This letter is a little old (from July), but is a great one from Sister Walton:
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) |
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