Well... Today is my official 18-month mark. Crazy. But cool. Weird.

Were going downtown again today :) 

Funny story-

We met up with a less active lady that sister Nielsen used to work with in one of her old areas because she's been really having a rough go of it, and is leaving the country for a few months tomorrowish. So, we visited with her. At the end of the visit, we were sitting in the car and she was telling sister Nielsen about her family drama...

LESS ACTIVE: so yeah, my step dad started yellin at me and cussin me out. He started gettin real mad, and he started standin over me like he was gonna fight me. And he is like way taller than me and bigger than me. Plus he was drunk. I told him to get away from me, but he wouldn't. So I was all like, uh uh, I'm not gonna deal with this! So I was all like, you get away from me o I'm gonna knife you! 

[pause]

SIS NIELSEN: wait, you carry a knife on you??

Less active lady started reaching down to grab it for us then stopped.

LESS ACTIVE: uh no, actually I'm not going to show you...

Ha idk maybe you had to be in the moment, but it was so funny... :) hahaha oh my goodness..

We visited with a member yesterday who just moved in, and he's a paleontologist. He told us about dinosaurs and showed us fossils and it was AWESOME. 

I'm eleven pages away from finishing the Book of Mormon.i don't know how many times I've read through it at this point. But it's not the first or second time :)

Basically, it's just true. I don't know what else to say. It's just true. And I'm so grateful for it. 

Not only is it true, but it's real. So real. I've seen it. I've seen it change lives and melt hearts, and it's a miracle every time. What a blessing :)

Love you all!!

Sister Hayley Walton 

"If your having a bad day, you need institute. If your having a good day, institute needs you." -Anthony

Yes, FALL is upon us!! I love it. It's so pretty and fun. I just can't wait for pumpkins and colorful leaves. That's my favorite part of the season! And sister Nielsen is slightly obsessed with this time of year too, so we kind of feed off of each other... :) 

Sounds like all sorts of crazy stuff is happening back home! But sounds like a lot of fun :) 

Well, we went contacting with the Big Book. Idk if you've seen it on Facebook, but it was pretty awesome.  One of the elders in our district used to be a professional mascot guy, so we made a big Book of Mormon and stuck him inside. We built a frame of PVC pipes, and sewed a cover to fit it and painted letters on it. So cool and so fun. 

I haven't had a chance to teach with the Woodburys yet, and I found out a week or so ago that that's actually like, a thing. So I asked president to come to a lesson with us with Han. He's another Chinese investigator we have that reminds me so much of Haisu (still miss him!). So yeah. It was a great, spirit driven lesson. So crazy cool. I just adore president and his power with the spirit. It was a break through lesson.

And Han shared with us that when he was like 15, he had this really strong feeling that he would be baptized. He was living in china at the time, and didn't know much about religion or baptism. But he just knew for some reason that he would be baptized. He told his mom about it and she told him sure. 

Ha so here he is, contemplating baptism before he moves back to china in two weeks. Crazy. 

Just throwing it out there- the Chinese are so ready. Anyone who's served with a lot of them could probably testify to that. It's awesome. 

I was on an exchange with sister Olsen this week. She was asking me about BYU, and in reference to my dating life said that me going to BYU would be like "a marshmallow going to a bonfire." Hahaha idk it's a funny image. You have to know her.

Also on my exchange with sister Olsen, she found a dying bird on the sidewalk and insisted that we save it. Not knowing what to do, she carried it (ew) around all of Hyde park until it had a seizure and died in her hands. Then we took it to a park and buried it under a tree. BUT we contacted a family along that crazy journey. So... The Lord knows... Haha but it was a crazy experience I couldn't believe it was happening. 

The elders randomly had nerd guns in the trunk of their car. So we stole them. Ha. And we used them in a lesson with Kyle! :D best lesson ever. We talked about laying down our weapons of rebellion... 

A returning less active member of ours that we have been working with had a crazy party life and history before he started coming back again. We were talking to him the other night about his experience coming back (he passed the sacrament two weeks in a row!)... His response was interesting... He said that since he's come back to Christ, he's "been able to feel again." I thought that was very telling and interesting... 

"If your having a bad day, you need institute. If your having a good day, institute needs you." -Anthony

But yeah, it's been great. Pure testimony, born with love, is the way to go. Social media is a great way to share the gospel. 

Love you all!! 

Sis Walton 

This week has been pretty crazy. Ha I'm so tired.

Penny is a new girl in the branch (idk if I mentioned her last week)... She's from china (same place as Haisu), and just moved back to Chicago to finish her last year of school. She was baptized August 2 (same day as Haisu) in California and she is the sweetest thing!

She bore her testimony on  Sunday and shared the sweetest story of her conversion... She was raised not to believe in god. But then she said that when she finally prayed about what the missionaries had taught, she felt gods love for the first time. I thought that was so cute... To feel gods love for the first time! 

Saturday, Brent was baptized!! Wow, like a month after we followed the prompting to talk to him, he was baptized. And he is solid- such a great addition to the branch, I'm so proud of him!!

After Brent's baptism, we went to a baptism of one of sister nielsons old investigators in Lake Villa 2-- one of my old areas. I was there almost a year ago with sister graham. Crazy! And the girl that was baptized (Jordan) was someone that we tried teaching multiple times. I'm grateful that we planted seeds though, and that time softens hearts. Ha sister graham and I went over to her house when we first got there, and her mom (a less active) literally chased us off the porch. Ha luckily, she didn't remember me! ...I was introduced to a brand new woman at the baptism :) and it was great

Friday we went to a training meeting for the new STLs... My companion being one of them. It was so awesome! I loved it. And pres Woodbury shared some thoughts at the beginning, and it was so needed and perfect. Man, he's so inspired!! I love it. And it was in the mission home and we had lunch (it's been a stellar week for food! We've been fed a lot this week-- I don't even need to go grocery shopping today :D). 

After the meeting, president was giving blessings to some of the sisters- I had five minutes and his couch looked sooooo comfortable. Man, it was an awesome five minutes haha. And then this huge rain storm came out of nowhere and me and another companionship got totally DRENCHED trying to save the Woodburys tent thing at was still up in their backyard for their sons wedding reception a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty sure we did more damage than harm...

Were making a giant Book of Mormon to parade around downtown. I love creative contacting ideas... Pics on FB in the next week or two!

We taught some awesome lessons to a couple incredible new people we've found to teach! I'm excited to see where they all go in the next few weeks and months :D

We were talking to one of our investigators during our first lesson... We asked him something about what his relationship with god was like. He said something like, "he's my bro- he got my back always! Were so tight, it's like a bromance!" ...#YSAinSouthSide 

We were talking to a returning less active member about his goals. He said that he really needed the peace and comfort and love from going to the temple by the end of the year. He said, "I feel like I need to cuddle up with god... In the temple." ....#YSAmissionarywork 

I went on an exchange with sister graham and sister straddling (they are in a trio right now) it was soooo awesome to be with her and have one last exchange with her. She has grown tremendously in the past (almost) year and I'm so proud of her!!

This week, Elder Hamula and his wife of the seventy are visiting the mission- well have a mission-wide conference on Friday I'm so excited about!!

Yeah, that's kind of it. Were keeping pretty busy.

I have a goal to finish the entire book of mormon this transfer. Ha I'm a little behind, but it's going well :) I love it! And I love doing the work of The Lord here in chi town. South side is where it's at! 

Love you all :)

Sister Walton

This week started out slow, but got faster and faster!!!

This week started out slow, but got faster and faster haha. We helped one of our sweet ward members move. It was actually the best. I love doing stuff like that helping out. AND, I got a pretty killer leg workout. So actually it probably did more good for me than for her anyway ;) but it was great

Our investigator, jacqui, is awesome. She totally adores Simone. Simone is making such a huge difference already!! She is an amazing friend and gospel principles teacher, and does such a beautiful job answering people's questions (mostly because she's already asked them all herself!) seriously. Amazing.

Brent's baptism is this week. A month ago tomorrow will be when sister Bradley and I first ran into him. The Lord knows him. He's entering the waters of baptism is Saturday :)

Sister Nielsen and I got on the bus to go downtown this week. She got on first and had an impression to sit by a guy, but say by another girl instead. That's why it's funny that I got on the bus right after her, had a prompting to sit next to the same guy, and I sat by him. I was figuring out how to start up a conversation with him when he turned to me and said, "so, how long do you have left?" Haha there are certain things that people say to you that hint that they know more than most people about Mormons, and that's definitely one of them! Ha turns out he's an inactive member-- one that I've personally actually called on a couple different occasions since I've been in this area. Ha I was so excited to meet him. We had a great conversation on the way up- he was great. After a while, our bus stop was approaching. He made a comment on how it was such a coincidence we sat next to each other. I told him that the spirit told me to sit next to him. He laughed. Ha I looked him in the eye, smiled, and told him that god knows exactly who he is- it was no coincidence that out of all the people and buses in Chicago at that moment, that I (a missionary who had called him unsuccessfully on many occasions) sat next to him. I told him that god is ready for him when he is ready to come back and invited him to church. It was a rather awesome experience :)

We have an active member named Kyle who we visit on a regular basis just to help him out. Holy cow, I love that guy so much! We decided we would surprise him his week by showing up at his work. He's been telling us about the wasabi ginger lays chips for weeks, so we thought we'd try them. We went into the heart of Chicago, to his walgreens and it was awesome. I love the city :) and the chips were good too!

So I've read 190 pages of the Book of Mormon since I started last week. Whew! Lots of reading! But it's great :) a cool side effect of reading the scriptures really diligently and studying them effectively is that your prayers improve. I haven't really done much with my prayers, but they have been improving this week and I know it's because of my reading of the Book of Mormon. It's super cool too, because I notice how faith and prayer works in the Book of Mormon, and its transferring over into my actual life and making a difference on how I do things. Love it. 

Well, Chicago is great, I love it so much and the work is going great! Love you all :)

Sister Walton

Well is week has been crazy.

Well is week has been crazy. Ha I miss sister Bradley so much. But sister Nielsen is great! 

We helped a less active move out of her apartment this past Friday. I was actually super fun and I love when I can do random hard physical labor like that. Ah it felt so good! And it was fun to be there with the branch. Elder Berhow got stung pretty bad though by some kind of crazy bug when he was out loading the truck. Ha poor guy.

It's so humid here right now!  

We had a sweet lesson with Simone, and our investigator, Jacqui. Jacqui really relates to Simone, and Simone does such a great job at supporting her and answering questions. I love to see it!!

Sister Nielsen came down with some kind of sore throat, flu, headache, congestion deal Saturday. Ha she took a much-needed two and a half hour nap after church yesterday. She's still hanging in there, but luckily it seems to be getting better now? Apparently it's been going around the mission. Ha I've stayed clear of it, for the most part. I definitely haven't gotten it nearly as bad as her! But she's doing great- she's working so hard despite it, so I'm proud of her :)

Honestly that's kind of it for now, I think! Nothing super crazy new or exciting. There's a pretty sweet thunder storm outside right now. I love thunderstorms in the Midwest. Dang. 

Oh cool thing-- so, in the MTC, my MTC branch president committed us to finish the Book of Mormon during our six weeks there.well, I finished in six weeks and it was a killer way to kick off my mission. 

We have a seventy that's visiting in a couple weeks, and to prepare, pres Woodbury asked us to read the Book of Mormon and highlight the doctrine of Christ. 

I made a goal to finish my mission how I started it by reading the entire Book of Mormon in my last transfer (six weeks). And between Tuesday and today, im in 100 pages! :) which is actually kind of impressive. It'll be tricky to keep up with it, but I'm bound and determined. 

It's so cool though to see the real-life application we can find in the Book of Mormon. I feel like that's what the spirit has been teaching me this time around :) 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Walton 

He referred to me as "mademoiselle". Fancy!

There's a quote you sent me once that sis something like, "I always know when I am under the influence of the spirit when I learn something from what I said"... I love those moments on a mission. We were in a lesson with an investigator, and with Simone, and the investigator asked a question about repentance, and neither sister Bradley or I knew the answer, and Simone had the same question! We both thought for a minute, and without knowing what to do, I did the best I could to answer the question. But within the first sentence, I stumbled over my words. So I stopped. Paused. And then tried again. Ha and I totally learned from what I said! I dunno, it was just so cool, and i felt the spirit and I knew that what I had said was correct. And I learned from it! Yeah. Sweet.  

Sister Bradley and I were walking to walgreens to pick up a prescription of mine. We walked by this lady who stopped us, and was like, "can I ask you a question?!" We said yes, and she then asked if we were nuns. Haha we explained it, and she was so excited to hear about our missions and that we would (hopefully) be getting married when we get home and stuff. Ha it was a great and hilarious conversation. I love those. 

We got a group of missionaries together and went downtown to contact with some posters. Kind of like the "feeling gods love" table thing a week or two ago. It was so fun! Ha you meet so many unique people doing that...

I met this one guy named Peter.

He referred to me as "mademoiselle". Fancy! That's a new one haha yeah, but he wasn't into the whole 'faith' thing. It was an interesting conversation. Good thing were here to invite, not to convince. :)

We also ran into an LDS family where one of the girls goes to school with sister Bradley's cousin. Small world.

There was this homeless guy camped out at the intersection we were contacting at. He called sister Bradley over to ask about what we were doing. She explained a little and he asked for a Book of Mormon. He said, "the bible got me off of heroine and cocaine. I'm willing to give this Mormon book a try." Dang he was awesome. His name was Michael. He will do great things.

Every once in a while, you hear those missionary stories that only really ever happen in the Ensign... Not in real life. WELL, we had one of those.  

Two weeks ago, sister Bradley and I were booking it to the church with a plate of fresh-baked cookies for Haisu and Simone's baptism. A block away from the church, we walked past this guy dribbling a ball on the sidewalk. We said hi as he walked by and he said our cookies smelled good. We kept going. Ha we knew we should talk to him, but we didn't cause 'we had other things to do.' Pfffft. Anyways, we get to the church, and sister Bradley is like, "we need to go back and talk to him." I felt it too, so we made the long awkward walk back to talk to him specifically (this is why you follow the spirit the first time!!). We invited him to the baptism. He was hesitant, but we convinced him to come and promised cookies. 

Well, he showed up with a friend! The guys name was Brent. We were a little busy putting the baptism on, so we sent the elders over to talk to them (plus elder Berhow is a baller too). 

Well, he's been to church ever since. The elders told us yesterday Brent's side of that story.... He had been feeling like he needed to fix up his life. So he prayed and asked for guidance... The next day, he saw us walking and wanted to talk to us, but got nervous. So he didn't. But as we walked away, he promised he would talk to us next time he saw us... So... Five minutes later, we came back! He loves the gospel and what it's done for him. Now he's preparing to be baptized on September 6. Woaaaah! Those stories DO happen In real life! :) 

We went to the temple with Haisu and Simone this week to do baptisms. Best day ever. Wow what a great experience. They are amazing. 

Haisu leaves for china on Thursday. I'm going to cry. So sad. We will miss him so much. But it's a great excuse to go visit china! :) man, I can't even explain how amazing he is. He's going to do incredible things. I'm betting he's going to be the architect for the first temple in china ;) man those people are so ready for the gospel. 

I think that's it for now! I'm excited for what's ahead. Ha we have a lot of work to do, but I love it :) it's going great.

This gospel changes lives and I love seeing it every day.

Love you!!

Sister Walton 

Seriously- sister missionaries killing bugs in their apartment? So comical. Hahaha

Well this week has been nuts. I like don't even remember what happened really :P there's just so much packed into one week and it always goes so fast! And we have another zone activity today so I won't have a ton of time to write this all out haha  

Well the highlight of the week was Simone's lesson in gospel principles! She was called last week (right after her confirmation) to be the teacher, and she taught yesterday for the first time. It was SO AWESOME!! It was engaging and spirit-filled. She did such a great job teaching as a fresh convert the word of wisdom. Oh man. 

Haisu told us he is leaving for china on August 21, even sooner than we thought! But he's so excited to get the priesthood next Sunday, and he will be attending the temple with us (the whole branch) this Friday :D so exciting! 

Sis Bradley and I don't think it's a coincidence that he's leaving for china so quickly and so soon after his baptism... It's just how things have worked out. But I see more and more that out of all the people for The Lord to have that happen with, I can see why it was with Haisu. He's just so elect and so ready, and I feel like he's going to be a huuuuuge support to the people and the church in china as time goes on. He's so solid, he's going to do great things.

We taught him about temples again this week and showed him a video. At the end, the first thing he said was, "who designs the temples? They are beautiful. I want to do that." He just finished studying architectural engineering (if I remember that right) so he loooooves them. 

Wow seriously. These people are so elect. Where the heck did they come from?! They were and are both so prepared for this gospel, and it's so clear to see that The Lord has different, but specific and great plans for both of them.

We had zone meeting on Tuesday. Me and sister Bradley taught about teaching in unity by the spirit... And that's exactly what we did to teach it!... In unity by the spirit. Ha we think it went really well. 

Seriously- sister missionaries killing bugs in their apartment? So comical. Hahaha

We had transfer council yesterday with president. Basically, we go to the mission home, socialize with the other sister training leaders, eat a meal, and talk about how much we love the sisters and what they are doing and how we can help them be better. Yes. So lucky. 

Well that's pretty much it. I found a falafel mix at the local grocery store today. You add water, roll them into little patties and eat them! I got the spicy one. I can't even explain explain how ecstatic I am to eat and experiment with them this week. Yay Mediterranean food! :D

Well, I'm having a blast. I love the work. I love studying the scriptures (#mishnerd, right?!). I love my companion. It's going so well. The church is so true...

Have a great week! :)

Love you all!

Sister Walton