Sister Abby Walker: May 2017

Monday, May 29, 2017

Then Sings My Soul…

a bird entered the chappel

eating Chipa

cutie Hna Lockling

Hna Johnson

with Hna román and Teresa

ward party

Then Sings My Soul…

So this week was kinda crazy to say the least and I kinda had a different companion every day, but it is all good!

As far as investigators go, we had our ups and downs this week. One lady, Cipriania, we found after she just disappeared for a few days and it turns out she was in the hospital. She has problems in 1 lung and is using an oxygen tank and now her other lung is gonna give out it looks like. The doctors don’t giver her much hope. And she hasn’t even told her family, except her oldest son. We were able to share with her the Plan of Salvation and it helped her feel more at peace. It is a privilege sometimes to be able to see how the Gospel brings peace to troubled souls.

We also found a cute new little family of investigators. Ricardo and Claudidina and their 10 month old baby. They have been having some problems and want to strengthen their relationship and came on Thursday to a ward lunch activity to celebrate a patriotic day and they came on Sunday too. We hope to help them find the happiness they are looking for, we knew the gospel is the best way to be happy.

In an intercambio I had with Hermana Renzia, from Ecuador, we found a really neat lady. She is pentecostal but really humble and wants to do what God wants. But it was really interesting when she gave the last prayer cuz she kinda started ‘speaking in tongues’ so yeah…. but she is super buena!

The best part of this week is when I found and remembered a very big part of me…. making music. In a few weeks our mission is going to be visited by a seventy and so a musical number needs to be put together - and I get to participate! So for a few hours this week I was with a bunch of music nerds, singing and playing the piano and making music! And it was amazing. I was able to feel again the joy that music brings me. And I rediscovered my love for making music - it was like a sleeping part of who I am woke up again and it was beautiful!

I am so very grateful for my Heavenly Father for the many opportunities he gives me to uplift others, be it though words or music. And I am thankful of my earthly parents who have helped me and supported me so much to be able to take advantage of every opportunity. Parents are the best :) Nothing has made me realize that more than the mission.

Hermana Walker

Monday, May 22, 2017

Insanity Returned to My Life Photos

Our life in the streets in the winter

Dionel`s Baptism

Dionel`s baptism

With Hna Nina, the elders live behind her and she is like our grandma in the world

with Hna Barlow

mud.

when the bus splashed me

lots of mud :)

the sweets section

My comp in the super market

ur front door

root beer floats

Insanity Returned to My Life

This week was crazy and draining and just a whirlwind! Whoop here we go. This week the traveling sister missionaries came to visit us. Just when I was used to and loving the tranquility of living 2 in an apartment and having everything in it’s place the craziness came back to haunt me. Haha, so it wasn’t that bad but it made me very grateful that I am no longer traveling.

Basically lots of crazy stuff happened this week and I just don’t even know where to begin so I’ll just share a few experiences to sum up the week.

I had comp exchanges with my ‘grand-daughter’ (the Hermana I trained, trained her) Hermana Barlow, and she is training now! Which makes me a ‘great grandma!”

On the way home from intercambios I had one of those movie moments - we were walking in the rain under my umbrella when suddenly a giant collective passed by and totally completely soaked me with water in the street gutters. It was just lovely. And then about 10 minutes later walking to the church I stepped on a tile that wasn’t cemented and it splashed me and I was just done and let it out with 2 loud shouts as we were walking to the church and well apparently - to my embarrassment - everybody in the church heard it - the Bishop, the Elders and their investigator, and the Sociedad de Socors sewing ponchos for the Primary !Que verguenza!

The next day a car splashed me again - but this time with mud, I don’t think I’m very lucky.

But oh well. After lunch with Hermana Rita, Hermana Menezes and I headed to our part of the area to work, and as we were crossing the train tracks a man started following us and Hermana Menezes got spooked cuz she had a bad experience last week, so we started walking fast but he kept following us, so we decided to clap a door so that it looked like someone was expecting us so he would go away. So we clapped the first door we saw, and out walks a little kid I recognized but I didn’t know from where, so I awkwardly asked his name and Hermana Menezes recognized him as a little kid who had been in the NDH last night! So we asked him how long he has been coming to church and last night was his first time! So as it was dawning on us that he was a potential investigator, he asked us if we had remembered him and passed by on purpose or if we were just in the area and stopped by… and we just super awkwardly were like ‘yeah…’ Haha we didn’t even know he lived there! It was too funny. But we set a cita with him at 5 in the house of Hermana Rita to teach him. Too funny. After we couldn’t even believe it - the Lord works in weird ways. :)

After church was one of the most beautiful baptismal services I have ever attended, for Dionel. He is from Haiti and his first language is French and he is kinda crippled - one leg is a lot shorter than the other and he is amazing. He is currently living in a foster-community home type place run by the Catholic church so everyone was worried if he got baptized that he might get kicked out, but he told the Elders and the Bishop that it didn’t matter if he was homeless, that he would be happier in good standing with God. The service was so spiritual and sweet. A memorable experience. Also to celebrate my comps 13 month mark we made homemade root beer and root beer floats today. It has been so long :) So that was fun.

Basically just a normal week in the life of a missionary :) Gotta love it :)

- Hermana Walker

Monday, May 15, 2017

A Baptism in Korn Photos

Fabian´s Baptism

district activity today.... we made food cuz there isn't anything more exciting to do in our mission

pic of the super market... dia

outside of our house.... inside the door

A Baptism in Korn :)

This last week was a good one - full of lots of great experiences. And it finished with a baptism!

Our baptism was a little 9 year old boy named Fabian. His family has been re-activating for the last month or so, and we have been helping. Gavin is super cute and pays lots of attention and is a little sweetheart. We went a large part of our week traveling back and forth from his house way out in the country to finish giving him all the discussions. Every time we taught him, his 2 younger siblings would bother him the whole time but he just ignored them and listened to us which was adorable. :)

The actual service on Sunday was actually super stressful, because as always, nothing went as planned. The chapel didn’t have water Sunday - so don’t ask me by what miracles the Elders filled it at least to knee height - cuz I don’t honestly know. #miracles And the service started super late cuz the bishop was in a meeting and then an interview and we couldn’t get started without him and so we had a less active family of 12 and a 9 year old convert very impatient. Luckily and with lots of silent prayers everything turned out beautifully and the family was in tears at the end.

Other neat moments from the week - we visited a 15 year old recent convert who hasn't come to church in a few weeks, and so my comp shared with him the scripture in Alma 5:26 about feeling and singing the song of redeeming love now. And we asked him when he was first investigating when he felt the most peace and the Spirit - and he told us in the chapel so we asked him what he needs to do to feel that again - and he realized the obvious answer - come to church. And he came Sunday ! It was a neat lesson and strengthened my testimony of the effect a scripture and an inspired question can have.

While proselyting one morning we passed by a family of menos actives that haven’t wanted anything to do with us for a while. But well my comp was showing me a part of our area I didn’t know and they were on the town so we passed by and the Hermana Guevara came out and we invited her to the activity tomorrow and to Church and then we said goodbye and were headed on our way (and I stopped to make a wish on a dandelion ) when the Hermana came back outside and called us back and told us that in the minutes before we knocked on their door she and her husband had been reading the scriptures and talking about how they need to come back to Church and leave behind the philosophies of men mixed with scripture and then we appeared outside their house and how they they felt it was sign from God. And it was super cool to see how the Lord uses us to bring out lots of good that we don’t realize.

Also this week I had an intercambio with a new cute little sister from Guatemala, Hermana Hernandez. I love the new missionaries - they are so excited for the work and it is contagious.

This week really was great, with more spiritual and special moments than I have time to write. Feeling the Spirit and seeing others faces when they feel it as we teach. Hearing about little miracles happening all over the mission. For real, I love being a missionary.

It was wonderful to be able to talk with my family yesterday. I love them so much and it reminded me why I decided to serve; so other families can be happy like mine. I feel so blessed to have the Gospel in my life and to have the privilege to share it with others here in Buenos Aires.

Hermana Walker

Monday, May 8, 2017

A. Korn Photos

A bit of my new area

The super old heater we use to keep warm... just waiting for a new one.... the good thing is when we ran out of matches on Sunday we just put a paper in it to light the stove to heat lunch.... :)

Dinner with the Bishops family, the Bishop is the one with the goofy face :)

A bit of my new area

She made cinammon bread :)

A. Korn

This week… well I really suffered in my new area and with this change. Monday my comp made snickerdoodles and I had to help her, what a pain. Tuesday for my first lunch in my new area the cute little member made us tacos instead of the pasta I’m acustumbrado to. Okay so if it isn’t already obvious, I haven’t suffered at all. In fact the opposite. I think I am in Heaven. Not only do we have lunch every day (and very rarely it’s pasta!!) but just about every other day someone invites us over for dinner too!!! It is awesome! My comp is awesome too, super obedient and super nice and it is kinda awesome living with another Yankee. We have the same standards of clean and we like the same music and we can listen to General Conference talks in English together and we are working super hard and we are super focused and happy. Life is good!

This week my comp has been helping me to learn the area and meet all our investigators. We have lots of investigators who are little kids, usually kids of inactive members and we have been trying really hard to work more with their parents so they can get permission to be baptized. We haven’t been too successful with this, lots of hard hearted parents and it is super sad to have to leave behind the cute little kids because of the choices of their padres.

Thursday was kinda a crazy day. In the afternoon we had a first lesson set up with a new investigator. And so we got there about 30 minutes late and we clapped our hands outside the gate, and Elisabeth came out and let us in and as she led us into her backyard telling us that she has been studying lots of religions trying to get a big picture and we were just like, oh okay cool. And then we walk into the backyard and there seated at the table were the Jehovah’s Witnesses… haha the looks on their faces probably mirrored ours. They told us they were almost done with their message (luckily we arrived late to the appointment :) ) so they read, and we read a little with them from the Bible and we let them finish in peace. Haha and then when Elisabeth started arguing she can worship God from home and that she doesn’t need to go to church all 4 of us teamed up against to tell her it is a commandment and important to go to church. Haha the theme was basically, them or us but si a si you have to go to church. It was funny. When they left we shared a short message mainly testifying of the Book of Mormon and inviting her to read and pray. So that was a funny experience!

Friday in our leadership council we basically studied the talk from the April Ensign of “The War Continues”, it is super good and you should read it if you haven’t already. It teaches about Satan’s strategies and how to combat them.

Saturday we had a fun little miracle. We went to a recently activated sisters house for lunch, that lives in our area. And as we were finishing eating she asks us if she needs to call the Elders so they can teach her 9 year old son so he can be baptized and we were like, uh no! We can do that!!! So woo hoo next Sunday we should have a beautiful little baptismal service for Fabian. He is a cute little kid and pays lots of attention when we teach him, even with his siblings (he is one of 12) bothering him.

So yeah, basically life is good here in A. Korn! I am happy and working and having fun and hope to keep up the good momentum! :)

—Hermana Walker

Monday, May 1, 2017

Ezeiza: an ending where it all started

This was a good week, and it marked an ending for me. It was my last week as a traveling missionary. It has been a fun, crazy last few months visiting the areas of the hermanas, but all good things come to an end, to make way for even BETER things! :) I am super excited for what this next transfer holds in store, but bueno, let’s start with this last week first.

It was amazing to be back in Ezeiza. I love that area with all my heart. And I love the people in the area. It was great to be able to see the members and less actives I love. And the VERY, VERY best part is that one of the investigators a million other missionaries and I worked with, Felipa, FINALLY got married and baptized and she is so happy and different now and calls herself a Daughter of God and I am so, so, so very happy for her! I love her so much. Really I can’t describe how wonderful it was to be back in Ezezia walking the streets I had memorized and hugging the sisters I loved in that area. Also I found out this week that Victor, my little converted spiritualist from Banfield 2 is attending every week an adult institute class! I am a very happy missionary this week.

And I am very very excited for this next transfer. I am going to have an area again and it is a GREAT area! I will be serving in the ward of Alejandro Korn. It is a country area, lots of fields and grass and trees (and mosquitos) and lots of really nice people. SO I am super excited for that! And hey check it out - I am going to have my first Yankee companion. My new lovely comp is Hermana Biesinger, she is from New York and has a giant family and is the oldest like me. And bueno, I don’t know too much about her but she loves to bake treats (like my lovely sister Emily, who I have missed, and her treats, dearly). Currently she is making an apple pie, obviously I am going to suffer this transfer ;)

But for real I am SUPER excited for these next few months, it is likely that I will pass the rest of my time here in Korn and the idea makes me super excited! I am ready to work a lot!! I hope everyone at home has as great a week as I’m gonna have. And hey, shoutout to my lovely sister Sara who turns 11 this week! I love you Sunshine! :)

-Hermana Walker