is a spanish lady who just blows our mind!! She is some who continually follows up with our commitments and wants the gospel in her life!! She has come to church every week since we have met and she helps us out with our spanish a ton. She doesn't know any english, so we have gotten a lot better at learning the structure of the language!! She is going to be baptized in the middle of next month!

Because of Stake Conference, both Charles and Anna were unable to make it. But Both of them have continued to hold strong to their commitment to the Lord and their desire to read and to pray are going strong. They are solid and still have their commitment to enter in on the path of the Lord!!!

Trisha is just a fantastic person. She always calls us to let us know if she can't make an appointment and reads and really has a desire to have the gospel to help strengthen her family!!! She has seen the example of her brother's family and wants that for herself!!

There is more I would love to say, but I m out of time... Take care yall and I pray for you and your families!! Thanks for all you do for me!!

Love,

Elder Walter

PS LOVE YOU MOM, DAD, JOSIE, AND KATIE!!!!

Week 2 in San Antonio!

Hello,

Wow the work is incredible here!! The field is sheer white and prime for picking!! And Elder Berntson and I are out there reaping! We already have 5 people with a baptismal date, 4 of which are on the 29th haha. So that might be a little problem, but if that might be the greatest problem in the world!! This is the sweetest area in the entire mission!! Hahah if I am ever transfered that will change ;) But yeah things are going great!! The Lord has blessed us in incredible ways!! The heat isn't even bad, it is hard to notice after 95 degrees... It is just HOT after that. So that 5 pounds I gained at the MTC... Gone!! Haha we are on our bikes from 11-9. Wow we work all the time! I love it!! I already have a wicked famers tan too!! Its pretty hard core. Its only going to get better :)

Bambi is one of our investigators with a baptismal date on the 29th and she is soooooo SOLID!! She is awesome! She has a firm understanding of what the gospel has to offer and she is taking it!! She reads daily even with classes that she takes and she prays and always attends church!! She is incredible!!

Charles is so sweet!! He is 17 and he is so funny! He just loves the direction the gospel of Jesus Christ contains and is willing to follow the Lord in his actions to make sure that he recieves the fulness of those blessings! He was actually the person I have ever commited to baptism and he will be baptized the 29th as well!! He is a sweet kid and he always has a smile on his face!!

Anna is the funniest person I have ever met!!! honestly!!! She is a short Phillepeano (sp?) lady and just loves to crack the jokes!!! Haha I love her to death!! She had a crazy cool experience as she went to church last week!! She lost the directions to the church and instead of giving up, she got in her car, prayed and she said was guided by the Spirit to church!!!!!! That's like the most perfect example of faith and we had only benn by to see her twice... Wow she is incredible!! She will be baptized the 29th as well.

Terry has a sincere desire to change her life!! And she really is trying to do so!! It is such a great testimony to me of how much the fulness of the gospel has to offer us and how much we are blessid as we live the gospel and become the person our Father in Heaven needs us to be. She will do great as she continues to fight. She is set to be baptized the 5th of September and is excited to do so.

Trisha is a really cool story!! Her brother is a member of the church and because of the example his family, she wants to learn more so that she can have that same family! And it just so happens that Elder Berntson and Mangum were knocking that street. So she is super excited and we look forward to her coming unto the gospel!!

Next we have Thomas!! I love Thomas Hutchinson!! Thomas is a special person and is on medication for a bipolar and schitzophrenic (sp?) lifestyle. But he has one of the choicest and kindest spirits I have ever met!! I learn SOOOOOO much from him. He loves everyone with the purest love ever. And he always wants to do his very best. That got me thinking that, I know at times I have not given my all in some aspects of my life. And I know I am not perfect, but too many times. It really changed my life. I have tried to give my all in every aspect of what I am doing since that experience and I have only seen blessings in return!! He is so great I love talking to him!! He has been baptized for 5 years and loves the church. We visit him once a week so he has company because he calls us a ton everyday. He is so funny. He is 40 and his dream is to become a professional soccer player, but he can't decide between that or coaching so he constantly is accessing his stand haha. He has this great saying!! Hahaha I love it!!! When we ask him, "How's it going?" He says, "Life's good, yeah life's good....But Nike is better." With a giant smile on his face and I promised him i would get a pair of Nike Air Force Ones when I get back haha.

So yeah that is me haha. Really it is so much more I just wish everyone could be here to experience it as well haha. I am so blessed to see miracles everyday!! I love this gospel and for everything that the God does for His children. I know that God's love is expressed in John 3:16. That he loves us because He sent us Jesus Christ. And I know that as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we carry a fulness of Jesus Christ. We will forever give more the these people because the fulness of God's love lies within His church. And I am so grateful to have the opportunity to share that with everyone. To let them know of how much Our Heavenly Father loves them!!

- Love yall ;)

Elder Tommy Walter

Welcome to San Antonio!

Hello Everyone! So we decided to create this blog for people interested in following Tommy through his mission in San Antonio. Here's a little recap for those of you who are not familiar with Tommy's recent life. Tommy started attending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in January 2008 and was baptized a member in May 2009. He then went to the LDS Business College for his freshman year of college. While he was there he prepared to serve a full-time mission for the LDS church. He put in his mission papers in February and received his mission call from the First Presidency of the church on St. Patrick's Day. He was called to serve in the Texas, San Antonio mission speaking Spanish. His two-year assignment started June 2 at the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center. He spent his first 9 weeks there preparing to teach the gospel to the people of San Antonio. Then on August 4 Tommy finally headed down to the Lone Star State! He is on fire! Here is his first email from the mission field:

Hello from San Antone!!!

Well I don't know really where to start so I am just going to dive right in! I got off the airplane and the second I got off.... Sticky. Haha I sure felt that heat and when you travel you have to have suit on. So yeah like 110 heat index in a suit... I've been through worse ;). On the plane Hermana Snow and I were able to talk with a husband and wife for awhile and were able to give them a Book of Mormon and they gave us their phone number to be referred to the missionaries in their area. This was all in spanish and he was very impressed with our spanish. It was a neat experience even though I know it was probably really broken spanish haha.

So anyway the first day was fun, we went to the Mission President's house for like the entire day where we kind of had our orientation. Got our medical cards, debit cards and all the stuff that is essential really. Knowing who to contact was important too. We had lunch then were out to the Alamo, where traditionally you go on your first day and learn about the Alamo and you then get out and hand out a Book of Mormon each. Kind of a thing to get you jitters out I guess. That's exactly what we did! Elder Lord and I gave away 3. It was way fun and a great start to the mission. After that we went back for some more preping, dinner, then we spent the night at the Assitants to the President's apartment (not sure if that is grammatically correct...). They had plenty of space and it was weird knowing that this was the last night, maybe, that I would be seeing Elder Lish, Lord, Thomas, ect. But we lived it up, for all of the 10 minutes we were awake hahaha we were so tired!

We woke up, got ready and we were off to the transfer mtg. at the stake center by the presidents area, to figure out who our trainers were and where we were going!!!!!!!! I was sooooo stoked!! It was awesome! We got there and they took all 16 of the "greenies" to a room at the church to announce it where lo and behold I was NUMERO UNO!!! I am serving with..... Elder Berntson (BURN-son).... In the St. Cloud C area!!! It is in the Noth zone. The most southern part of the North zone. The city San Antonio itself is divided into 4 zones North, South, East and West. It is pretty close to downtown, maybe like 10-20 minutes... But yeah it is super sweet!! So after the meeting Elder Berntson turned to me and said we have to go, we have an appointment in an hour! And we were off! We got my bike and hit up St. Cloud C.

Elder Berntson is about 6'4" 240, with a scholarship to Utah State to play football as a defensive end. He is from Logan, UT and also is the had the fastest time in all of Utah in the 300m hurdles! And 8th fastest in a California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Utah Regional Tournament. He is a beast! Best of all though he loves to work! He is an extremly hard worker and he gets after it. For a trainer he is relatively young. He has only been out 7 months but he spent the first part of his mission on the border so his spanish is pretty good. He leads by example and lets me work too. That is what i like most. I just wanted to jump in, I didn't want my trainer to feel like he has to drag me around and punch me to talk. I participate fully in the lessons and love biking down people to talk to them haha. Needless to say, he is an incredible trainer and he is funny and loose at the same time.

Already we have seen some really cool things!! We teach everyone, and it is about 30-40% spanish in my area. On the first day we taught The Ramirez family and their friends. I held my own and felt like we delivered a strong message. We have another appointment with them coming up so we will see how they progress.

There are fantastic things going on in my area!! Yeah, there was this woman named Bambi :) and she is so solid! If all goes well this next Saturday... I should have a baptism!! I won't want to jynx it so I'll stop there. But she is so nice and really just rocks my socks. Someone that is super solid too is Anna. She is phillipeano (sp?) and on the smaller side. But she had the neatest experience and she is always so kind to us. That's one thing I have noticed too, like no one is super rude, most people polietly dismiss you it is way nice! Any way, she lost the directions to the church, and instead of giving up, she prayed and just left in her car to church. She said the Spirit told her where to go and when to turn. She stopped at a gas station to try to find help but they didn't know where it was. So she got back in her car when she just kept following the quiet promptings of the Spirit and she got there!! It was so incredible, what a miracle! Come to find out too that on her own she has read 10 chapters into 1st Nephi! She is incredible!!

I love my district! They are so nice and last night at a members house for dinner, we all ate a hobenero......!!!!!! Hahahaha quite the experience, great bonding time! Hahaha! I am doing more than fine!! Thank you so much for your support and for all that you do! I love you all and know that this church is true as I witness miracles everyday! I love Texas and can't wait to bring yall down here!

- Elder Walter