Investigator Updates

Hey all,

Hope all is well!! Today was really sweet!! We are talking with some incredible people!! They just have the greatest desires to follow our Savior and it brings me great peace in knowing their desires!!

Trisha is continuing to come to church and follow the gospel that she knows. As we teach her she follows the commandments by keeping her commitments and because she is changing and following the gospel, she is opening up her ability to utilize the atoning sacrifice of our Savior. Every time we go over we can see that change and the happiness that is brought to her!! It is the coolest!! She really teaches me how to be myself. She is so fun and as a missionary I am most effective when I am just that. When I can bear testimony of the joy and happiness this gospel brings. It really is the foundation of our testimonies. That God sent His son out of love, to satisfy the eternal demand of justice. That we may experience the joy there of! It is a cool principle and one Trisha of anyone has really helped me with.

Miss Eunis Jones... IS AWESOME!! Hahah she is a so genuine!! She can feel the Spirit so quickly. I really have tried to work on that and Miss Jones just tells me how it is done... Read the scriptures, pray with intent and faithfully, and attend church with a broken heart and contrite Spirit. She has been a super example of that to me!! I can't believe all that she has done to commit herself to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wow she just is awesome!! She reads every night, prays every night and goes to church not because we told her to, but because the Holy Ghost has bore witness to her spirit of the narrowness of the gate and the straightness of the path. What a faithful daughter of our God!

Charles has come back!!! He is so cool!! He reminds me a little of myself only 700 times cooler!! He is just so sweet, he committed his friend to coming to church haha! And he wants his friends to hear the gospel and everything! He just needs to hear it and take it in for himself first haha. He is running before he can walk. What is truly so cool about teaching Charles though, is I just see the greatest missionary out of him. He just has so much spunk, determination and desires to do his best. That's all the Lord asks and the Lord really needs a lot of people more like him. Determined and driven people. You find a lot of successful people in the world just because they did what they had to do because they kept the commandments and did what they had to, to follow them.

Dang I am out of time again!!! Sorry, We are also teaching a young man named Rocky, George Alverez, Bambi, Mike Gonzalez, and Ester Griffen. They all are incredible!! I love y'all I know that there is by no other means can we attain happiness throughout this life and the next, except we follow the commandments!

Elder Walter

Veteren Rookie!

Howdy,

Wow I really thought I left Oregon haha. It has rained 4 days in a row and one of them was another tropical storm hahah. It is a blast!!! Nothing like knocking a door and people letting us in because we are sopping wet and they don't want us to catch the flu or something haha. I really am truly loving it out here. I love my mission and am truly gaining a testimony of my purpose as a missionary and for what Jesus Christ has to offer these people! I have been blessed to see the change of heart as these people choose to accept the gospel into thier lives and act upon the eternal laws our Heavenly Father has set. I promise that our Heavenly Father is not a Father of trickery, that as we have faith in Jesus Christ and grab hold to His gospel by being baptized and following this for the rest of this mortal life; he is bound by His promise to us to have joy. Hahah I love that!! We have joy!! What a blessing?!

So I am still here after my first week of transfers and with Elder Berntson still!! By the way, he is the BEST!! The only difference is that he has now been called as our district leader! It is way cool and he is very excited! His enthusiasim will lead our district to fulfill our purpose and achieve the desired efforts in the work of the Lord! He is the man!! Our district is of 4 companionships, one is the Monte Vista area, then St. Cloud A,B, and C. I am in St. Cloud C with Elder Berntson. What is cool now is that both St. Cloud A and B have greenies after this transfer. Technically I am still green because your first two transfers are your training transfers. So there are 3 rookies in the bunch, and one of them, me, is the "vetran rookie" haha or Rookie of the transfer. I love it!! Too bad both of them are incredible!! They are far and above where I am right now, just super solid missionaries. I am very excited for the things to come from this transfer.

So this week the people we are teaching are as follows...

Trisha is just awesome and she is so close, but she has expressed concern about this weekend perhaps being a little too early. This is a concern that often comes up, but what we have to teach better is the fact that baptism is simply the beginning and that she has already committed to living these standards the next part is to be baptized. But every person is different, she is so genuine and nice and loving and just incredible. We will contine to work with her until she feels ready to follow the gospel.

Miss Jones and Miss Griffen are my long lost southern black grandmothers. I love them to death and the prime example of the Spirit teaching the investigators they just don't stop reading and keeping commitments! I am so excited to keep working with them and to go over again!

Sorry I am out of time but I will be sure to talk more about them next time!! Sorry!! We have a ton of incredible people we are teaching!!!

Love you all so much!!

- Elder Walter

9/14/10

All,

Haha wow this week was AWESOME!!! Like seriously I still feel like tings just fell right into place!! Haha so first off, no big deal, just worked for ten hours on a bike in the middle of a hurricane... Hahahahah wow it was the craziest thing ever!! I love being a missionary. PS: my shoes are still drying :). But yeah then the next day the Bishop of the St. Cloud ward calls me and asks that I give a talk this last Sunday. I really thought I had escaped those for these next two years. It was on member missionary work, details of that to come. First I would like to first talk about my investigators because I didn't have time to write about them in the last letter...

Blanca...Isn't moving so hopefully this week is her baptismal week! She is so solid and loves to really learn about the gospel and how she can be the best person and deciple (sp?) of Christ she can. She is a wonderful example to me and has pushed me to further my quest on the path to my Savior.

Trisha... SOLID!! She is so awesome!! We are able to really connect with her and her family on a really great level. She loves learning more and is set with a date for the end of September. But she very ready now! She will be a great addition to the ward!

Miss Eunis Jones... She loves the Book of Mormon and has read everything we have given her complete with questions and thoughts. And yesterday when I was on exchanges with Elder Law, she turns to us and says, "I guess it just comes down to prayin' and findin' out that this is true huh?"... YES HAHA!! She is so solid she is set to be baptized at the end of September as well. Her only worry is up and leaving her baptist church. That is a tough and as missionaries we merely invite and help further them in the gospel. As people pray and find out for themselves that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today, that Jesus is our Savior and that His gospel has been restored to today, we help them act upon those feelings to follow His gospel.

Then a true miracle...We met a new George! He is incredible and normally George waits for the bus a little bit further up on Bandera, but he dicided to wait for a while underneath these trees in the shade. This is on Friday and it so happens Elder Berntson and I went to see a different investigator than we planned and we crossed paths. He was super interested, had us over the next day, came over on Saturday taught a super sweet lesson with a member, Israel Delgadillo, committed him to pray and to come to church and got a soft baptismal date for for the 30th... Then he actually came to church... We asked him how his prayer was and he said with a big smile and a wink, "I am here aren't I." Hahha I love that man!

Then We have been teaching this one man named Isidoro, forever and he was kind of an eternal investigator and it wasn't until Friday when we came over and he had 3 grandchildren there, we taught them and they loved it!! It was so sweet, then they came to church and all said they were about 99% sure they would come back!

Truly miracles all over the place!!! It has been awesome!! I have loved this week!! This Friday also we had the opportunity to go to the Temple!! Wow it was extremely pretty and I had just so many prayers answered and gosh it was such a unique experience as a missionary!! I learned so much as the Spirit was able to freely teach me the things of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that God answers prayers, that really we can know His will and recieve all He wants to give and bless us with as we ask! What a BLESSING!!??

This week too I learned a lot about the plan of salvation, that plan of happiness that we have been provided. I know without a doubt that families can be sealed and live forever and all eternity!! I know that as we live the Gospel of Faith, Repentance, Baptisim, Recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure forever we can live with families forever!! How wonderful and loving our Father in Heaven.

We had 7 people at church!!! It was insane!! I loved it!! So awesome!! My talk was good basically just talked a ton about all yall haha. Hope all is well!! Take care, love ya!!!

-Elder Tommy Walter

Sorry these have been a long time coming, but here are some of Tommy's pictures from the MTC

Tommy and Elder Parkinson!

Him and his companion Elder Lord

Tommy and his "best friend ever" Elder Lish

Going a little crazy :)

Still the same old Tommy!

Isn't he handsome?!

9/6/10

Hello ALL!!!!

I can't believe this is the last full week of my first transfer!!! This is just speeding by!!! Wowzie I feel like I have barely gotten to know the ward and the people!! It is crazy!! This week was only like the best week!! Seriously I still am just stunned at the miracles the Lord provided us!! It was incredible!! I have learned a lot this week about changing and becoming the best missionary and person the Lord needs me to be!! I have had a couple experiences that have helped me in that! The first was on Tuesday. We just got out of two lessons and afterwards we jus felt like there was something off. It was a very weird feeling and it is tough to describe. It was in that instance that we both decided to pray before an important lesson with Trisha. We both prayed before we went off, and in it I felt the Spirit come over me and I thought about a lot of things that we could have done better to fulfill our purpose as missionaries. And wow I learned a lot of stuff hahaha. Nothing like a good talking to from the Holy Ghost :). So we were off and entered the lesson with a good Spirit!! With that we had dinner at her house with her brother and his family, all of which are members. We taught her the plan of happiness and wow... The room nearly exploded with the Spirit!! Her whole family just was testifying like crazy and she was caught up in the Spirit then BOOM!! Elder Bernson hit her with the baptismal invite then BOOM!! She said yes, but that isn't even the cool part. The fact that because of that one lesson of which that intense of a Spirit, She now has that relationship. Since then, you have just been able to see how the Spirit has influenced her life! She is asking questions, coming to church, reading, and on and on!! Because of that opportunity she had to feel the Spirit, she now has the opportunity to come closer unto Jesus Christ, and to recieve a fulness of the blessings He provides... What a miracle? I know this gospel is true! Jesus Christ lives and He runs and is central to the church. What love!?This week at district meeting, I had the opportunity to share my experience in how the Spirit was able to convert me. And wow, as I really thought about it, how incredible. I am so grateful for what Elder Parkinson and Elder Layton did for me to experience that. They were incredible tools they were in the Lord's hands!! I am so grateful for my experience and even more so to share it!

The second experience actually comes from the song, "Come Though Fount". The last verse of the song has been rell powerful to me, and is as follows:

"Here's my heart, oh take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above."

Before this it talks about things that get in our way from this goal. Things that take us away from God. No one is perfect. How perfect our God to allow and provide us a way. Through our Savior Jesus, I know that our hearts can be sealed in heaven for eternity. As a family! For this, I will cling to my Savior. Allowing His streams of endless mercy to pick me up and continue. To live, love, and recieve happiness!! That is His plan as we come nearer to Him! Wow!!

Sorry, but i am running very short on time so these are some really sweet people that we are teaching:

Bambi just got back!! So we will begin her interview process this week!!

Blanca... Is moving but she still wants to be baptized!!! So we are coordinating with the Elders downtown and hopefully we can go to her baptism!! She is so solid!!

Trisha is incredible!! Just doing all the right things!!

Sorry I have to go, Love ya!!