Well this week has been a pretty great 'last week' as a trio!

Well this week has been a pretty great 'last week' as a trio! And I did better about writing things down so I could remember them to tell you :)

A couple weeks ago, I was struggling with really feeling like I was being lovingly bold-- it has been one of my strengths as a missionary, and something I've worked on a lot. But I was getting worried that maybe I wasn't good at it anymore because I haven't had many moments recently where I've done that.

BUT Monday night, we had kind of a surprise lesson with a family that was at each other's throats. I was very lovingly bold in that situation, and it made me really happy to realize that the only reason I hadn't been bold in the weeks previous to it was because that's not what The Lord needed. But I'm glad to see and know in myself that I am still lovingly bold, and I'm good at it when The Lord needs it :)

Zone Day at the Chicago Temple

On Thursday, we went to the temple as a zone to do a session, then went to the Woodburys house afterwards for a lunch and testimony meeting. It was so great! I loved it :) the temple is such an amazing place to be. And I loved the testimony meeting afterwards where we talked about the Atonement  and the  Book of Mormon together. Then president and sister Woodbury taught us a little bit- I'm so grateful for them and their example... They are the best!!

I love black people, and I love when they talk and when they talk to each other. It's the best, they are so awesome. It's a culture all it's own!

We ended up having kind of my surprise baptism this Saturday! About nine days ago, the elders told us that they were giving us an investigator who's been taught everything, and is looking forward to her baptism the following Saturday. She came to church on sundAy at the branch, and ended up loving it.  She was baptized this past Saturday. Ha it was a little weird from a missionary perspective- the elders taught her everything before we even knew about her, so they just kind of came to us like, "oh here's someone ready to be baptized this week!"... It's a cool miracle when that happens :) but Maria is so awesome. I've never seen a recent convert with that strong of a testimony.

She just knows it's true, and she knows because she's put it to the test and asked god. She says that she has changed so much in the past month since learning about the gospel, and she is so grateful for it.

I truly am humbled for people like her.

She actually loved the whole thing so much that she asked to bear her testimony in sacrament meeting and it was so awesome and wonderful.

Then after she bore her testimony, Steven bore his! He is a recent convert of maybe two months who joined us in YSA like two weeks after his baptism. He's so awesome, and when he bore his testimony, I almost cried, it was so wonderful. And he said something like, "I know the Book of Mormon is true because when I opened it and started reading, it was talking about my life".. He talked about how much he loved and related to Nephi in his own life, and it was such a sweet experience

:)

 Oh and in a lesson with Lawson (one of our new investigators in Morgan park-- he's from Nigeria!), we asked him to pray and he told me to pray, and I told him to pray and it went back and forth for a

minute- then sister Bradley said "play rock-paper-scissors for it!"

And in his thick Nigerian accent, Lawson said "I do not understand."

So we taught him rock-paper-scissors. And he won! So he prayed :) it was so funny explaining it to him. He thought it was so dumb, but he showed it to the member he was sitting next to the next day at church.

Haha YES.

Sister Bradley and I were asked to give talks in Morgan park yesterday. Ha we hardly had any time to practice or prepare this week.

I felt prepared enough, but was a little worried. Especially because I was the last speaker, and the talks before me were under. I had like

25 minutes... But I prayed before and just gave my talk, bore my testimony, shared my experiences, and did my best! I was so excited how it all went, and i felt really good about it all. And I finished at just the right time! I was happy that my public speaking skills came back- I've been feeling like they've left me, but they haven't :) and I just bore testimony about the topic that I loved so much! I was so grateful it went well and even more grateful and humbled by people's comments afterwards. I'm glad I could help people at least a little bit. Haha one brother also commented that it was "an uncommonly good meeting". Ha I'm glad :) I'm just grateful The Lord helped me to be an instrument- that's all I ever wanted.

Well, transfers are tomorrow and our beloved sister hone will be leaving us- she's going back to her area in Morgan park, and will be with hermana Toney there (remember her?? My companion of three transfers? She's going English now). Were excited that sister hone can spend more time in her area because truly that's what she and that area need and deserve.  

Me in my Area:)

And I didn't realize until yesterday just how excited I was to be with sister Bradley just to focus on our branch, our area, and our sisters, and to be able to BREATHE!! It'll be so nice, and mi really excited.

But I'll miss Morgan park and all the people I've been able to meet there. But I'll definitely go back for Lawson's baptism here in the next few weeks :)

Life's going well over here, I'm loving the mission and every minute of it!

Love you all,

Hermana Walton

We painted a house for part of a service project this week.

Ha to be honest, if you may not have already noticed... I don't really feel like emailing as much as I used to :P ha mostly just because I can't even remember what happened the week before! It's just so busy and crazy, there's no way I could do my week justice in an email. Luckily I keep a pretty decent journal, so I can tell other stories and experiences later :) 

But this week, we went to find a Mormon.org referral. The address didn't exist. So we figured we'd find someone else to talk to! We saw a lady halfway down the block and started walking towards her to contact her. Then she went into an apartment building. Dang, we lost her! We stood on the sidewalk for a second trying to figure out if we needed to contact someone on the now-empty street, or go back to the car and head to our next destination. 

Sister hone was like, hey we should go to that apartment still! So we did, and the door was open. We went inside, and there were six doors. We looked blankly at each other wondering which door. I said, "well, let's see what's behind door number one!". We knocked and another lady answered. We said we were representatives of Jesus Christ there to share a message with her. She let us in and told us how she had been trying to figure out how to get closer to Christ because she needed him now more than ever. She was so grateful. It was awesome! 

Chicago from our Apartment

We went to the hospital again to sing to a couple from the Valpo ward while the husband was going through chemo treatments for throat cancer. It was his last round! It was so awesome and spirit-filled to be there. We had 13 missionaries there, and it was so fun. Brother tucker even had us follow him around so we could sing with him to other patients that were friends of his in the hospital. It was awesome.

We painted a house for part of a service project this week.

Painting as service...

The cool thing about running two areas is that it is so much easier to see The Lord picking up where you lack. We do as much as we can to visit everyone we possibly can, but we are still always falling so short. But we still see incredible miracles, and we know that The Lord is helping and supporting us in this work even though we can't do everything we need to or would like to.

Well that's it for me! It's been a great week, and is looking forward to another one :) 

Love you all!!

Hermana Walton 

Well this week has been crazy. I don't think I've been so busy my whole mission..

There was a sister that went home last Tuesday, so we picked up a new companion (sister hone) AND a new area! Were working Hyde Park YSA and Morgan Park right now, and we do an incredible amount of teaching and driving. Saturday in itself was one huge big miracle with inspiration after inspiration to visit people and it was so successful. Awesome. I love it. And we all laugh our way through it. Which is the best. 

We only had one exchange this past week... But this week, I have three exchanges, and I'll be outside of my area all three times! :P but it's fun. I can't even explain how much I've learned. 

There are so many people with so many NEEDS. desperate, heavy needs. Guilt, abuse, divorce, cheating, lies, self-worth, confidence, addiction, the list goes on. 

People kind of just vomit their lives onto the ground in front of us, and I just look at this big mess and think, "ohhhh my goodness.... I don't even know where to start or what to say!". But as I give it just a second, the spirit comes in, and with simplicity and love, helps me know what to say. I'm grateful that it's not just Hermana Walton trying to fix their problems- I would never be able to do that. But instead, it's a loving Heavenly Father, and a savior with an infinite atonement. I'm glad that the atonement really is infinite. It's awesome.  

"The Holy Ghost is great- I could do more good on accident WITH it, than I could WITHOUT it on purpose" -Mike

I got to see the CES Broadcast last night! It was awesome

There is a family in Indiana, in the Valpo zone of our mission, who's dad came up to the university hospital right next to our apartment for throat cancer treatment. We got a TON of missionaries to come with us to the hospital and sing to him. We must've sung like fifteen hymns. It was the best though. The spirit was so thick in the room and we loved it :) it was a very tender experience.

Well that's it for me, have an awesome week!!

Hermana Walton

Hey there!

We had some awesome exchanges this week (three of them). I'm so impressed with the sisters we work with, and I have been so humbled by them and just everything. It's so awesome. 

It's funny because I'm very different from other sister training leaders- I am so much more bold than they are, and I think it's been really interesting for the sisters to see that so far. Ha but bold in a good way, don't worry. And it was awesome because that was a goal of one of the sisters we exchanged with, so I got to help her with that and it was an awesome lesson!

My arm muscles are coming back :) they are looking suuuuper nice, and i love it. Yay for having a gym!

This week, we've been trying to find ways to contact more effectively at the college. A member ended up suggesting we go to a track meet this weekend. We had four hours of contacting to do, so we figured, why not?? It ended up being one of the most effective "finding ideas" we've had, PLUS I got to go to a track meet :) we ended up teaching a couple lessons there, and got a few people who would be interested in the message. I think it was really successful becUse we went with the members, and talked in a casual setting with their friends. The friends would have questions, and we would talk about it! It was so AWESOME

I visited Edyn this week (one of the people I worked with in midway- the single mom with five girls) it was awesome to see them all again :) 

President called yesterday, and were going to be in a trio for the rest of the transfer (four more weeks)! And were going to be covering an additional area. Sweet. Ha this'll be interesting :) 

I gave a Spanglish talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. That was fun! And I was introduced to the whole ward as Hermana Walton (as opposed to sister walton). Which is great cause I like hermana way better :)  

We got a new investigator this week who is so ready for the gospel, and so willing to read, pray, and come to church so that she can get an answer for herself. She is so cute and I've loved working with her. And she loved church yesterday! She came with her boyfriend who is less active :) 

Well that's all the highlights for this week! At least, all the ones I can think of now. Ha I feel like my head will explode if I try to think of more. So... Yep! That's it for me :) 

Love you all! Have an awesome week! :)

Hermana Walton