Well this week has been a week of miracles. All types of miracles! I love it.

The weather this week was stellar missionary weather. Warm, cloud-cover, nice breeze- YES.

And we had a Zone Activity by the lake this week- there was a park and we played soccer and kick ball and cooked random things on a random grill for lunch. it was awesome :)

District Lunch at Giordanno's

I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday! In Spanish! And I didn't embarass myself! (whaaaaat? Yes, that really did happen). It was great- I wrote it this week, and during language study, Hermana deLeon translated it for me. I helped translate maybe 5 words. It was on conversion :) And then, we had a little mini miracle where we ran into an investigator of ours! She invited us in, and we weren't prepared to teach her, so I (queen of improv, kind of), shared a scripture I really liked and shared a thought about it- in Spanish! All by myself! IT was great! :) I am so grateful for the Lord and the help that I get with that kind of stuff. It truly is not my own. And it makes me really happy too. I've been in Spanish-speaking for 5 weeks, and I was able to lead a mini lesson AND I understand more and more every day! I only speak it in lessons and at church (I study and pray in portuguese when we do language study, and other than lessons everything else is in english). It gives me confidence and faith in the gift of tongues we receive when we pray and have a sincere desire to work and give our best. It also makes me feel better that I will be able to pick up portuguese quickly when I get to Brazil and am around it 24/7 and studying my brains out in it :) It's awesome

Edyn, Xochilt, and Angelica are doing great! They are all getting baptized this Saturday together. I am so excited for them, and I love them all SO MUCH. They are incredible. Xochilt is doing an amazing job at helping Angelica with her Book of Mormon reading and praying. They love sharing what they learn with others. We taught them the Law of Chastity, and Xochilt and Angelica even shared that with their younger sisters! Sweeeeeeet :) Haha and they are such great little missionaries- Xochilt and Angelica have been reading the children's Book of Mormon with their neighbor friend, Katie and she really likes it. Hopefully we will be able to teach Katie and her family sometime soon! :) Oh, and we showed them all the Living Scriptures on YouTube. Flash back to the max- I was raised on those. I love them so much :)

I love the culture here. 95% of the people we talk to are Mexican. The food is hot and spicy and delicious. They are some of the most giving people ever. I love it. I never want to leave! But I know I'll have to :P Dang. Oh well, I'll love it while I'm here!

We have 9 other progressing investigators, which is pretty huge. They are all doing stellar, and I love them all, and I love working with them! I focused on a couple different things this week: Listening, Asking Questions, and looking for Miracles. At our District Meeting last week, we talked about listening and asking questions- it made a world of difference in our lessons and we are more able to understand our investigators needs. And looking for Miracles just makes the work better- it lightens the load and helps you remember whos work this is, and that it's all a big blessing :) 

I learned A TON from the April 2012 Ensign- David A Bednar had an article in it about the enabling power of the Atonement. it was AMAZING. I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone reading this. It really makes a difference in missionary work, and how you can better accomplish it. 

If the youth want to start working on preparing for a mission, have them read PMG. If they aren't sure where to start, invite them to start in the Christlike Attributes section, and to study each of the attributes. Pick an attribute and spend a week on it. It's amazing, and it will help them prepare in many different ways. 

I love being on a mission, its been an incredible week. I'm so grateful for the amazing opportunity I have to serve God and move forward the work. I am continually grateful for the help I receive, teh people I meet, and the miracles I am able to see and be a part of. I love it so much!! Have an amazing week because I sure will :)

Love Always,

Hermana Walton

Chicago Mission at the Cubs Post Game Photo --  (Hayley is 6  rows from front - 8 in from the left)

Hey! Glad all is going well!

Well.... it's hot here. Haha I've kind of given up on doing my hair and makeup all fancy in the mornings because literally before I even get to the car it's all messed up! :) I'll be the queen of updo's by the end of the summer! Oh and sweating buckets is a normal thing now- I've never sweat so much in my life. It's kind of gross but thats ok :)

We got two member referrals this week that are really solid- One of them even showed up to church yesterday which was GREAT! Members really do make this work so much more successful. There are so many times where members have helped missionaries find people they would'nt have otherwise found, or soften people's hearts where it wouldn't have otherwise happened. The members are vital!

A lot of our investigators have kind of been MIA lately, so we've spent a lot of this week trying to find them again. We have been trying to get in touch with less actives, former investigators and potential investigators as well, and most people have been canceling appointments or 'not home'. But we keep plugging away and doing the best we can :)

My Spanish is coming along a little better- I can understand main ideas really well and am picking up more and more words. When it's not a gospel topic conversation, I don't understand like anything :P But I'm working on it! My spanish has gotten good enough this week to realize that I've mis-explained things and some people we teach and visit think I'm FROM Brazil, not going there. Explains the confusion when I told them my family is from Colorado.... Ooops! :) But I'm ok being mistaken for a Brazilian- Hermana DeLeon says I look like the Brazillians she knows, and my portuguese accent is SO OBVIOUS when I'm speaking. Fun stuff :)

Hayley in a graffiti alley in Chicago

I think that's kind of it for me for this week! I'm kind of tired right now so I'm not super talkative :P Sundays are probably the most tiring days of the week just because I'm trying so hard to listen and focus during church- I'm surprised how much it takes out of you to try understanding another language! I'm significantly more tired here than I was in Belvidere, and I can promise it's not because we did any less work out there.

I love mission life. I got to have an interview with President Woodbury this week to get to know him. It was great! He truly is called of God to be here and I learned so much from him and he gave me such valuable insight and advice. I really appreciated it. He helped reassure me that I am where I need to be, that I have things I need to learn here, and that I will be fine with Portuguese when I get down to Brazil. :)

I love being able to serve a mission- It's the best! Even when you can't understand what the heck is going on! That's half of the humor we have out here :) Always find the humor in things- It makes everything so much easier :) I love you all, have an excellent week!

Love Always

Hermana Hayley Walton :) 

This week was great!

This week was great, but wasn't particularly spectacular. Luckily, there were a couple of great moments :)

One of those moments came last Monday evening. It was Hermana Milliron's birthday and we were celebrating with some families in the ward, and one of the families we are teaching (single mother Edyn and her 5 little girls... 2 of them are baptism age, Xochilt, who is 11, and Angelica, who is 8). It was about time for us to be heading out, and Hermana Toney and I were talking with the members as Hermana Milliron was taking some time with Edyn and Xochilt. We had our extra cake in a grocery bag and I was joking with one of the Hermanos about my Portuguese accent when Hermana Milliron grabbed me by the arm and literally dragged me over to Edyn and Xochilt. Hermana Milliron looked at me and said, "Xochilt has something to tell you". It was then that I noticed this dear sweet 11 year old crying. She looked at me, smiled, and said "My Mom and I are getting baptized on August 3rd". You better believe I was one of the happiest missionaries ever right there. That moment is in my memory forever. Edyn as well was tearing up and I expressed in broken spanish my excitement for them, and gave Xochilt a big hug. Angelica came over and asked what was going on. We said that Edyn and Xochilt were going to be baptized on August 3. We asked Angelica if she would like to prepare to be baptized with them. She said "sure!" and got a huge smile on her face.
BEST DAY EVER. They weren't able to make it to church this past Sunday, but are doing great, I am so excited for them. :)

The other miracle: I have never really felt that fasting has made an impact. Sad, but true. It's just no food for however long and then FINALLY a huge meal at the end of the day. I've just never had a really poignant exerience in my life with it. Until last Sunday. It was fast sunday, and I fasted to be a better missionary, especially with my language. It was a particularly hard Fast Sunday. I was pretty irritable and I woke up with a sore and dehydrated throat. Awesome. But I stuck it out. Then that evening at a FHE, I not only taught better, I also understood more and could even talk and joke a little bit with the members afterwards! And that continued on to the next day where I taught a sold half of the Restoration with a new investigator! I even answered questions about the Book of Mormon. Whaaat? Fasting works?? Guess so :) It was great! And there was a SIGNIFICANT difference. I loved it :) There is power in Fasting, definitely.

Hermana Milliron is now the Sister Training Leader, and Hermana DeLeon is my new trainer. She is a Guatemalteca learning English. She is going home in 3 weeks at the end of this transfer, hopefully back to Utah where she will keep learning English at a school in Provo. She's great! It's been a blast :)

I love being out here. I'm  still working with the language but I feel it coming bit by bit every day as I pray for help and guidance. It's really cool to see. I definitely don't have the language come to me all at once, but I am lucky enough to notice every day how I've grown just a little in it, and I know it has nothing to do with me. I try, but really it is the Lord. There was a lesson where my Spanish was SO GOOD! It was great! And it wasn't me at all. You know those stories where people say "words came out that I didn't even think I knew!" and stuff? It was one of those stories. Words that I didn't even remember learning came to me when I needed them. It wasn't a super crazy experience like I always imagined it to be, though. Usually when you hear those stories, it sounds out-of-this-world, and super obvious. But it wasn't. It was great, but it wasn't as dramatic as people make it sound. I felt the Spirit working through me, I felt the total and utter assistance from the Lord, and I was able to teach a lesson to the best of my abilities, and the best of my abilities was magnified because of the Holy Ghost. It was great :) Hope that made sense.

Well, I can joke now in Spanish too! I understand major ideas and am picking up more words. I improve every week and I can feel it. It's great :) I'm just doin the work here in the South Side! It's great, I wouldn't trade it for the world :)

Hope you all have an awesome week, I love you so much and am glad all is giong well!!

Love Always

Hermana Walton

Hey!

Glad everything has been going well :) Glad you are having fun at Lake Powell- hope the weathers nice! I have a cool short-sleeve shirt tan and a tan from my shoes on my feet-- its the best :) Oh, and it's raining outside right now. Welcome to Chicago!

Ha this week has been pretty great. Let me tell you.... The mission never ceases to keep you on your toes!

New Companionship In South Chicago

We met our new mission president last week- he  and his wife are awesome! They have had a CRAZY past month or two- they had one of their kids married in Denver on Friday and Monday they were taking the reigns in the mission! Whoo! Ha President and Sister Woodbury are from Parker, CO and apparently they know President Walker! Cool stuff :) I'm excited to continue working with them. 

Fourth of July was the craziest day, I think. Well, all of the days were. On Tuesday, our investigator (who was gettting baptized that Friday) got sick, canceled our appointment with him, and went totally MIA, along with our Ward Mission Leader who was on a business trip. It went a little crazy- we were trying to plan for a baptism that we had brief and hestitant unsurity about because our investigator kind of fell off the face of the Earth at like the worst time.

Gustavo and His Sister at the Baptism

Then on Wednesday, luckily the baptismal interview with our investigator and everything went AWESOME and we met President and Sister Woodbury and then had to book it over to an appointment that fell through, and another appointment that fell through, and another appointment that fell through, and oh, another appointment that fell through. Haha oh man busy busy.

THEN the next day (the 4th) was weekly planning day but since our dinner appointment fell through for that night, and we had to be in by 7, we decided to go get lunch at an apparently famous ghetto Chicago-dog place called Fat Johnnie's (sp?) and then go visit an investigator in that area. Well, our investigator wasn't there, so we headed to the park to go contact and teach. We only got like 2 blocks- we taught 3 lessons in an hour and met our PNI goal for the week in that one hour.
Haha awesomeeee. Then we went and got some legit tamales that were DELICIOUS. They were 75 cents each :)

Forth of July Lunch - Tamalles

Then we picked up the baptismal suits from a member that washed them all, and went home to do weekly planning. 45 minutes into weekly planning and like 5 calls later, we found out that the baptismal suits had to be at the church in time for someone else's baptism Friday morning at 11. Oh great. Ha well we didn't want to get up to go to the church early, so we decided to peace out and drop them off right then. We ended up having a 40 minute trip take 2 hours because of a bunch of different logistical reasons including getting stuck behind a train, and having the gate to the church locked, and realizing that we needed to get our investigators clothes reserved right then, and waiting for him to get back to us on the sizes, and I got nominated to play piano, and I had to practice big time. THEN we got a call from another investigator that he might go to jail for 6 months to a year because of a DUI he got 4 months earlier, and we were the only ones he's told, and his court day was the next day. Cool. Then we had to book it home, got home a couple minutes before 7 (on time, YES) and started weekly planning again.

My First Panederia Experience

A half hour later, we get a call from Elder Lucero, the AP saying "oh hey, I'm outisde your window"... uh what? I jumped from the window to see the AP's and Pres and Sister Woodbury in a car right outside our apartment. "We're going to find a place to park. Well be back in a second".... whaaaaat? Then the next 2 minutes turned into "The Best Two Years" where the elders were trying really fast to clean up the apartment. Our apartment wasn't that messy, we were just freaking out a little and didn't know what to do or why they were here. They came up to our apartment, we gave them a tour of our place, and President asked to talk to Hermana Milliron in the kitchen. A half hour later, they come back and President says, "we need to pray". Oh great.... for what??? We all pray, then he invites us to sit down. He starts by looking at Hermana Toney and I and saying- "You're strong enough...." OH NOOO!!! What's that supposed to mean!!! (My first thought was that Hermana Milliron was being taken away, and Hermana Toney and I were going to be alone "speaking spanish" in the south side ghetto 4 weeks premature of our training.... blah!!)

Our Look after we found out we would be
loosing Hermana Milliron

He then proceeded to tell us that she had been called as the Sister Training Leader. Awesome. :) We all got blessings, and he informed us that we would be getting a new trainer the following week. Awesome.

They left, and with only 20 minutes left, and our minds officially blown, weekly planning went out the door for the day haha Our investigator that was maybe going to jail called us back and Hermana Milliron had to read him comforting scriptures for like 20 minutes, and then arrange for him to get a priesthood blessing. Then we watched the fireworks and discussed our day. It was the best. They don't really have rules on the fireworks here, so it was like drunk people putting on a firewook show in our front yard. It was the best! I thought of Dad how he used to put on firework shows. He would've gotten a kick out of what I saw. Ha one of our neighbors lit a huge exploding aerial firework by our car. He lit it. But here's the thing-- it was under a tree. So the shells or whatever would shoot up, get tangled in the branches of the tree, fall back down on the street and explode on the street like they would in the air. It was very colorful and close-up and 3-D. There were like 6-8 of them and most of them fell back down on the street. Hahaha it was AWESOME. But hey, good thing we were being obedient :)

Us with Elders Asher & Chica Vivas - Our Zone Leaders

There's my long story

Gustavo was baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday. He truly does 'know enough'! He is awesome! We are so happy for him :) I felt the Spirit really strongly during that service.

I understood a lot more at church this week that I did last week (which isn't saying much because I understood NOTHING last week) haha it was great- we had an awesome lesson on Charity in Relief Society that I LOVED :)

Edyn and her 5 Girls

Edyn and her daughters came to church again. They are the cutest most impressive little girls ever, and I love them all to death!!

Sorry my email was crazy... but thus is a reflection of my week :) Hermana Milliron is heading out tomorrow morning, and Hermana Toney and I will get a new trainer. Her name is Hermana DeLeon and she is from Guatemala! Whooo!

The church is true. God's hand is in this work. I love being a part of it :)

Love you all!!

-Hermana Walton

Me with my old Mission President and Wife -- President & Sister Fenn

Hello! or should I say.... Ola? or... Hola? Who knows....

So.... This week has been crazy/interesting to say the least haha :) Last week I was in the small town of Belvidere teaching in English, now I'm in the city suburbs of south side Chicago teaching (well...kind of teaching) in Spanish/English/Portuguese (I lovingly call it Sportuglish). I left the best english sister for the two best hermanas. Hermana Toney has been out as long as me- we flew out together, and Hermana Milliron has been here for 13 months I think. Hermana Toney and I are still learning, and Hermana Milliron is just the best at everything haha :) I try the best I can to pick up some spanish, but to say the least, it's tricky. I want to speak to these people in their own language, but I don't want to loose the little portuguese I do have! Luckily, Hermana Milliron will introduce me by saying "she doesn't speak spanish..." haha yes, but then she'll say I'm trying, and I'm way better at portuguese. The people here are nice and interested enough to be cool with me bearing testimony or praying in portuguese so that's nice :) I'll try to speak a little bit during lessons in my Sportuglish (with emphasis on the Spanish), and Hermana Milliron will jump in and re-translate my gibberish when I tell someone that they can find a wife in the Book of Mormon (yes, that did happen).

We have an investigator named Gustavo who is getting baptized this Friday! whooo! He has struggled just a little bit with thinking that he doesn't know enough to be baptized (he knows more than a lot of members know, so he's fine ha). So in trying to figure out how to incorporate me into that lesson on my second day here, Hermana Milliron taught me how to say "You know enough!" (it's "sabe sufficiente" for those of you who were curious). So during the lesson, I was like a little parrot. When I could tell he was doubting himself, I would perk up and say "gustavo, Sabe sufficiente!" I said it like 5 times (minimum) in that lesson, so now it's a joke. :)

The nice thing is that while the language has changed, and the people have changed, and the area has changed, and the mission president has changed (President Woodbury is apparently from Denver! I get to meet him Wednesday), and the companions have changed, the gospel remains the same. The Atonement still works. Christ is still our Savior. Joseph Smith is still a prophet. The Book of Mormon is still true. Thomas S Monson is still the prophet. And God is still our Loving Heavenly Father. And the Spirit (the ultimate teacher) has no boundaries and knows no limits, even when I fall short. Which is awesome!

A lot of the people I come in contact with have had a background with things in it that are hard. To say the least. But the beautiful thing is (thanks for what you said today Mom) that those people are not their sins, temptations, trials or difficulties. They are more than that, and those things do not define who or what we are. We are children of a loving Father in Heaven, and when we come unto Him and use the Atonement more fully in our lives, we will find peace, joy and happiness. I've seen it.

Gotta go now, Love you all so much!! Have a great week :)

Love Always

Hermana Hayley Walton