Hello Family

Hello! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. It was an exciting week last week here in Bremerhaven and pictures say more than words, hope you heard them all!

One Sunshine Moment this week was with a man named Helmut Bertram. He is the one who wrote his recipes in secret code and was a part of the rescue team "Christof 6." He said in an appointment we had that he doesn't really pray because he doesn't see answers. This week, Herr Bertram went into the Hospital for a few days. We thought it would be nice to visit him if we had time and planned to only drop in to say hi and leave a spiritual thought. When we got to the Hospital on Saturday, his face lit up when he saw us and tears came to his eyes. He said that he had been so lonely these past few days in the Hospital and had tried to call family to visit him but no one came. When no one came, he said he prayed to God for comfort and then we came a few hours later. He called us the answer to his prayer and now can see God does answer prayers. I feel blessed and grateful that a simple visit was an answer to a prayer. We were also able to read almost a whole chapter of the Book of Mormon together and it gave him a desire to continue reading! 

Margarete Schnackenberg (the 92 year old lady, this is how to spell her name. Pretty sure I misspelled it in every other email) also called us an answer to her prayers! She has a nurse that comes everyday to help her clean and shower and shop and all that jazz but her nurse in on vacation for 2 weeks and the replacement nurse doesn't take the time to do more than give her her medicine and take the trash out on the way out the door. She is too frail to go grocery shopping alone so her nurse bought her what she thoght would be enough food for 2 weeks but Margarete ran out on Saturday and the nurse does not come back till Tuesday. We called her to confirm an appointment and she asked us for help which we were more than happy to do! She said that we truley do come from God. We also showed her the Jospeh Smith First Vision movie as part of a lesson and sweet Margarete said as soon as it was done "that was a wonderful movie, I loved seeing the cows and the sheep and the birds." We will be watching this movie again and making sure she notices the important people this time :] 

On Friday we had President interviews in Hamburg! Because my Zone is so small, only 10 of us total!, we join the Hamburg Zone for Interviews and the Hannover Zone for Zone Conference. It's fun for us becasue we get to see lots of other missionaries! Bad thing is we have to travel a long time to get there. But after a 3 hour train ride and my District was able to ride the last hour together, we were in Hamburg around 9am. We were the last ones to have our interviews so while we were waiting we played "Telephone Pictanary." Such a fun game. Everyone is in a circle and wrote a scripture on a piece of paper. then we passed the papers and had to illistrate the written scripture, folded the written scripture backwards to pass the paper again and the 3rd person had to write a sentance desiphering the picture. and thenthe next illistrates and so on till the paper is full. then you read all the sentances and see how far off from the origional scripture we got! I will have to send you some of the pages, they are amazing. Example- starting scripture 'o be wise, what can i say more' ending 'and it came to pass capitan hook accepted the book of mormon from two american navy officers' :D!! hahaha! so fun! and good object lesson on mistranslations of bible hehe. 

Before lunch we had lessons from President and Sister Kosak which were very good and inspiring, then lunch where I got to see some elders from my Golden Group including my MTC companion Elder Duff! It was so fun and I felt a little like Alma the Younger rejoicing that my bretheren (sons of mosiah) were still doing well and preaching the Gospel! We all were exchanging stories and ideas for finding that I almost didn't eat lunch! Then they left and my District got to wait some more. 

We had a meeting with the Assistants to the President then sang some hymns, then were so itching to do something meaningful that we decided to go street contacting! It was so fun to do it in a new city and see the Elders working hard! Sister Faerber and I were able to place a Book of Mormon even! About 30 minutes into our contacting it started pouring rain (we placed the Book of Mormon in the rain, it got wet but is still wonderful!) so we headed back to the Church building for more waiting. We sang more songs and made a cake in the microwave and read some scriptures and played chess. Around the time we started with the cake we started getting called in one at a time. 

Because it was the first Interview with the new President they were taking longer than expected, which was OK by us. I was the very last to be Interviewed and we had a nice little chat. I was able to ask him my questions and receive his personal council that I am taking to heart and seeing the blessings already. President Kosak only asked me one question after the 'how are yous' because he wanted the interview to help me so I asked most of the questions. But the one question he asked me, I was not expecting. He asked me if I was ready to be a Trainer. 

Honestly I was not expecting a question like that since I am still a Golden but thinking about it made me realize that being new is no excuse not to be ready. I have pondered what I still need to do to be ready and there is a lot but now that I've seen what I need to do, I can start doing it! Patience is still something I need to work on and in conjunction with that, this week I am focusing on my self accountablility. Sister Faerber is great and wonderful but I can't keep waiting for her to always take the lead. I can be an equal companion and learn by experiance as much as I can learn by her example. I have made new personal goals to make myself a more exactly obediant missionary and more self diciplined to be ready to confidently accept responciability if it is ever asked of me. 

I'm glad you all had a good week! 

Trey, did you get my birthday card? If not, look for it soon! I'm glad you had a fun party! It's important since you had an important birthday 19!! wooo-hoo!! Guess what? 1 month and 6 days till you go into the MTC!! I'm sure Dad will give you all his wise council as he did to me but if you have any questions for me, I'd be more than happy to answer them! 

Kaden, way to hit on a College girl! Hehe ;] Did you get her number? tehehe... It's so happy that you enjoyed EFY! Keep growing your Testimony. I was thinking, you're 14 right? The same age as Joseph Smith when he had the first vision. Can you imagine that? If you keep studying the scriptures and saying your prayers and doing all you are, you can have the same knowlege as Joseph Smith. You probably won't have a vision, but keep nurturing your testimony and it will be as strong as if you had. 

Cam, you looked like a movie star sitting on the Horse at Scout camp! Congratulations on earning hard merit badges!! You rock dude! What was your favorite part of Scout Camp? Was it fun to have Dad there? Do you have anything else fun this summer? It's almost over so I hope you do! 

Cole, if you're ever bored at home again, you can always write me a letter! I will write you back! Did you have fun with Mom? Which restaraunts did you go to? SOmething else you can do this summer is make a goal to finisih the Book of Mormon before school starts. I'm trying to finish it in German before October, maybe you can finish it in English before school or before your birthday! 

Mom and Dad, I love you! Thanks for your emails, they always lift me up. I do have one more request for you as well, can you please email me the scanned music to "Waterfall" and "Home in His Heart?" Thanks! 
I have a question for you as well, I know you are praying for me and I am for you too, but how do I feel your prayers? People always say they feel others prayers for them, what does it feel like. I've been thinking about that but havent thought of an answer yet. 
How are the Olympics? I heard Mary Poppins was in them? I hope all is going well and rememebr that I love you. Thank you for your examples to me.. Dad in responce to a few emails ago, I never get tired of you saying you love mom, it makes me want to marry someone who loves me that much. It's a great example, thank you. 

Love you all! 
-Sister Walker

PS- letters in the mail are a great little pick me up! my address in  case you forgot it is

Alter Postweg 28
27578 Bremerhaven
Germany

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