Money.

Hey.

Merry Christmas everybody. And Happy New Years. :)

Welllllll Hi. So what did I do. Oh yeah.

Well this Christmas was way fun. Best Christmas every. haha. We went out to our first counselor's home, Frere Darguence, and ate lunch. I then got to skype my family! What thugs! Haha that was so fun! I wish I could've talked longer. But that's fine, it's no big deal. Ater skyping, Elder Herdt and I went porting for a solid three hours. We had made a goal to find a family on Christmas! Well... We kind of did. An old couple let us in in the final stretch. It was so awesome. For one, it was nice and warm in their home. Two, they fed us soup. Three, they were a nice, cute couple. :) They have three daughters and like five grandchildren or something like that. But it was a Christmas Miracle. Oh, and it started snowing yesterday! Even though it's after Christmas, it was a miracle. Kind of. I like the snow.... But not as a missionary. It's colder than Santa right now. 

Well on Saturday, we ate at Mario's again. He fed us a mama mountain. I almost died it was so much food. Well, our amie Michelle came over for that. At first, she was kind of quiet, but then she started to talk and laugh and she said she liked it. So that's a good thing. :) Also, the man that Mario took from off the streets, Collins, ate too. He is from Nigeria, and I love that man so much. He is so funny. And he is getting baptized. High five. He is so excited for his baptism too. Haha.

Another thing. A less active moved out here, and then she called us and said that she wants to start coming back to church. Her husband, who is not a member, also wants a blessing for his mother. Who is also not a member. Bow chicka wow wow. That's that.

I love you all. :) 

Peace.

Hello.

I will be a fan of David Archuleta untill the day I die. He is great. Wow that was awesome.

The Conference this Thursday was SO fun. Christmas is definitely the best time of the year. Holy cow. And it's just so fun because... It is. David was super humble. Thank you mom and friends for the packages/mail. I love Christmas.

I love it.

I do.

So this last week, we went playing Santa for the members, giving them a little book of a story Elder Anderson had when he was a missionary. Ehhhh voila. Yesterday, we went and visited Dan Kitambala, because he had to go to the hospital for his foot. We went with his homie, Diogene, and we gave him a blessing. It was the first time Diogene has ever given a blessing, and it was a super spiritual experience. He is 19. He expressed desires to go on a mission, I sure hope he does. He'd be super good. Haha we gave him skittles, because apparently, skittles don't exist here in France.

Michelle is still doing just great. She hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon... But she has been checking out mormon.org and is writing down questions she has for us. So if that is good or bad... Well, I guess we'll see. haha. 

Well my brain is flying out, so peace. 

Love you all. :)

Elder Walker

Howdy Do Dah Day

Well hi. Rootin' Tootin'!

Here's a story! So I have anointed oil a couple times before, but never given the blessing. Well last night, I had my first opportunity! It was to one of our amies, Michelle. Elle est tombé malade. So we gave her a blessing. I think blessing are one of my favorite things about being a missionary. They are always such spiritual experiences. You just walk into the home, knowing what your purpose is and knowing who you are representing, and you get the chills, and it's always just super cool.

Unfortunately, we didn't teach twenty lessons again this week, but that's okay. We did our best. :) We had to pass lots of members and give them all presents our Mission President asked us to give. SOOOOO that took up a day. 

I'm very grateful that I get to stay in Val de Saone for another transfer. I just don't feel like my work is done here yet. But then again, I don't think I'll ever feel that way about any sector. But staying for 4 in a ville is actually a pretty good amount of time, so obviously there's something I have to do. For example. Haha. So when I was with Elder Nye my first transfer, we contacted a lady named Michelle. (I think I've already told this story, but here it goes again.) WELL somewhere in between two weeks ago and the first contact with her, we contacted her again (This I didn't know until she told us). But she took seeing us over and over as a sign from God that she had to talk with us. So now we are teaching her! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

David Archuleta is coming this Thursday. Those poor sister missionaries. I'm so stoked. He's doing one for the missionaries, and another for the stake... AND we get to go to both! Yay.

Well yippee. Love you all. :)

Elder Walker

HEYO

Well this week was full of miracles I'd like to share.

First, just barely, Elder Herdt and I got a park right next to the office. Free, too. That's pretty cool.

Also, this last Tuesday, we were contacting, and it was like 20 minutes before we had to go in. The roads were pretty dead. But there was one man in the road, and of course we went head hunting and contacted him. Him name is Djamel, he is from Algeria. Well we fixed a rdv with him for the next day, and we taught him the Restoration. He understands and speaks french just fine, but he can't read french. Well we saw him again on Thursday, gave him a Book of Mormon in Arab, and he read a little bit out of the introduction in Arab for us, and he prayed for us in his native language, Kabil! It was crazy, literally so cool. He accpted a soft engagement for baptism. We are planning on fixing a date with him tonight. So that's a miracle, plus he's free all the time! Also, last night we went to go visit a less active. We were going to give her cookies, because Elder Herdt can cook a mean batch of cookies, but she wasn't there. Well we decided to start ringing all the people in her building, and while we were doing that, a lady stopped by and was like "Ring that one for me"! So we did, and then she asked what we were doing in the middle of no where. Well we explained, gave her the cookies, and then she was like, "I live in Villefranche too! Why don't you come over this night when we are doing Christmas things"! Elder Herdt and I were like "Well... I think we can fit time in for that". So that was pretty crazy. Haha. 

We helped Danielle paint her apartment twice this last week with a member named Mario. It was pretty fun, she just loves all the missionaries. We plan on having a "Get down to business" lesson with her this Saturday. I hope it goes good. I'm sure it will. :) We also ate at Mario's one night. Well let me tell you. I almost blew up, he fed us so much. We ate with the Assistants, and it was just crazy. I've never eaten so much in my life. It was literally more than I eat even on Thanksgiving!

Oh yeah!

DAVID ARCHULETA IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited haha. It's in like three weeks. I'm so stoked. Also, there is this thing called the He is the Gift initiative. I encourage you all to check it out. Use the thing #SharetheGift because it needs to get big. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I love you all.

Peace

Elder Walker

Yo.

Well Quoi de neuf.

Elder Herdt and I have been going hard in the paint. He is the complete opposite of Elder Swenson. He is young, hip, and full of love. Haha. He is 18 and from Syracuse. He's been out for about 8 months. I've already learned so much from him. It's weird because with my other companions, I didn't get to speak my mind as much, but with him, we talk about 50-50, so that's good. I'm starting to realize what it means to be a successful missionary. It's weird because I'm always just super tired and want a nap, but at the same time, I don't want to get off the roads. It's weird that I'm so happy. Haha I sound like I'm from The District. Haha. "Teach him the Restoration". Kimmie would get a good laugh at that.

I am going to be destroyed when I get transferred. I don't want to leave this place. I love it so much. I love Villefranche and the people and everything! This morning, we met with an old ami of about 7 months. It was weird because we just saw him in the area book, decided to call him, and he was like sure. He has already taken a lot of the lessons, but he says that he wants to get baptized, but because he works for the Catholic church, it's hard for him. We will continue to work with him. Of course. :) And Danielle is going well too. We had a family night at the bishops home last Thursday, and Danielle went too, and she loved it. Her main problem is that she thinks her catholic baptism is valid. But that's okay, we will continue to work with her on that and keep seeing her. I was so excited when she was going to get baptized, but I learned that it doesn't matter what I want, it's the Lord's will that matters. :)

Well hippy hop, I started reading Jesus the Christ again! YAY! I love it. Haha. I have a testimony of this church, and here it is. God lives, and we are his children. He loves us. :) I know that Jesus Christ is out savior. I know he died for us and is resurrected, so that we can be happy and live with God again. :) I know he lives. The Atonement is real, and anybody can be forgiven for whatever they've done. I know that the Book of Mormon is true as well. I've read it, prayed about it, and received my answer. The power of the Priesthood is real as well. We have a living prophet today.

Well. I love you all. Don't forget to pray. :)

Howdy Do

Hello!

So this week has been pretty exciting. Well, today mostly, because I get a new companion. I haven't met him yet, but he'll be getting here in Lyon in about 2 hours, so that'll be fun. I have been helping out with all the missionaries coming through the Lyon Gare with their suitcases. There is a two hour break right now, so I have time to write emails. This internet cafe is full of missionaries right now. 

So my new companion is named Elder Herdt. I don't really know much about him, but I've heard really good things about him, so I'm really excited.

So here's a story. We were going to eat at Brother Mejeans home this coming thursday, and we invited Danielle to it. She is so excited. In fact, she called Bishop Jubault and said thanks for the invite! Well because we have the best bishop in the world, he played it off like a champ, and instead of eating at Brother Mejeans, we're eating at Brother Jubaults! Bishop and I had a pretty good laugh at that. Haha. 

It's so weird seeing some of these missionaries go home. On Saturday, I went on a mini exchange with Elder Adams. He is my role model. He is such an amazing missionary. I almost cried saying bye to him, because he's going home. He helped me set goals to become a better missionary, and helped motivate me. I'm going to work on being the best missionary I can be!

Well... Loves. 

Bye.

Elder Walker

Well, it was an adventure. (Nov 3)

What a week y'all.

So I road tripped to Bordeaux this week. It was pretty awesome. The new Elder is named Elder Bleak. He grew up in Kaysville, but lived in Boston the last two years. But anyways, here's a story. So we show up to Bordeaux at like 8, then want to have dinner. So we go to this place called Halal Fried Chicken. Long story short... My bag got stolen with the keys to the car and the apartment and my camera. Sooo now I have no camera. But anyways, they had to send the spare key to the car to Bordeaux in over night shipping, so we stayed in Bordeaux an extra day. Luckily, it was the Elder Kearon conference, so that was cool. We left the next morning, went back to Lyon, the stayed in the Office Elders apartment because there was no spare to our apartment. The next day, we went to Villefranche and had a member help us find a place that could take off our lock and replace it. SO that was an adventure. But no more camera for me. :(

Anyways, Danielle didn't get baptized either. She started having doubts, so we decided to postpone it. But I'm still confident she'll get baptized still. If not this week, then next. But Dan still got baptized, and it was a really cool experience getting to baptize him! I think that the other elders will send pictures to me this week because I don't have a camera, so I can send them next week. :) That was a really cool experience, and it was a good lifter-upper after a really tough week. 

Well, please keep Danielle in your prayers.

Word.

Elder Walker