Good stuff!!!

Well this week hasn't been particularly exciting. It's definitely chilling out and winter is coming! It tried to snow the other day, but didn't- it hasn't snowed at all here yet. Very different from Colorado. In Colorado it would've snowed in August and people would be out in shorts at this very minute in October. What the heck. Ha but it's fun :) Elder Ray commented the other day that my hands aren't very dry. Why thank you for noticing! Ha he remembered how terrible my hands would get during the winter in Colorado, but I haven't had that here :) It's rather nice.

We had our two investigators, Rosa and her brother Fidel, come to church this week! Yay! :) They are so awesome! They have just the biggest desire to know the truth and their prayers are some of the best ever! They are great, I am so happy for them and their progress in the gospel :)

We got transfer calls this past Saturday!

Hna Toney is staying here and training a fresh-off-the-plane greenie! :) She will be AMAZING

Hermanna Toney

I am moving to Buffalo Grove and working in Lake Villa 2? Yeah, I think that's what it is. I will be training a fresh-off-the-plane greenie too! En ingles! .... English? :/ Ha I was kinda bummed about it at first. President says he has too many hermanas and not enough Spanish areas, and obviously I'm not technically supposed to be Spanish speaking in the first place, so I'm going English. I was sad for a little bit Saturday night, but then I got myself a super Mexican burrito with chile and I felt better :) 

Me and my Super Mexican Burrito!

When President called, he STRESSED that I keep learning Spanish AND Portuguese. He listed people I could call. he said he even put me in an area right next to a visa waiter so we can practice speaking. This is gonna be interesting- I hope I can juggle them both together well enough! It will be an adventure, I'm excited :) So any friends out there who speak Portuguese or speak Spanish, your letters in those languages would be greatly appreciated :) I'm going to work really hard to work on them so that my Spanish doesn't mix in to my Portuguese too much and vise versa :)

Good stuff. I gave a talk yesterday and freaked my Zone Leaders and Elder Ray (who happened to be there with an investigator) out a little bit. Ha they didn't know I spoke Spanish ;)

My Zone Leaders

Well that's kind of it for now, I'm running out of time because I'm trying to send pictures, and I was working out getting warmer stuff shipped out from my mom :) Gotta love it!

Oh and facebook is going great. Kinda boring, were still trying to figure it out  but still great :)

I'm gonna miss Hermana Toney a lot but shell do great! I'm so excited for the oporunity I have ahead of me this transfer to go to another area in ingles and train. it will be fun :)

Our Zone... I am going to miss them.

Hey guess what- I know the church is true! and it's awesome!

Make your testimony part of your life, part of who you are, and part of your heart. It will make it a lot easier to share, and you can bless the lives of so many. LIVE your testimony! And It won't be so hard to share. Share your testimony through your actions :)

I know the Lord's hand is in this work. This isn't MY mission. this is HIS mission, HIS time. He sends us where we need to go. Not just on the mission, but in life in general- I learned that lesson real quick! :) Just trust in Him. Sometimes it's hard because the road ahead seems so dark, but continue forward in faith with the light of the gospel, and bit by bit your path will make more sense and you will see that truly, the Lord does love you and want whats best for you- Look at your life through heaven's eyes (Prince of Egypt soundtrack. yes)

Well that's it for me- enjoy the pictures. I visited Al Capone's grave. Cross that off the bucket list I didn't know I had!

Capone Family Graves

Al Capones Grave

Have a great week :) Love you all!

Hermana Walton (forever, whether I'm speaking English Spanish or Portuguese!)

ps- I've been getting letters from Lauren Holbrook and Kim Roos. They are doing awesome. I love hearing from them. Sister Roos is having adventures in Brazil, I'm so happy for her! Most of them are rather unfortunate, but she laughs her way through it- I am so proud of her, and I love all of my missionary friends so much!!

Our District

The Hermanas of Midway

Missionaries of Barrio Midway

Eydn and the Girls

Hello there!

Me and Frankenstein -- Halloween is really
big here... Everyone decorates.

Hna Toney and I had an appointment this week (with the two investigators that came to church). We walked and walked and walked and when we got there, we were a little late, but I felt a strong impression to say a prayer before we went in to the lesson. We did, right outside their door. Then we went in. I was SO GLAD we said that prayer beforehand!! They had a lot of really honest and sincere questions about our beliefs they wanted answers to. They have studied with several other religions, and had questions about health stuff, what is expected after baptism, how to have a better relationship with their family, etc. I don't really speak Spanish, but I noticed that I didn't even skip a beat that whole lesson! I understood their questions, knew how to respond, and nothing was lost in translation. WOW! What a blessing. Hna Toney and I were not only able to understand and respond to their questions as far as the language goes, but we were also able to understand and respond to the actual questions they had- we weren't blindsided by anything, and were able to turn most of the questions easily back to either the Savior or the Book of Mormon. I was so grateful for that prayer we felt prompted to say beforehand :)

We walked to the house of a former investigator and on the way there, we contacted a guy who was looking for his dog. We told him we'd keep an eye out for it- a German Shepherd named Beauty- and wished him luck. 5 blocks down, we found the dog and brought it back to him. Adventures on the mission.

3 people in our mission have gotten their Visas in the past 2 weeks. CRAZY. It's weird. Sister Roos is gone now- I'm all alone! But I love it here. I love that I can just leave the whole visa thing in the Lord's hands. Pres Uchtdorf gave that talk a while ago about "lifting where you stand." I didn't really understand that until I got out here and I randomly remembered it the other day.

Super ghetto tunnel and me

No matter what happens, just remember it's in the Lord's hands and "lift where you stand," bloom where your planted, and do the best wherever you are and whatever you do :)

Yesterday was Stake Conference- it was great! We had 2 investigators come (MIRACLE, yes.). And President and Sister Woodbury both gave talks- in Spanish! WOW! They did great!  

Me and the Woodburys

They were a little nervous, but it was awesome and you could understand them just fine :) I'm especially impressed with President Woodbury learning the language- he reads some of the Book of Mormon outloud in Spanish every day and he's really improving through that. It's very cool to see even him working so hard to learn it when it's not even a requirement for him.

So... cool story... Starting today, our mission is the 9th mission in the world to go on Facebook! Wohoo! Our mission is one of the few that will be ginuea pigs (like the ones Mitch Gibb eats in Colombia) for the internet proselyting stuff. It's a very interesting process. We walk with a heavy hand and a light tread- absolutely NO wrong steps are allowed, and it is Vital that we be as exactly obedient as we possibly can.

I think it was L Tom Perry that was quoted to say something like- I'm tired of Satan owning the airwaves.

Our turn.

It's a scary but wonderful step forward into missionary work- we are going to be able to use Facebook and blogs, and then move on to things like Skype. Some of our leaders have already been using it and it is definitely reaching places and people that we cannot get to just by knocking doors.

I will be setting up a new Hermana Walton Facebook account tomorrow!

Oh, and FYI, if you are reading this, there is a 99.9% chance I can NOT be your Facebook friend, so please don't even request me. I love you, but don't. If you want, feel free to request me on my Hayley Walton one- I'll respond in a year :)

Fall is definitely here. The leaves on the trees are gorgeous. I love the colors, and crunching the dry leaves when I step on them :) It's a beautiful time of year!!

Studying with a blanket and brownie bowl:)

Guess what, guys? The message we bring is 100% absolutely true. God DOES live. God DOES lead His church today through living apostles and prophets. The Book of Mormon (with the Bible) is the word of God, and I know that to be true. How? I've read it and I've taken Moroni up on his promise. Every time I have read the Book of Mormon, I have prayed and asked God if it's true, and every time, I have received an answer that yes, it is. Miracles happen around us every day- especially in the Lord's work. For it is indeed a work of Miracles. I'm so grateful for this opportunity.

I love you all and wish you the best- have a great week!!

Love Always

Hna Walton

We had a million and one adventures and it was pretty great :)

HELLO!!! :D 

Well for me, this week went pretty good- Hna Toney and I had a million and one adventures and it was pretty great :)

Hermana Toney chased away a Pitbull when we were walking to visit a less active in the dark the other night. That was pretty cool. It was SO cool, in fact, that I spent most of my language study the next day writing about it in Spanish to practice my preterite and imperfect verb forms. BOO YAH. I meant to bring that to type up to share with you all, but I forgot. Maybe next time?

Then, the next morning, we were running, and this little Chihuahua started chasing me and biting my heels and (literally) attacking me. (Weak sauce, I know). Ok, this thing is the size of Daisy, and is trying to bite my legs off (Monty Python reference, yes).  When Daisy or Roxy would try to bite your legs off, it was cute and fun, and the minute you got mad or hurt, they would stop. I don't know what this dog's deal was, but it was trying to eat me alive, and I was trying not to step on it.  Then I got really peeved and started yelling and clapping at it and acting like I was going to eat it and it ran away.  Seriously, the little dogs here have crazy bad "Little Dog Syndrome". Ha they are so mean!!  But I survived a Chihuahua attack, thanks for asking.

I don't want to share too many details just incase, but we visited someone this week who works for a herbal supplement company, and we kind of got roped into trying it, and our bodies struggled a little with it. It was great stuff! Just too much all at once- we were literally pumped FULL of this stuff. It threw off our body's rhythms for a good 24 hours minimum (We hardly ate for the rest of the day). HA. Oh the adventures... Hey, anything to try and save another soul, right? :) Hna Toney and I still laugh about that one.

I'm trying to be adventurous and try a lot of types of food here, for a couple different reasons.. I LOVE FOOD, I love to cook, and I figure it'll be fun to cook some Mexican food for the fam when I get home (get ready to buck up and eat some lengua de vaca, kiddos! :D I'm learning how to cook nopales this week for you, too!). So I'm trying and learning a lot of different stuff. This week, I tried Corn Bread Ice Cream (Elote, yo creo?) It was actually super good and I loved it. I don't know how Mexican it is, but I loved it and it was unique :)

Then, Hna Toney and I tried Tortas at a legit torta place this week. A Torta is like a man's best friend and favorite sandwich. You take little French bread (yo creo) subs, toast them, put mayo on it, maybe a little lettuce, a slice of avocado, a slice of tomato, maybe a spoonful of beans, and some chile, and then you STUFF MEAT into it. Hardcore. Like, they put 5 different types of meat on these things at a time. Hot dogs or sausage or chorizo or ham or chicken or steak or turkey or hamburger meat or bacon or MORE bacon, etc. 

Torta Sandwich

They are SO GOOD.

Yes, Andrew and Parker, I am totally making you one when I get home.

The one Hna Toney and I shared this week was called "La Chicharito". It had chorizo, ham, steak, and I don't even remember what else on it. SO GOOD.

************

So.... spiritual stuff now. Cause I have some cool stuff to share.

Ricardo blessed the Sacrament yesterday!!!!!

That poor guy has been nervous about that for weeks. Before his baptism, we shared with him the sacrament prayers in Moroni so he could read them and be familiar with them and the promises made. He's read and reread those a lot since then, and on several occasions in the past couple weeks, we've noticed him rereading them on his own time. He wanted to try so hard to do his absolute best. I think he felt the weight and responsibility of it.

Hna Toney and I felt it pretty safe to assume that he didn't own a white shirt and tie, and probably didn't have money to buy one. We found some white shirts that previous elders had left behind in the back of our closet, Elders Boerup and ChicaVivas recommended a size for Ricardo, and we washed it and got him a tie. We had it all ironed and perfect, and we gave it to the Elders before Priesthood so they could talk to him about why its important to have a white shirt and tie for priesthood ordinances and help him feel more comfortable about blessing the Sacrament.... But what do you know, he came to church ALREADY WEARING a white shirt and tie! Whaaaaaat?

Hermana Toney and I have never told him about the white shirt and tie thing.

We think he read it in his Gospel Principles book. Hna Toney marked a page about the Aaronic Priesthood for him in our last lesson with him. We think he actually read it, and then actually went and got himself a white shirt and tie.

Ricardo had the most sincere desire ever to be a good Priesthood holder blessing the Sacrament.

What a sweet experience.

Then he blessed it. He was SO NERVOUS. But the Bishop's son (who leaves on his mission here in the next couple weeks) helped him through the whole thing like such a champ. Like seriously, he did SUCH a good job helping him out. And Ricardo took it so seriously and reverently.

I almost cried, I really did.

There's a quote I love by David O McKay that says "The purpose of the Gospel is to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature"(Mosiah 3:17). I kept thinking of that the whole time I watched Ricardo at the Sacrament Table. He was still that funny old nervous Ricardo, but you could tell that 'pasito a pasito,' there is a change occurring in him. What a beautiful thing, and what a sweet experience.

Ricardo the day he blessed the Sacrament in his new White Shirt & Tie!

I asked him where/how he got it. And I don't understand Spanish super well, but I'm pretty sure he said he bought it himself. And the Elders seconded that by saying it was for sure brand-new.

This Gospel truly does make bad men good and good men better. It's such a beautiful thing to see and be a part of. And it's cool because I know that it's not ME or HNA TONEY or whoever else doing it. It's him, wanting to do better and be better and follow his Savior, and His Savior and His Father in Heaven is right there helping him all along the way.

I testify that this Gospel truly does "make bad men good and good men better". I've seen the changes that this Gospel has made in people's lives... Every. Single. Time. Without. Fail. There is a change. It's not hard to notice. It's a miracle every time.

Oh man I love it.

The other thing I wanted to mention is Faith.  Faith has always seemed like such an abstract concept to me, and I remember struggling with it at one point in my life a couple years ago. I remember thinking- "I don't think I have faith!" But then after a while of wrestling with that, I found something (I don't remember where or when) that said that faith is a word of action. When you have faith, you act on that faith. And when you want to grow your faith, you act on it.  Similar to the "you have to bear your testimony to strengthen it" principle.  To exercise faith and gain faith, you have to DO stuff, and ACT on it.  Then I realized- oh, I have faith. I must have faith, because I read my scriptures, go to church, pray, serve, etc.  Good stuff.

Then, knowing that, there are a lot of times where we invite people to ACT and grow their faith by reading the Book of Mormon, or coming to church, or whatever. But they don't.  They're not growing their faith, they can't progress. You can't honestly have faith in Jesus Christ by sitting on your couch and saying- "Oh, I believe! I'm good!". Doesn't work like that. What did Christ do? He ACTED every time. We need to do likewise.

Tengo fe, tengo fe :)

Good stuff. I think that's it for me for now. I love being a missionary. I love this Gospel. I love what it does for people. I love these people. I love my Savior. I love my Heavenly Father.  I am so grateful everything is going well for you all back at home! I send my love to you :) Have a great week!

Love Always-

Hna Walton

This week wasn't super exciting.

This week wasn't super exciting. We had a lot of appointments, but the majority of them fell through (for some reason, a TON of people had family from Mexico making surprise visits this week), but luckily they all rescheduled-- high hopes for this week :)

Tuesday, Hna Toney and I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked a TON- for like 5 or 6 straight hours, we just walked all over our area. We made a bunch of stop-bys, but no one was home, we kept missing the buses, no one was out, and no one wanted to talk to us. Sweeeeet.... But we got a lot of exercise, and I felt like my legs were going to fall off my hips! Then just as we were about to go home, we had a miracle lesson with a former investigator we have been trying to get ahold of. It was awesome!  

A family we have been working with.

Then we went in for dinner where I consumed all the calories I had just spent all day burning by eating serving after serving of Ramen. It just sounded appealing at that time...

Once a transfer, we go on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders for about a day. I got to be with Hermana Milliron a bit this week and it was so fun! I loved being able to hang out with her again, and I learned so much from her and we had a lot of fun :)  

Me with the Sister Trainers

This week, I had the pleasure of trying a delicacy... I believe it was called Lengua de Vaca. The member served it with tortillas and salsa verde and cilantro and onion and it looked like boiled steak or beef or something, so I wasn't too concerned. And then afterwards when we got into the car, and Hermana Milliron looked at me and said, "I've never had cow tongue before!". Haha good thing the member cooked it well so it tasted good! Apparently it usually doesn't... HA but now I can say I've eaten cow tongue before, and I'm still alive to tell the tale... :)

Conference was wonderful, as it always is. It's super stressful as a missionary because instead of juggling one church meeting and getting everyone there at that one time, you have 6 different meetings and sessions to try juggling people to get to. Ha it was a little crazy, and in the end, no investigators of ours came. But we got Ricardo there to one session, and we think Edyn was able to watch a session at a member's house. so that's good :)

Conference with the Elders

I was able to still enjoy conference, though. It was awesome, it really was. At the beginning of conference, I started making a list of talks I wanted to go back and re-read. By the end of the Saturday conference sessions, I had written down every talk, so I just gave up keeping track and have decided I'll just read the whole thing when I get it in the Liahona :) It was amazing. I dunno, and I think I just enjoy conference more as a missionary. There were some amazing talks- a lot about families, and missionary work, and love and all sorts of things. I don't have my notes with me now, but off the top of my head, I loved the talk by the Elder Soares (?), Jeffrey Holland (as always- one of my top 3), David A Bednar ("I invite you to consider your ways, and repent". Oh man loved that one ha :)). Pres Uchtdorf (another of my top 3), the Exclamation Point talk, Elder Oak's talk about the law of man and the law of God, the one that one of the apostles gave about women... that's all I remember.  

Conference quotes by my bed.

 They were all so good, and there were so many inter-twining themes and things to learn. They truly are inspired men of God! Aren't we just SO BLESSED to live in a day and age where we have another prophet on the Earth (just like Moses, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Nefi, Alma, and so many others) who give us modern revelation, help us navigate through this world, and help us learn and understand more about our Savior and our Father in Heaven? What a blessing. I just love it so so much. :)

Oh! And I got my Hermana nametags finally this week! So I'm OFFICIALLY Hermana Walton. Boo yah. Now everyone has bets on me getting my visa this week. But apparently the government has shut down the visa offices or something? I'm not sure. You don't really hear much about that kinda stuff on the mission. But I've had a couple people mention it and ask me about it. Ha all I know is it's in the hand of the Lord and I am relishing my time here Spanish speaking :)

Zebra cupcakes for Conference ... they did not work.

I think that's kind of it for now. It's starting to get colder and I'm trying to stay on top of all the bugs that are being passed around. Hermana Toney and I are having a blast here in our little Midway bubble :)

well, I guess I'll wrap it up by saying that I know that God is my Heavenly Father. He lives and loves me and is aware of me- even down to the details. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and through the Atonement, I can be made stronger and washed clean. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and along with the Bible, we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the Book of Mormon so much. I am so grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith and for the sacrifices of him and his family and the early saints to give us what we have today. He was a prophet of the living God and I know that he saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

I love you all- thank you for your prayers and support- it means a lot :)

Love Always

-Hermana Walton

The Girls Cat Had Kittens - Yea!!

This week has been a blast--

We saw a LOT of miracles this week and had a ton of miracle lessons! We were trying to expand our teaching pool and talk to everyone. We spent a lot of time trying to track down and re-contact former investigators. Many of these people hadn't seen missionaries in 2+ years and a lot of them were happily surprised to find that the 'muchachos' were replaced with sisters :) From reading the records of some former women investigators, some contention came from a husband or a father not liking them being taught. We think and find that a lot of that is just because they were uncomfortable with men teaching them. So.... tada! Here come the hermanas! :D Doors are being opened, families are being taught, and it is awesome.

Elder Asher has this investigator in our area that he just ADORES- a Mother/daughter set named Irma and Lucy. We have tried since we've been here to contact them because Elder Asher said they were really ready for the gospel and we could tell they really meant a lot to him. But we've had no luck and they ignored us on two separate occasions. I had a random thought that we needed to go visit them. Then the next day at District Meeting, Elder Chica Vivas mentioned that Elder Asher wanted us to try again. Hermana Toney didn't really want to (I don't blame her- they straight up ignored us twice!) But I assured her that I knew it wasn't a coincidence, and that it was a prompting from the spirit that we needed to visit her. Luckily that night we had the car (because it was kind of out of the way and really dark), so we figured we would go. We met with BOTH Lucy AND Irma and were able to share a scripture with them! It was awesome! They are stellar, and some of the best people ever- they are so prepared for the gospel at this time, and Hma Toney and I are excited to work with them :)

....Funny story about that lesson, Hermana Toney was like, "Ok, well we don't have much time left- do you mind if we share a scripture?" They said yes and we got our scriptures out, hoping to find a scripture they would need to hear. The first scripture I opened up to was Moroni 10:32, which is a good one! I felt like that was a good one to share, but I thought I could find something better. So I started shuffling through to find a better one. A minute later, Hermana Toney nudges me and shows me the scripture she had felt to share- Moroni 10:32. HAHA Oops, spiritual prompting, sorry about that. But we shared it and they loved it.

- There is another Former Investigator family we have been trying and trying to get a lesson in with. Hermana Toney  felt like we should go visit them, so we did. And the wife let us in! She confided in us that she felt like the missionaries who had taught her before were pushing her to baptism too much, and that she couldn't feel the answer from the Spirit that the BofM was true. I felt for her, I really did- feeling the spirit is something I've struggled with my whole life, and it hasn't been until the past few months that I really felt like I've started to really understand it a little bit. We did our best to help and are really trying to find out how best to help her know that she is feeling the holy ghost.
- Yesterday at church, one of the trainers called me over and asked to talk with him and his greenie about how I learned the language (I got a lot of compliments on it yesterday- I'm so glad I'm improving!!!). After a couple minutes, I could tell that the greenie was really flustered and frustrated over the language. I felt so bad that he was feeling that way! So after listing off praying, practicing, learning verbs, listening techniques, etc, I just looked at him and said something like: Elder, you've been here for 10 days. Don't get upset at yourself for not being fluent right now. If the Lord needed you to be fluent now, you would be. So don't get frustrated because your not meeting unrealistic expectations. It will come. Just be patient and keep plugging away at it.
I'm not perfect at Spanish. Or Portuguese, for that matter. Far from it. But it makes me really sad when I see and hear of people getting themselves down so much about the language. Take it pasito a pasito. It will come. I promise it will come. Just keep moving forward and doing your best- the Lord fills in the rest, EVERY TIME. Trust me, Hermana Toney and I don't know enough Spanish to have some of the things happen that happen every day. And trust me, you learn it. And it comes out when it needs to! So just hang on, enjoy the ride and do your best because you'll get good stories out of it :) Ha

- Ricardo got the Priesthood yesterday. YESSSSSS! The bishop wants him to bless the Sacrament the week after conference. YESSSSS! Yay Ricardo! ...Uh... err... Hermano Diaz. I have GOT to get better at that.

The Women's Conference was awesome! I can't wait for General Conference. My goodness. Something about being on the mission just makes you love and look forward to those things so much more. I LOVED that at women's conference there was such a stress on baptismal covenants and keeping those. Honestly, I never made the connection that something like helping someone through a hard time is keeping my baptismal covenants! I had never really made those connections before, so I'm looking forward to taking that and seeing what else I can learn from it :) And our dear prophet... Oh man I love him so much and am so grateful for him. He truly is a man of God, and I felt the Spirit SO STRONGLY when he was speaking. That dear man.

(PS. To my dear young friends... Please enjoy watching conference while you can. I did not fully appreciate the conference-filled days of staying in my pajamas all day, having Mom's sticky-bun things for breakfast, stealing Dad's M&M's all morning, eating who-knows-what for lunch, eating more candy, watching football afterwards, eating who-knows-what for dinner and doing it all again starting with dad's chocolate chip pancakes and bacon the next day. Oh and the blankets and the couch and cuddling with the dog. Oh man. Those were the days.... Now I watch them in a hard chair in a skirt in a freezing room and I'm not technically allowed to eat candy in there. Ha I still love conference! I feel the spirit! All I'm trying to say, children, is enjoy the pajamas and couches and candy....) Ha :)  

One of the highlights of being a pair of white "Jesus Girls" in skirts in the Spanish-speaking south-side is seeing the looks on peoples faces when I say "Buenas tardes, como esta?" to them in Mexican Spanish. It makes my day every single time without fail haha :) Because we'll walk by and they'll just be looking at us so weird like "what are you doing here" and then we smile real big and say "Buenas tardes, como esta?" And they LIGHT UP. I LOVE IT haha :)

My Spanish is getting better- pasito a pasito. I learn things here and there and I try really hard to pick it up. I can understand a lot of stuff now and can hold my own pretty well. I spend my personal study time studying in Spanish (Libro de Mormon, Predicad mi Evangelio, etc) and work on conjugations and sentences with Hma Toney for half of language-study time. The thing I get the most comments on is my accent. Apparently I have the accent down really well, and sound like a Mexican. Except one person this weekend said I sounded Colombian....

Because I'm just so hilarious, let me share a 'quote of the week' with you all:

If you live within a 5-mile radius of my alarm clock, it's no surprise that I struggle waking up in the morning. I always have, and I hate it. Every morning, I wake up to my alarm clock at 6:25am, but I don't get out of bed until 6:36am (for some reason it is ALWAYS 6:36). Gosh dang.

Recently it's been a goal of mine to do better at that, and Hermana Toney has offered to help because she's really good about that.

The other morning (as always), my alarm clock went off, I groaned, moved around, started falling back asleep and she came over and tickled my foot. Then she said, "Levantate!"

Then I rolled over, groaned some more and said "You'd have better luck with Lazarus..."

Who would've known I would've been so good at Biblical humor that early in the morning?? :) haha I crack myself up sometimes...

I think that's it for this week! I wrote a lot. Wow. Ha hope y'all enjoy at least some of that! Being on the mission is a blast. I love it. Adventures every single day. It's work! It's not glamorous. But it's important and rewarding, and we see that every day.

I know the church is true. I cannot express over email how excited I am to see conference. We have modern-day leaders, prophets and revelators. What a blessing! And we get to hear from them this week! It's like Spiritual Thanksgiving! I love it :)

I love you all and am always happy when I hear that you are doing well and are enjoying whatever it is you are up to. I pray for you every night. I love you so much :) Have an awesome week--

Love Always

Hermana Walton

Wow, everything is going good as always! :)

This week has been pretty good here! We have a new companionship of hermanas in our ward (4 sets of missionaries total), and we are sharing the car with them. So we get bus passes or the car, depending on who has what on what day.

Our first day giving the new Hermanas the car, we had no appointments and 2 hours before we had to go back to the apartment. So we decided to go to our Ward Mission Leader's house because he wasn't at church last week and he wanted a copy of our progress record, and his phone isn't working. So we went! But no buses were really around, so we walked... Blocks and blocks and blocks. Then we got to his house (what a blessing!) literally the minute he got home from work (if we were in a car, that timing wouldn't have been so perfect). Then it started to rain. We talked for a bit under his porch and got things coordinated and worked out. As he started to leave, he asked if he could let us borrow his car to drive home- the rain had picked up and it was pouring. We told him thank you but no, and stepped out into the rain. Before we got even to the end of the block, we were SOAKING wet! Haha and literally the only thing Hermana Toney and I had to do was just bust out laughing and skipping and 'singing in the rain' haha it was so fun... No one was out, and literal rivers formed in the streets, and we just sloshed through! We just kept laughing and laughing. It was just funny, and we didn't really know how else to react. We walked all the way back home and enjoyed watching the rest of the storms from our front room as we acquainted ourselves with the records the elders gave us for the new portion of our area and made phone calls.

Sometimes, stuff like that just happens. I'm glad Hermana Toney can be so good-humored. We still laugh about it- it was so fun. Haha we love finding ways to have fun with things because sometimes, that's all you can really do!

In our Mission President's email to the missionaries every week, he includes stories of miracles that happen throughout the mission that missionaries tell him in their weekly emails. Last week, there was a story about a missionary companionship who decided to try taking a member's dog out while they were contacting to see if they could get more people to talk to them. They said it totally worked because people totally soften up when they see a dog, and it makes missionaries actually look like normal people (for those of you who don't know, I AM A NORMAL PERSON!!! [Insert Hermana Toney rolling her eyes]) and I had suddenly this genius thought.... Mom, you should ship Schnookums out here for a couple days! :D She can hang out with me and Hermana Toney! :D And who in this entire world could resist a cute little fluffer-nuggest like her?? Haha dang I totally wish I could do that... :) Hehe and she could meet all the boxers, pit bulls and Chihuahuas here :) The Chihuahuas here totally have little-dog syndrome. It's hilarious.

So Ricardo was baptized on Saturday two weeks ago, and confirmed on Sunday one week ago.... We know that baptism has two parts- baptism by water and baptism by the Holy Ghost (or receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, or confirmation). We know that without the second part, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, the baptism is not complete. And I am here to tell you that that is totally true! There was a week in between Ricardo's baptism and his confirmation, and in that week, nothing really seemed to change. But after he was confirmed, he was totally different. He had that new-man, glowing, whatever you want to call it look about him that I see in every single person that gets baptized and confirmed. It was so cool. And that didn't happen until AFTER he was confirmed. Until AFTER he received that second part of baptism. His baptism wasn't complete without the confirmation, and I totally saw that.

This week was crazy with transfers and loosing part of our area but getting part of another area. Hma Toney and I are just trying to stay on top of it all and do the best we can! We look for miracles every day. There are so many miracles every day. This is a work of miracles! It's amazing. But it's been interesting and kept us on our toes :)

It's kind of funny since I've been on a mission to randomly remember things from my childhood and from my growing up years. Nothing comes to mind right now, but every once in a while I get humored from things that happened or that I said or whatever...

One of the things that I've thought about lately is things that I remember my parents telling me to do or work on, and it has really helped me.

I end up playing piano for EVERYTHING, and often I'm called to play stuff on the spot. One thing I remember Mom sharing a lot was a story about a sister who was called to be the primary pianist, but she didn't know how to play the piano. But she did her best! She never learned how to play piano any better, but she did her best and she learned from it.... I heard that story often while I was growing up. And it helps me a lot when I'm muddling my way through hymns. I mess up a lot, but Hey! I'm doing my best and that's what counts. Same with speaking Spanish and teaching adults, and putting on baptisms and being a missionary in general. I am not particularly good at some of these things. I don't even know Spanish! But it doesn't get to me, because I just remember that little story and what I learned from it.... Just do the best you can, laugh along the way, and it'll all be great. I remember that my contribution, no matter how imperfect it may be, will always be enough :) And it will always provide for funny stories later! So thanks, Mom, for that one :)

I remember having a lot of very funny conversations with my Dad while I was in high school. Mostly they ended up being one-sided because I talk a lot haha :P There were several times that I would come to my dad with this huge complicated problem that there was no possible answer to in the entire world and it was all twisted up and confusing and filled with 'what if...'s and what not. My Dad would listen for a while and then just be like, "ok, here's the deal, stop worrying about the what if's (Dad hates 'what if' questions haha :)), stop making it complicated and twisted up, and just worry about this one thing that you can actually control". Suddenly everything in my life seemed so much simpler... every time. He would also always tell us growing up that there's an answer to everything, you just have to find it. He blamed it on his math-brain and love-of-numbers.... I don't like math very much, but I still learned from what he said every time. It's helped me keep focus on my mission and not worry about things that are outside of my control. It's helped me take things one step at a time and work on what I can with a cool head. It comes in very handy :) There are so many 'what if...'s and stuff on the mission, especially being a visa-waiter. But hey, it's all good! I'll worry about what I need to worry about when I need to worry about it, and I will only worry about things that are in my control. No big, it's all good! :)

So... yeah, thanks for that :)

I think that's pretty much for this week! Just having a blast out here, the work is going great! Hermana Toney and I are taking it on one day at a time :) and trying to laugh along the way... we find ourselves soooo hilarious. We love the work and we are excited for it! The church is true, the Book of Mormon is true and I promise anyone that the faith that they may or may not already have in Jesus Christ can only be strengthened by the message we have and share with the world. Lots of times, people don't believe us when we say that. But that's when I just look at them and tell them that this is our invitation, and I know it can change their lives for the better, because that's what's happened to me. We invite everyone everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, listen to our message, and pray to God so that he can tell them personally for themselves that this message is true. We can tell you until were blue in the face that this message is true, but our invitation is for you to find out for yourself.

I love you all, I miss you all, but I'm glad everything is going well back home! I'm doing great out here! :)

It's game time....

Love

-Hermana Hayley Walton