3rd P Day In Germany

Hello Family! 

Mom it was fun to "talk" to you today! I don't know if we'll be on the computer at the same time again since my computer time changes and it's late for you but I'm glad it happened to work out this time. I have been feeling a bit homesick (more family sick) this week. It was a hard week with most of our plans falling through so we had to do our Plan Bs which most of those fell through too! We needed to go to Plan E sometimes because people were canceling their lessons, not showing up for scheduled meeting times, and other things. We have weekly planning session every Friday and daily planning every night (plan for the next day) and I've learned how important it is to have the Spirit when we plan so that we know where to go, what to do, and whom to teach. Not just for Plan As but Cs and Ds as well. While we need to be ready for our Plan As which we make with help from the Spirit, the people of Bremerhaven do still have their agency. Which I think is a blessing and a curse hehe :]


We have two Investigators with this Sunday as their Baptism Date! We think we'll have to reschedule one, Andreas, becasue all three of our appointments with him this past week he canceled. (Here is when free agency seems to be a curse, I would like to just make him keep our appointments but that's not good, he wouldn't benifit if it was forced.) I did have a fun idea that we did for him though. He has been having a lot of struggles and is very sad lately so we made him a Happy Scripture Envelope that had tons of uplifting scripture references written on tons of paper so he could pull out a slip or two when he needs a pick me up. He said it was helpful, hopefully he learned that the Gospel makes us happy! (he liked my rejoice evermore scripture :] ) The other man, Thomas, who is still on track for baptism is still going strong from what we know. Work for him is time consuming but he says he knows baptism is what he wants so we are still planning on this Sunday! He can do it :] That's so cool about the 94 year old man being baptized in Claremont soon, yes we should get him and my 92 year old lady together! Hehe... She is going strong too still :] She loved the Plan of Salvation and was so excited that she could be with her parents, brother, husband, and daughter who have all passed away again!


In the email I sent addressed to Elder Walker I put pictures of the plan that my companion drew. We were using them to teach her which really helped her understand everything. I was to teach the Earth Life part but I made a mistake in my German that was really funny. Instead of telling her that we came to Earth to get a body (K�r) I said we came to Earth to get a suitcase (Koffer) :] Bahaha!! my bad! But she was great about it and understood what I meant from the pictures. She is so funny and always gives us, Sister F�er and me, a box of chocolate covered jelly bananas and a bag of cookies each time we come over. We have 6 boxes in our apartment and can not eat any more! We will give them to the Elders at the next District Meeting.

We are the only Sisters in the District but we have great Elders. They are so fun to be around and very helpful. We need to travel 2 hours by bus to get to DM but it's OK. and much better than the 4 hours to Zone Conference! 

My first Zone Conference was this week and it was a blast! I met other Sisters!! I feel that I have a disconnection with Sister Missionaries since I was a Solo at the MTC, only Sister Golden in 17 new missionaries, and int he only Sister companionship in my District. Meeting the others was so fun! This transfer we have two ZCs since we are changing Presidents. This week was the farewell of the Pimentels. They are a wonderful couple and I am sad to only know them for a few weeks. I wish it was longer. They taught such good lessons at ZC. Sister Pimentel went through 2 Nephi 5 and told us how we can have a happy life if we live after the principles it teaches about. Such as communicating and listening to the Lord, working hard, attending the Temple and ginving thanks. Pres. Pimentel said a lot of good things but my favorite was Pimentel's Plateau Theory. Which is "The injury from jumping and falling off the Cliff is the same. We are much less likely to jump or fall if we are away from the edge." Simple but profound. He talked about building fences so we stay away from the edge of the Cliff (sin). Fences like staying in church clothes all Sunday to help us keep the Sabbath day Holy. It was pretty great. If you ever meet him, ask him about it.

(if you want it, here is their contact information. I'm also giving this to you so I don't lose it :] Jay & Colleen Pimentel

3326 Constance Circle

Alameda, California 94501

510-337-4140

jay.pimentel@byu.net

colleenpimentel@byu.net

Facebook - Colleen Reed Pimentel

Facebook - Jay D Pimentel) 

 

Though I wish I could get to know them better, I am excited for the Kosaks to come here next week. On July 4th is my ZC with them. They send us a Power point to introduce themselves and they seem like such great people. They are both native Germans but have lived in Russia for the past while working for the Church Education Services. They have 3 children, two of whom have died, but their one daughter will be coming with them. They bore their testimonies of the Plan of Happiness in their PowerPoint and that strengthened mine. They also said they will keep the Mauer Platz tradition of dedicating your mission which I think is really neat. That's the place on the first day we went to dedicate our missiona and then go back on our last day to close it. I'm looking forward to going back. 

 

Remember how I was nervous to have to eat gross food? That was a silly fear becasue all food here is yummy but I still have had to sneak some into my purse because they just give us so much!! One sister in our ward, Schwester Burde, is also a 92 year old lady who joined the church 20 years ago and has been taking care of the missionaries ever since. She needs help grocery shopping so we help her and she buys us some and lunch after wards then every other Friday we have dinner with her. It's really nice of her and we appreciate it. Only problem is for 20 years she has taken care of Elders who eat more than Sisters! We have so much food and for dinner on Friday we had so much and she kept piling more and more when we got close to being done! I snuck bread into my bag but had to stuff the rest down. I am still full from dinner. :] Then last night we had dinner with a member and two less actives and had to stuff ourselves again! And finish a gallon of ice cream. I have never not wanted to eat ice cream more. I think it's funny that everything here is sold in one liter containers and then here is a gallon ice cream! Funny :] 

 

This Saturday our ward is having a missionary day! We are having a street both to hand out Books of Mormon and invite people to the Musical Fireside that night. I am sinigng "Ich wei�mein Erl� lebt" (I know that my redeemer lives) and Sister F�er is playing a few songs onthe piano (including Jon Schmit's All of Me") and then if you could hie to Kolab on the Organ. It will be so cool! Then next week Sister Faerber has a family that she taught in a nother city being baptized so we get to go see it and we will be singing at their Musical Fireside that night too! Lots of singing! Fingers crossed I don't mess up. 

 

Dad- I love that Pres. Hinckley quote, thank you. Are you enjoying the Agatha Christie book? Good luck with your catch up read! That is one of my favorite books ever, hope you like it! Does taking the boys to the parquore (spelling?) class make you want to do it? How were you able to convince Mom to do the gun class? Be safe with the guns. Maybe for Christmas you can buy yourself one of Jared's gun targets and pretend it's from me :] Thank you for working so hard to provide for all of us, you're a great example and I'm trying to work as hard as you. Something to strive for :] 

 

Elder Walker- please read the other email I sent specifically for you. Everyone else can read it too. 

 

Kaden- How was your first dance?! Tell me all about it! Did your Future Wife go too? Did you dance with her? Is it fun to go with the cousins to the dances?

 

Cam and Cole- How do you spell parquore? parqueour? Parkor? parkeor? You should teach the family :] Be careful in class, don't get hurt but have fun! You'll nedd to teach me when I come home! Cam congrats on having a big mouth and winnign the gum conest! 

 

Tell Alyssa good job on her 5k! She and Linds should run the Halloween Half marathon like me and Heather! 

 

I love you all and miss you. But serving the Lord is wodnerful and I'm glad we are a forever family. Yay for Temples! Have a wonderful week! 

 

-Sister Walker 

Pictures

Picture at the Kinglebox

 Kalyn on her bike

Kalyn's Elders

Second P Day In Germany

Hello Family! 
I was a little upset to hear that you didn't get Part 1 of my last email, I tried to send it again a couple times with and without the picture attachments. Hopefully it worked this time. It was a lot longer than part 2 so maybe it had too much information on it. I'll try to remember to keep emails shorter and send pictures seperately. If you don't get this email today I will be very angry. It was quite an adventure to get to a computer today and I would not enjoy learning it was all for nothing. Normally we use the Branch President's computer at the church building, but we discovered that it had a virus (maybe another reason it only send part 2?) so we couldn't use it today. So we spent an hour and a half looking for an internet cafe to use in the city, all were closed except one in a Casino that we decided not to use. Then I had the idea to see if we could use the Library's computers and it took another half hour to find the Library! I hope you get the emails. I've been looking forward to read yours all week. And I'm glad my President told you my home address, I forgot to do that in my last email. 

At the beginning of my email I would like to appologize for any missspellings or incorrect wordings in this email, my English is already starting to suffer from German which I guess is a good thing but it is funny. Hope you can understand. Also, misspellings may be typos, the German keyboard is different than the English one. 

Dad, I'm glad your hands are doing better! That is weird that the peppers hurt you so much. (Little German tidbit here, how you say 'pepper' in German is 'paprika.' I was so confused by that) Maybe you should wear gloves when making salsa next time. And maybe send me some, there is nothing spicy here. You don't really have to send me some, but maybe a picture of you all eating some would be good. :] I hope Pa appreciated the struggle you went through to make it. And Happy Father's day!! I'm glad you were able to visit your Dad, say Hi to Gram and Pa for me. I was thinking about you. People here ask about my Teddy-Bear necklace a lot, (it's at their eye-level. Germans are short) so I get to tell them it was a present from my Dad and Mom so I remember that they love me. I hope work is going well and that you are not too stressed out. The 3rd verse of O God the Eternal Father is my favorite verse, I'm glad that it touched you so. Music is one of my favorite tools to use becasue it invites the Spirit so fast. One of my favorite investigators, Margaritte, is a 92 year old German Lady, who's baptism date is July 30th (!!!), loves it when we sing to her. She started crying when Sister F�er and I sang "Komm du Quelle" (Come Thou Fount) and said she could feel God's love through our voices. Fun story about her, she is nervous to come to church since she doesn't know anyone and the bulding is new so we took her on a church tour with one of the Members to get her more comfortable and we taught her the 1st vision in the chappel. Sister F�er is a piano performance major so she played a beautiful arraingment of Joseph's first prayer and Margaritte was humming along! She knew it already although it was the first time that she heard it. After she said that she will learn the words to her favorite song. Kind of cool. 

Mom, yay for a new fire hydrant! hopefully no drunk drivers will run into this one. And my hair is frizzy with all the humidity and the rain everyday but I'm trying to learn how to do it. I wish it was longer for a ponytail or a bun. But that will come soon. Thanks for your story about Daniel and his 3 fereinds, I will definately read up on that. And don't worry, I will not waste a minute of my mission, one month is already gone! Lots to do in the 17 left. We already have almost more appointments that we have time for here and 9 people with baptism dates! The two soonest are together, July 1st. Their names are Thomas (teaching him in English) and Andreas (German). Both had such different roads to the Gospel but now both are here and progressing and are making this big choice, hopefully they have the courage and determination to do it. 

I have more to say but my library time is up, hopefully next week the church's computer is fixed so I have more time. I'll write a letter too. Thank you for zour emails. I love printing them and rereading them when I get homesick or lonely or miss you. Trey, congrats on making it home. Try out for an MTC number!! Fingers crossed my letter is still there too, Kaden, don't be too worried about your future wife but I wish yoou two all the best ;P hehehe. Cam and Cole, have a fun summer! One of the people we are teaching is a boy about 12 years old and I think you three would be friends. He makes me think of you two. 

Miss you all and love you lots! 

-Sister Walker

PS Spiritual thought- from the play Les Miserables and a few scriptures- "to love another is to see the face of God" The more I serve these people and love them, the more I see God in my life.

First Written Letter From Germany

Hello Family,

I hope you were pleasantly surprized when you got this letter!  Today is still my first P-Day in Germany and I forgot to tell you some things in my email!  They are important too.

 

1) The return address on this letter is my address in Bremerhaven.  Google it and you can see my house!  I live on the top floor.  You can write me Letters (only, no packages here), I should be here for 12 weeks (11 more from this Wednesday) but maybe the mission home is safer.  I will love either.

Sister Kalyn Walker

Alter Postweg 28

27578 Bremerhaven

Germany

 

2) I'm eating cheese.  Lots of it.  And actually liking most of it. Yes, letting you know I'm eating cheese is important.

 

3) If you send a package, the company DHL has something you can track international packages with so you can see I get it.

 

4) I asked my Mission President about parents picking up missionaries from their missions and he said a new thing just came out saying that is not recommended but can be approved by the parent's stake President.  He suggested the missionary flying home, being released, then the next week or so flying back with the parents.  Something to think about.  I'd like either.  Just being with you all in Germany would be wonderful.

 

5) I love you all!

 

I'm also sending a picture from the MTC that is a better picture of me and the map.  Have a wonderful day!!

Sister Walker

 

Spiritual thought:  Omni 1:26

 

..."come unto Him, and offer your whole souls unto him..."  To me an offering echos or is symbolic of the Atonement and Christ taking up the cross for us.  We must do all we can to help Him raise His cross since it is for us.  Not a half hearted lifting a finger, but sweat and tears work, everything we have.  After that, comes joy in being with Him.

First Letter From Germany!

Hello Family! 

First and before I forget I wanted to let you know of the P-Day changes here in Germany. We Missionaries only receive written mail and packages at Zone Conference, so once a transfer/ once every six weeks. Becasue of this, all mail and packages should be sent to the Mission Office (the address you have) and I'll get it eventually. This does not mean you don't need to write letters. I love letters. Please send them :) But it does mean that the President has given us longer time on the Computer and permission to email friends in addition to family. So if you could, please put on my Facebook this email address and that people can email me if they would like. And Dad, you said in your email you were sorry for writting so much to take up time, don't be sorry and feel free to write me a novel, I'll have time to read it and will love it! (I can also print emails out so I can read it all week long!) 

How is everyone doing? I'm doing very well here in Germany! Can you believe I'm here? Sometimes I can't, but then I step outside into the freezing air and know I for sure am not in California anymore so then I believe it. Also, remembering the adventure it was to get here makes me realize it's for reals that I'm here. 

On Tuesday morning at 8 I left the MTC for the airport. There was a group of 14 missionaries going to Berlin together, me and 13 Elders. After half of us got through security and were waiting at the gate, a call over the loud speaker came on that said: ,,Will all Missionaries going to the Berlin, Germany Mission please return to the Ticket Counter. Thank you.'' Now boarding for our flight was going to start in 5 minutes so we were a little worried about missing our flight, and boy did we miss it. Turns out that our layover in Amsterdam had canceled the connecting flight to Berlin. We would have been stranded there had we gotten on the plane. The only reason the airport caught the mistake was one Elder arrived late at the airport and they noticed his flight had been canceled. Good thing he was late or maybe I'd still be in Holland! (Missionary Miracle #1.) When we got back to the Ticket counter and learned all of this they said we were going back to the MTC because all flights that had connections to Berlin were full and they needed time to find and schedule a flight for us which may take a day or two. Right after the airport called a bus to come back and get us, however, someone found a flight to Paris with connections to Berlin that had a few openings! (Missionary Miracle #2) They would split the large group up on the flight to Berlin but we'd fly to Paris together that night at 5pm. 
The plane was delayed and did not come into SLC untill after 5 though. We did not leave the SLC airport till around 6pm. This long time in the airport gave us plenty of time to eat, rest and start talking to real people! Some of the Elders were so cute going up to everyone and handing out the passalong cards we were given to hand out at the airport. I started talking to a Mom and her 9 year old son. The mom was a recently reactivated member but her son has not been baptized yet. It was fun to talk to them about church and why it's important and the Book of Mormon. We talked for a while and then on the plane they asked for my address so they could wright to me. How sweet :) 
When we finally got on the plane, I was sitting next to a Preacher from Benin, Africa. This was Miracle #3 (or #4 depending on if you count talking to a nice family as one, which they were definatly a tender mercy to help me not be so nervous) because I was so nervous to talk to someone on a plane where we would be so close together for 11 hours. If I said something that offfended them or they got angry, there was no where to go. But this Preacher was so nice and we talked on and off about both of our churches and he was very interested that someone as young as me was on a mission leaving everything behind. We exhanged cards, he gave me his business card and I gave him a Mormon.org card, and had a pleasant flight. (Another request- when you are on my Facebook, can you look up Ethan Christiansen (maybe Christianson) who is on a Mission in Benin and give me his email address so I can forward this man's information? Thanks) 
Once in Paris we separated and I was in the group with the 7 hour layover. With limited French (the 5ish sentences and words I know) we could not talk to anyone so we sat down to study. We started practicing the lessons and a German lady over heard us and corrected our grammar which was helpful. Then we started reading out of the Book of Mormon outloud to keep us awake. People would stop to listen to us, whether from curiosity on what we read or trying to fingure out which language we were butchering I'm not sure. But they would still stop. 
The flight to Berlin was also a little delayed but not too bad. I was too tired to try to talk to the French lady sitting next to me so I tried to read but started dozing in and out becasue I had not slept on the long plane ride and was exhausted. Didn't sleep so well. When we finally got to the airport around 9pm Wednesday evening, the Assistants to the President were there to greet us which was nice. But our bags had not flown with us which was not nice. We went with the APs to look for them and Missionary Miracle #4 was they had come on the flight before us and we found most of them! (all that were still missing were found the next day) all mine were found. 

Yay! After getting the lugage we could, we drove to the church building in Berlin, dropped them off and went to the Mission Office to meet the President. His wife fed us dinner (it was now about 11pm) and we had interviews.

 Since I was the only Sister, I was going to sleep at the Mission Home with the President and the Elders would go to a Hotel where the other Elders were, but had problems there too. The Hotel had double booked the room so the 3 Elders I was with had to come to the Mission Home too. After we were settled and able to shower, it was about 1:30 in the morning and we were finally able to sleep after more than 31 hours of travel. 
Later that morning we woke up (the only day we can sleep in on our missions ;) ) we Missionaries and the President and his Wife went to the Hotel to meet the other Elders. After eating breakfast with them we all went on a field trip! We went to a place called Maur-Platz, meaning place of the wall. It is where the Berlin Wall divided the city and there was no man's land between the sides but now there is a jogging path with pretty trees and a cornfield. We went here and read the dedicatory prayers from Pres. Monson and Pres. Uchtdorf dedicating Germany and Berlin for missionary work and then we went off to say our own prayers to dedicate our mission to the Lord. it was a very spiritual experience where I was able to talk to my Heavenly Father and ask for help and tell him I am here as His servant to bring my Brothers and Sisters to Him and to ask for His help in doing so. After I opened my eyes from my prayer, I saw the cornfield and D and C 4 came into my head ''the field is white already to harvest...'' Germany, prepare yourself! :) 

After this field trip we went to meet our trainers!! Yay! New Missionaries here in the Berlin Mission are not called Greenies (that is a swear word around here) but are called Goldens, because their testimonies are all bright and shiney being fresh from the MTC with so much zeal and power, and also becasue gold is maleable and able to be molded for what it is needed. We new missionaries need to be molded to be hard working and dedicated to our calling. Our trainers were given advice to treat us as Gold Plates (as in the days of old where the scriptures were written upon) and that they were the first person to write on us so to choose what they wrote very carefully. 
We did not know who our trainers were (well, mine was the only Sister so I knew her name) and when we met the trainers were in a line and we Goldens went and shook all their hands. After meeting everyone, the Goldens sat together and the Trainers together. One at a time the Goldens went up with the President to be claimed by their trainer. The video is my trainer claiming me. It was so fun! The Trainers were just so excited to get a Golden that they litterally jumping over benches to claim them. Then we sat by our companion and had Golden Conference which is a welcome conference, then got a sack lunch and left to our Areas! 

My wonderful Trainer's name is Sister F�er (english spelling -Faerber) from Minnesota. She has been here for a year and is super enthusiastic about our area Bremerhaven. This is the farthest Sister City North and the only Sister Area with bikes right now. Of course I'm just thrown into the cold on a bike in a skirt... But it's a harbor so the ocean is there to make me smile. It is so cold here and has rained every day I've been here so far but I love it already! I'm even starting to like my bike :)

Bremerhaven is a Harbor city (Haven = Harbor) so there are boats coming in everyday and fog horns sounding and the smell of the salty ocean is everywhere! It used to be an Elder city but was opened to Sisters a transfer or two ago. Sister F�er and I are the only missionaries here and the area is pretty big. It takes about 2 hours by train to go the whole length. There are lots of little towns but mostly we are in the city of Bremerhaven where the chapel is but will occasionally go to other cities to visit members and find investigators. One picture from Part 1 is the two of us in front of our Chapel. It used to be a Capitan's home and is pretty gorgeous. Church yesterday was so nice, we taught Primary and I got to bear my testimony to the Branch. There are only about 40 members but we'll make it grow! We have 8 people with Baptism dates, two of whom I invited to be baptized! 

Friday was my first day as a Missionary here. After we left Golden Conference and hopped on multiple trains to get here, which took about 5-6 hours, it was really late at night. So with jet lag and not much sleep the night before I was pretty much exhausted but we worked hard! We helped an older member with her shopping then had lunch with her and left with a Spiritual thought then we went Street Contacting! My German is good enough that I understand almost everything when a lady speaks but for some reason I can only understand about half of anything men say. Hopefully this improoves soon! We made a few appointments while Street Contacting! I was very surprized actually how many people actually stop and talk to us. There are a few who say ''Nein, danke'' when they hear ''Church (Kirche)'' but most will chat with us a while, take a passalong card or Book of Mormon, and make an appointment. It's great! While walking to an appointment with a recent convert, the blue sky suddenly turned black and it started pouring buckets of rain and peltting us with hail. We had to take cover in an entry way to an apartment building
--moment from the story to explain something. Most people live in apartments here in Germany, next to no one has their own house. And apartments are not opened, you need a key or someone to buzz you in to get to the doors and the mail boxes. On the outside are things called Klingleboxes (bell boxes) with intercoms to talk to people and see if any one will let you inside. It is also surprizing to me how many people talk to you on the Klinglebox, wonderful!--
A lady opened the door to the apartments for us but didn't want to talk anymore so we were just waiting for the rain to pass. I saw the mailboxes and thought ''hey, since we're here, why not give a card to everyone in their mailbox?'' we have special cards here that on the front ask about the meaning of life then on the back invites people to go to the website kirche-jesu-christi.org and then our cell phone number witht the Chapel's address. As soon as I put the last card in the mailboxes, the rain and hail stopped. It was like we didn't hear a prompting to stop at that apartment building so God had to drive us in with the rains! Hehe :) Or just a freak ocean storm but I like my idea better. 
After that, we went to our lesson with the new convert and he's doing great! And even has asked us when he can go to the Temple! 

Saturday was another day full of appointments and Street Contacting. Remember how President White's setting apart prayer said ''all the languages of my mission'' like 3 times? Well, right now we have investigators in German, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, and Ouldo (like Hindi.) Awesome! One lesson we had today was with a Street Contact who is a man from India and wanted a Book of Mormon in Ouldo! We talked a bit about Bollywood at the beginning of the lesson, knew those would come in handy someday! :) And then taught the first lesson. He was loving everything we were saying and was so happy the learn about Christ and that we can follow him. He accepted the invitation to baptizm and his date is July 15th! Keep him in your prayers that all continues well as we continue to meet with him! As we left he was so thankful to us that he wanted to kiss our feet in gratitude as it's from his culture. It was strange and uncomfortable but at least he was happy, right? Don't think we'll let him try to kiss our feet again next time. 
After meeting with him, we went for Abendsbrot (evening bread, their big meal here is lunch and dinner is more of a snack) with a member and her son. They were both nice and we talked about the scriptures and how every member is a missionary. Then we went and visited the cutes Old Lady. Pretty sure she would be best friends with Inger. She is 92 years old and Sister Faerber found her last transfer through the Klinglebox! She loves prayer and reads the Book of Mormon everyday and is sharing it with all her friends. She has gone through so much in her life but says that she now knows it was God's will and that she is beggining to understand why. She's amazing! 

Sunday was church and I was nervous to speak in Sacrament meeting but all went well and after Church we had a lunch appointment with a member family and taught a lesson. I didn't talk much during dinner so when I started teaching my half of the lesson they all looked shocked that I talked. After my half and before they let Sister F�er speak again to close the lesson, they all (a family of 8, grandma, grandpa, 2 aunts, uncle, 3 kids) remarked on my German and how impressed that I could speak so well. They even said I didn't have an accent and that I should help my companion with pronunciation. I think that made her feel a little bad but she was happy for me and that gave me confidence to speak more the rest of the day. They also fed us the most delicious carrot cake I have ever eaten, wonderful! 
We had a lesson today with someone who reads the Book of Mormon in Arabic. He is so cool! He is only 19 but he lives alone and he also accepted the invitation to baptism! Yay! 

The work is going well here, keep Bremerhaven in your prayers. I'm doing well and miss you all but am loving it here. Hope to hear lots from you next week! And I hope Colin Ross improves. Kaden, congrats on making Concert Choir! Sing loud and proud :) Cameron, I hope you have amaying adventures this summer but stay safe and help Mom and Dad. Also Hope you had fun in Germany on your multi-cultural day! Germany is a great place! Cole, glad you enjoyed Gold Rush Day! Enjoy your last bit of school and have fun this summer! I love you Dad, Mom, Kaden, Cameron, and Cole. Also give Trey, Alyssa, Jaren, Paige and Taylee my love! They can email me too if they want! Have a wonderful week! 

-Sister Walker

Letter From Mission Pres to Parents

This is a letter my parents got from Kalyn's Mission President:

Arrived In Berlin!

Hello Family! I am happy to report that after 32 hours in the airport I have arrived safely in Berlin! Me and 16 Elders are the new recruits, or as the President calls us Goldens, and this morning (Thursday) is Golden Conference. My P-Day is either on Saturday or Monday so I will send you a longer email then. I love you, Have a great day!

 

Love, Sister Walker

Final MTC Letter

Hello Family!

 

Guess what?!  By the time you reaad this I will be in Germany!! I am sitting in my room at the MTC with almost all of my things packed and am so excited!  I know I've been a missionary since Pres. White set me apart, but I haven't felt like one till now.  I porbably have already talked to some German people by now.  Maybe even placed a Book of Mormon!  I know it will be hard but I can do it!  Something my German teacher told me really gave me courage.  She said to to Ether 12:12, where it says "Nephi and Lehi" put "Sister Walker" where it says "Lamanites" put "Germans" :) I know God loves me, now to let the Germans know!  I do have some favors to ask as well:

1) please print out nad mail Elder Busch's BYU devotional talk from May 14, 1996

2)Kaden, Cameron & Cole-be good boys and be missionaries at home.

 3)please deposit this check from Gerry.  she is the cutest.  I wrote her a Thank you card but please also tell her thanks and I lover her in person.

4) Have a great day!

I love you all!!

Sister Walker

MTC Letter #3 part 2

Hello Family!

I hope everyone is doing well!  Thanks for the Dear Elders and the cinnomon rolls!  I will miss getting letters and treats from you so often.  But do hope letters still come when I'm in Germany!  I wanted to send these things home so maybe Mom can get my mission memory book started and add these.

The pictures:

The MTC stopped printing small pictures so this was the only size able to be printed.  One is of my whole district when we matched going to the Temple together (all wearing blue!) starting on the left:

Elder Gungunyany-(cut off) from Zimbabwe going to Alabama, Elder Williamson from England going to Frankfurt, Germany, Elder Merkley from Glendora going to Alpine, Germany, me, sister Li from Hong Kong going to Oakland Temple VC,

Back row:  Sister Biolena from Phillipeans going to New Jersey, Sister Lavea from New Zealand going to Oakland Temple VC

In Front: Sis Stout from Bejing, China going to Ca Oakland Temple VC, Sis Lau from Hong Kong going to Oakland Temple VC,  Sister Dorneles from Brazil going to New Jersey, Sis Julander from Santa Clara going to Tokyo, Elder Norman from Utah going to Berlin Germany, Elder Duff (District Leader and only his hand and foot showing) from Idaho going to Berlin.

I will send a picture normal sized and with no one cut off as soon as I can.

The next picture and 1st drawing (by Sis Li) is of just the girls (and E. Gungunyany jumped in the picture.) left to right: Lao, Stout, Biolena, me, Li (top) Lavea, Julander, Dorneles.

I feel very non-international in this group.  When I blush and turn red the Asians think it is so cool and they call me Sis. Lobster.  This past week a new girl was added to us as well.  Her name is sister Kiyotani from Japan going to Ca Ventura but sadly I don't have any printed pictures of her.

Kiyotani is in our 2nd drawing (I think I told yo about her, she is new and is now our 5th roommate so no more Italian & Phillipino. Sis Dorneles was having a difficult time remembering the 1st vision in English and was working very hard on it for 3 days.  When She finally got it, she said everything in that manner.  "I saw a plate of food upon my tray..."  "I saw a grey hair exactly on my head..." and one night she was scared of the bunk bed falling on her so she started saying what is on picture #2!  I helped her finish it and S. Li drew the picture!  I love my roommates!  We laugh so much!

Tomorrow is P-day so I'll write you an email then.  sorry if you expected an email on Friday.  I was in In-Field Training all day (for 13 hours!) It was very fun!  I'm really leaving the MTC! Jaron Murphy & Michael White were teachers and I also saw Tyler White.  I didn't know any of them worked here. It was fun to see them!

Tell Trey to practice a piano piece or a song to perform at a MTC devotional.  One of my favorite parts of the firesides are the musical #'s.  I wanted to audition but it didn't work out.  But this last time a boy played a really pretty "if you could Hie to Kolob" piano solo.  i think Trey could do something!

I'm glad Jess is able to talk to you guys.  yes, I dislocated my shoulder again.  Remember how I was nervous about waking up at 6:30 am? Well, I didn't have to worry about that because my district is special and we had to try a new exercise program at 6 am which meant I had to wake up everyday at 5:30!!  Most of the work out was push-ups.  So one morning "POP" out came my shoulder. Stupid work out. But now I can sleep in to 6:30!  (how ssad is it that 6:30 is sleeping in?)

I love you all!

Sister Walker

PS  Here is a Book of Mormon to help you learn German!  I was getting my compy engraved and needed a substitute copy to use & study so I bought this one (&to let you  know what I wrote my not be grammatically correct, but I tried)

MTC Letter #3

Hello family!

I apologize if you were expecting my email on Friday. I was in a 13 hour long class on Friday so I couldn't write it. Why did they change my P-Day for a 13 hour long class do you ask? Because it was In-Field Orientation!! WOO-HOO! It was a huge long class broken into about 5 sessions so we weren't sitting in the same place for forever, which was nice. The focus was on how to contact people and how to use Ward Members to help the Missionary Effort. It was really interesting and I learned a lot. My favorite class was about the impact we have through our actions and not just our words. The example they started us off with was the 3 teenage boys carrying all the Martin Handcart Company across the Sweet Water River. This story always makes me cry. I just love it. Those boys had to show so much faith in accepting B. You8ng's call for a rescue party and even more to forge the river all those times. Stories like that and also a picture in the main building of people being baptized in a frozen lake in Russia and other stories of faith make me question if mine is strong enough. Would I have the faith to do what is needed in those hard times? Would I cross the plains, forge the frozen river, be baptized in a frozen lake? Or would I wait till it was easy to be faithful? I hope I am able to stay true even in trials, and I think I can, but I have been focusing my personal studies on learning more about faith and testimonies so I can build up mine. You can never have too much faith after all :]

Some cool things about In-Field Orientation: Jaron Murphy and Michael White were two of the teachers! They were so good. Michael was one of my teachers and he did a very good job, I only spoke with Jaron a little and saw him teaach his class and you could tell he was a good teacher too. Also, I saw Tyler White! He is a teacher for an English speaking district right now which is so fun! I didn't know he worked here so the little family reunion yesterday was tons of fun! That's 4 cousins I've seen here :] I love it. Also something fun is that 3 of the teachers were missionaries form the "District" videos! (When Trey gets home, wat h them with him (he'll need to sign in) They are used in our lessons here too. I met Elders Christensen, Murry, and Bott. Like MTC celebrities!

I hope Jess' call about my shoulder didn't worry you. I was trying to give you a heads up in case you get a letter from the health clinic or hospital. It's doing fine now and is kind of a lame story how it was dislocated, but here it is:

Remeber how I was nervous and not excited about waking up at 6:30 every morning? Well, lucky for me, I didn't have to wake up then! Oh no. My district is special so we are also doing a Pilot work out program that makes us get up at 5:30 every morning. Yeah. FiVE THIRTY!!! And the best part is the work out is 90% push ups. With no motifications for those with physical limitations. So most days I just kind of sat there stretching since I'm not supposed to do push-ups. Well, on Tuesday I got bored just sitting there adn feeling bad that I wasn't participationg and feeling wakking up so early is a waste of sleep time since i'm not exercising so i started to do the work out. about half way through my first set, out popped the shoulder! Then I spent the day in the ER getting x-rays and all that fun stuff. Great way to spend a day... But I did learn that obedience in all things means the Doctor's orders too. It's doing a lot better now. I can move it which is good! The Elders were very nice and helpful carrying everything for me.

Wedensday was fun becasue I was a Host Missionary for the new incoming Sister Missionaries! It was so fun to feel experienced here and show them around! I even helped one of my friends from Freshman Hall that I didn't know was comingon a mission! So much fun! I have loved the MTC and will miss it a little but not enough to want to stay longer! 3 Weeks is enough for me :]

Thursday I was really sick. I figure it was becasue of the pain meds the doctor gave me. I was dizzy and nauseous and couldnt move my arm or neck which scared me. I kind of blacked out-ish in class so my teacher and my Elder companions got my sister companion to take me back to our room where I did pass out. She tucked me in bed and i didn't move for a long time. Then after I woke up the Elders gave me a blessing and I'm doing so much better! My shoulder is now healing faster than expected- i'm out of my sling after only being in it 2 days!! and my fever is gone, and I can move all my muscles! Party for being healthy! I still think it was the medicine mostly so I flushed it all.

Saturday (today) is my preperation day. If you all are free to Temple stalk, my district is planning on going around 1:30-2ish... Just saying since you're in town... But that may be a bad idea since saying good bye agian would be hard. But I'm glad you all are in Utah today so I feel a little closer! Have fun at Temple Square! if you eat in the Nauvoo Cafe, eat a chocolate muffin for me :] Something else fun that has happened today is I saw James! it was strange that we could only shake hands but it was good to see him :] I'm going to miss seeing people I know when I am in Germany, but I guess that means I'll just have to make lots of friends there!

Mom- no I have not gotten a letter from Gerry. I hope she feels better soon and I will keep her in my prayers. Tell her I say hi!

Dad- Thanks for your email. Once again you made me cry. I have been thinking all week the same thing as you, "this time next week I'll be in Germany!' I'm so excited to share God's love with them! Most of Berlin is Atheist so I'll need His help a lot, but I know we can do it! Here in the MTC my "investigators" are doing well, two of them have "baptismal dates!" I was so excited when the role players said yes I can only imagine the feeling when real investigators accept the Gospel and start their journy on the straight and narrow path! How happy the day will be when that happens!!

I love you all and miss you but I will see you in 75 weeks! Hehe. I have a calling card to call you from the airport so expect a call sometime around 9-10am Utah time on Tuesday. I don't know when exactly but sometime before 11 becasue that's when my plane leaves! (about the time)

Love- Sister Walker

PS- Trey, I hid a note for you in the MTC see if you can find it! There is a place in 1M (the main building) that the same Jesus and Joseph Smith pictures that we have in our living room are right next to eachother. Look behind Jesus. These pictures are all over the MTC but the only place they're together is in 1M. Fingers crossed it stays till September! :] Love you T!

PPS- I hate time limits... there's more I want to say but time is out. love you! Tell Lyss and Jared and Paige and Taylee hi for me!

Answered Prayer Pic

Kalyn left a note in Jessica's classroom saying she had been to the ER for her shoulder and that she was fine, with no other details. And they did not get her email on her regular scheduled P-Day. Of course that made my Mom super nervous and very worried. She was praying and had asked Jess if she could check on Kalyn. Jessica sent this text and picture to my Mom not long after:

"Wow, Heavenly Father answered your prayers fast! I am walking into work and there Kalyn was coming back from the temple, i think. She is doing great!! They had In-Field orientation yesterday, so that's why you didn't hear from her. But she wrote you this morning so check your email :-) "