Dear Family!
Well hello again! It is the
Monday of transfer week . . . We really don’t know what is going to
happen on this transfer. It could be a pretty crazy one. But you guys
will know all about it from my own mouth before you get this letter. :)
Pretty great week back here in Romanum. We got a ton of lessons in
this week. We’ve also been doing this really cool thing where after
giving a short lesson or thought we ask the people if we can pray
together and we ask them if there are things that we can pray for them
about. And then we pray! I think it’s awesome! There people really
believe in prayer so this is awesome. :)
In this past week I was
on a boat every single day except for Tuesday and
Saturday. Wow . . . what an amazing place I’m in. I went to Pata
Wed., Thu., Fri., and yesterday. The original reason for going Wed. and
Thur. was because we had a girl there who was going to be baptized on
Saturday but she ended up staying on Weno after District Conference last
week. But no worries, she’ll be baptized there. But there was lots of
good work to do on Pata while I was there. Elder Sofele just stayed
here on Romanum and I went with this cool guy named Preach as my
companion. He doesn’t do much talking at all during lessons unless I
really didn’t understand what they said. But he doesn’t speak English
either. And man it was super awesome. We got some great lessons in and
got some new investigators.
Friday the AP’s came to visit and as
part of their visit they came to check out Pata also. I might say to
check out the possibility of putting
missionaries on it again. So that was cool. Then I sent again on
Saturday with Seramino to do the regular church.
Friday evening
we had a cool little miracle. A man came and asked us, after we got
back from Pata, if we could come give his wife a blessing. So we sent
to give her a blessing. She was in labor and in a lot of pain. I don’t
know how long she had been in labor, but we blessed her. I anointed
and Elder Sofele sealed, then we left. When we walked past on our way
home a little later, we heard that she had a baby girl and gave birth no
more than 5 minutes after we left. Cool stuff.:)
Thursday was
Elder Sofele’s Birthday! I gave him a candy bar and the knife. :) And I
wrapped them in some wrapping paper I made from notebook paper and I
just wrote “Happy Birthday” all over it in different colors. :) It
turned out pretty well! He really likes it.
Thursday was also the 6 month mark. Wow! . . . that’s all.... I’m doing
well!
You guys are the best! I hope Christmas was awesome and
that you guys are loving Christmas break. And that you have an awesome
New Year’s celebration. :) I love you guys so much and I am excited to
talk to you. :) Have a great week. Remember to pray and to read your
scriptures. :) I love you guys.
Love,
Elder Walters (Aaron)
Monday, December 31, 2012
December 10 Letter
Man it has been such an awesome week. I have loved it. I’ll give you some good news right off the bat! Elder Sofele got back from Guam on Friday so today we’re headed back to Romanum.
So as I mentioned last week I came in to Weno to stay with the Zone leaders here in Mwan. Oh man it has been such a great experience and opportunity. Elder Jones and Elder Allred are super awesome missionaries and super good at Chuukese too. I was blessed to be able to feed off of their excitement for the missionary work and learn a bunch in the language this whole week. Man! It was so great. Being Zone Leader in this zone is a huge job. They have to take care of so many things and problems. Almost the whole day Tuesday was spent running errands, buying power, getting mail, buying gas for cars and boats scheduling reservations for our meeting on Friday. They are responsible for a lot of stuff, and have to do a lot to take care of all the Elders in this zone. It’s a big job, but they are really good at it. This is a zone like no other in the mission, and probably the world! It’s awesome. It was really great working with them and teaching with them.
Oh man on Wed. we did 2 three way splits! So we each took a young man with us and taught a lesson. We ended up with 8 member present lessons that day. It was so sweet and really got me excited about teaching lessons again.
Something super awesome and definitely the highlight of this past week was District Conference (Stake Conference). And because of it President and Sister Mecham came here on Friday. And along with them came Elder and Sister Ringwood who is the area president of the Asia North Area. Super Cool! It was definitely a little intimidating at first to have a general authority with us, but man it was super awesome. Friday we greeted them all at the airport (and picked up Elder Sofele) then went with them up to Chuuk High School for them to present a gift from the church to the school. 150 tablets (like a kindle) for them to use for novels and other internet resources. Super cool! The students gave them lots of really pretty flower necklaces and crowns. Sang a song for them, then we ate some food. :) It was pretty great.
That same day right after that we went down to Blue Lagoon for lunch and to use the conference room. There we (all the Elders) had a meeting with President Mecham, President Ringwood and their wives. Oh man it was sweet. These kind of meetings always get me super excited. President Mecham is so enthusiastic about the work and is really pushing and counseling about accelerating the work. It is so awesome. The work really is accelerating here! Man, President Ringwood said that he’s been watching this mission since President Mecham got here and has been very excited about it. He said this is the fastest growing mission in the area right now. So awesome!
The main reason for their visit was, as I mentioned, District conference, which happened on Saturday and Sunday. And oh man it was super great. So many people came from all of the branches! We even had people come from Pata! The regular people who attend church there came, and our one investigator Keinna! That was super cool. Lots of people came from Wichap too which was super exciting. I love that place and those people. Man, all of the talks were super great. All the meetings were awesome, and it was super cool to have both the mission President and the area President there and to hear them speak.
Now one of the very best parts of this week and especially District conference is pertaining to the Chuukese language. Oh my goodness gracious it’s so awesome! I have grown so much in the language! Heavenly Father has blessed me so much. I can understand and say so much! As I mentioned, we did splits with members, so it was only me and Chuukese people. Oh man! So cool! And I could teach and say all that I needed to and understand them well enough to help them. Then with the conference Elder Jones and Elder Allred translated to Chuukese for the President’s talks. It was super cool to hear the President’s said first in English and then to hear one of the Elders say it in Chuukese. It really helped me understand how to say things. And the really cool thing is that there were only 15 or 20 words that they used that I didn’t know, which I then wrote down to learn. So cool! Now, what I really loved the most was seeing all the people from Wichap. All of these people who, before, I couldn’t talk to, I couldn’t understand. But! They came and I could talk to them! I could pretty well understand them! I talked to Maki (Branch Pres.), Forwin (my first investigator, now baptized!), Rinta (also investigator baptized now), and others. Oh man it was so awesome! I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for his help and his tender mercies to help me. It’s so great.
Well we’re back on Romanum now.:) Elder Sofele’s pretty stoked to get to work here. After his weeks stay with the AP’s in Guam he’s thinking that he’s done here on Romanum. Man it’s so crazy this transfer is almost up. The transfer will be on Dec 20th. It’s also SUPER crazy and SUPER scarey that in 3 days I’m at my 6 month mark. 1/4th of my mission gone! Scary! I feel like I might just barely by moving into July, not December. Well the fact that the weather hasn’t changed at all and everything is still green, definitely helps me feel like I’m still in the middle of summer. Haha I like this never ending summer thing. But sadly, one day my mission will end. I am super grateful right now for this time. The trials, the learning, the growth, and the many tender mercies that Heavenly Father is blessing me with and letting me experience. Man it’s wonderful. I am so full of joy and gratitude. ...
Well my family! It is the Christmas season! And who knows, you might talk to me before you get this! Unlikely, but possible. But I’m going to put an SD card in the mail so you guys can get some new pictures. It’s been way too long. So sorry.:) But that’ll be in the mail.
Goodness I love you guys so much! I love being here. I am so grateful for your prayers. Remember to pray about anything. Heavenly Father hears and wants to help. So just ask. :) Merry Christmas ai famini! Ua fakun tongei kemi!
Love,
Elder Walters (Aaron)
Dec. 3 Letter
My Dear Family!
...
Here I am
emailing again. :) I'll just jump straight into it. So here's the news.
Tuesday morning we went up to the hospital to get the results from Elder
Sofele's test. They said that he has a worm and they wanted him to stay
on island until the full two week from the parasite
pills he took the Monday before were up. We called the mission nurse
to get her opinion on the situation (we had already been in contact with
her) and she agreed that he should stay on island. We were both pretty
bummed. We wanted to go back to Romanum. A bit later she called back to
get some more info and we asked again if we could go back. Negative. But
she suggested that I and one of the Zone Leaders go back. Sweet! So
Elder Allred and I went back to Romanum last Tuesday.
We had a pretty
good week out there on Romanum, we got some good lessons in with our
investigators and also gained another investigator. His name, get this
:) JackyChan. First name only. He's going to be a good investigator I
think. We've got him a buddy that's also a convert just about his same
age, 15. So that will be good. We went to Pata again yesterday to do
church and teach some people. Its a pretty cool island and Elder Allred
enjoyed being able to see it. That is probably going to be the next area
to open again here in Chuuk. That place has a lot potential. Good
stuff.
On
Saturday Elder Allred and I found out that the Guam people were going
to have Elder Sofele come there Monday morning (today) to get medical
treatment because his condition hasn't resolved yet. So this morning he
hopped on a plane to Guam and will hopefully be returning this Friday
with Pres. Mecham and Pres. Ringwood (area 70) for district conference
this Sat Sun. So with him leaving that meant that Elder Allred had to
return to his companion here on Mwan Elder Jones and that leaves me with
out a companion... :/ So had to come in too. So I get to spend this
week in here with those two Elders. It's sad we wont be able to work
with our investigators on Romanum for a whole week, but I am excited to
be working with them this week. Great guys.
My
dearest family, I love you guys so much. I hope that you have such a
great Christmas time. :) Such a happy time. I love it. I love you! Oh!
And I'll probably call or skype the morning of the 26th here (afternoon
25th with you). Well once again I love you guys! I pray for you guys. I
have the best family ever. :)
Love, Elder Aaron Walters
Nov. 12 and 19 Letter excerpts
Note: these arrived after the Nov 26 letter.
Dear Family,
What a week it has been. A couple large events worth noting . Thursday was transfers. Normally a phone call comes in Wednesday night to tell us what’s up. But due to a number of things we didn’t have cell phone service Wednesday night. Every day we don’t have it at our house due to the fact that our house is on the other side of the island from the one tower. So we either walk down and around a little bit to get in range of that tower or we hike up and over to a place where we can get a bit of signal from Weno. Wednesday night it was raining a little bit, and it was dark so we just walked down and out on to one of the docks. But there was no service either because the tower was off or it didn’t get enough solar charge that day. So anyway! . . . We didn’t find out transfers until Thursday morning. And thankfully we are both staying here on Romanum:)
We went in to Weno on Thursday as well to do some shopping, and for transfers . . . but there were none. But, one of the main reasons we went in was to say goodbye to Elder Fisher and Elder Kearl. Elder Fisher is done, gone, out-a-here. Crazy. It was weird to see some one end their mission. He’s finished. He’s at home with his family eating Mexican food and barbeque. His two years came to an end. Man it seems like such a long time. But as I witnessed on Thursday, it well end. It gave me a little more perspective and more drive because I do not want to end with regrets. So there’s work to do now. The Lord’s work, the Lord’s time. Anyway, it was sad to see him go. He was sad to go too. But life goes on. With those two ending we got two new guys. Haven’t met them yet though. But how crazy is this, every area in Chuuk Zone is training right now except for us and the zone leaders. Now even more crazy, all the missionaries in this zone are under 1 year except for the zone leaders. This is a super young zone! It’s awesome!
Time for some more awesome great news! On Saturday we had 2 baptisms! And it was super awesome. J.S. and Hernando were their names. J.S. is 17 and Hernando is in his 40's I think. I didn’t work a lot with Hernando, Elder Sofele and Elder Johnson did most of that. But they only taught J.S. one time before I got here so I’ve been with him the whole way. It has been a bumpy road with him, but it has been so great! He is so great! He has really turned himself around and towards the Lord. I have really felt the spirit with him. It has been so awesome to see him change and feel the truthfulness of his words to us through the Holy Ghost. And, he asked me to baptize him. :) Oh man it was awesome. My first baptism for the living. We went out to the small island for the service. Elder Sofele had me conduct and talk on baptism. Then we did the baptisms. These big dark rain clouds moved in towards us over Romanum and it was pretty cool looking. :) I baptized J. S. First. It was awesome. Then it started raining super hard. Elder Sofele then baptized Hernando. We were all just as wet as those who were baptized because of the rain.:) It was a great service. It was awesome. I love J. S. He cant’ read but we’re going to get him on a mission in a year. At least that’s what I want. :) He came teaching with us today. Man he’s great. Fun times.
Well I love you guys so much! Thank you for your prayers. You are in mine. :) Until next week, I send my love. :)
Love,
Elder Walters
Monday, November 19, 2012
Dear Family!
The letter I wrote last week is still with me. I haven’t had a chance to get that handed off to get it in the mail yet.
Well news from the week . . .It rained a lot on Thursday and quite a bit on Saturday too. I wonder if there was a tropical storm in it’s development moving over . . . I forgot when that season was. When is that again? We taught some lessons. They started a basketball tournament this past week so that has had a pretty large affect on our proselyting. Lots of people attend. I noticed and felt some more growth in my language this past week! It was cool. I started and fairly well maintained a couple of casual conversations and understood decently. It was pretty neat and it made me more excited to keep on learning and improving in the language.
Yesterday we actually came in to Weno because Elder Sofele was having some bad stomach pain. He didn’t sleep much Saturday night and just tried to sleep all day Sunday until we came in. So we stayed with the Eakins (they are the best!) And they took SUCH great care of us. We got some meds. for Elder Sofele from the hospital and he also took some anti parasite pills. So we spent today here on Weno as well with the Elders here and it was pretty fun. We’ll go back out to Romanum tomorrow morning. So hopefully he’ll be feeling better really soon.
We are coming back in on Thursday for Thanksgiving. I’m excited for that. :) It will be so great. Oh! And I just got a big envelope from the primary! Oh man I love it! Ha ha! It is so great. It really made me smile. Please let them know I am very grateful and that I loved it. I would like to send a note back sometime, so we’ll see. :) I love you all so much. I am so grateful for you guys. Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much to be grateful for. I love you guys.:)
Love,
Elder Walters
Dear Family,
What a week it has been. A couple large events worth noting . Thursday was transfers. Normally a phone call comes in Wednesday night to tell us what’s up. But due to a number of things we didn’t have cell phone service Wednesday night. Every day we don’t have it at our house due to the fact that our house is on the other side of the island from the one tower. So we either walk down and around a little bit to get in range of that tower or we hike up and over to a place where we can get a bit of signal from Weno. Wednesday night it was raining a little bit, and it was dark so we just walked down and out on to one of the docks. But there was no service either because the tower was off or it didn’t get enough solar charge that day. So anyway! . . . We didn’t find out transfers until Thursday morning. And thankfully we are both staying here on Romanum:)
We went in to Weno on Thursday as well to do some shopping, and for transfers . . . but there were none. But, one of the main reasons we went in was to say goodbye to Elder Fisher and Elder Kearl. Elder Fisher is done, gone, out-a-here. Crazy. It was weird to see some one end their mission. He’s finished. He’s at home with his family eating Mexican food and barbeque. His two years came to an end. Man it seems like such a long time. But as I witnessed on Thursday, it well end. It gave me a little more perspective and more drive because I do not want to end with regrets. So there’s work to do now. The Lord’s work, the Lord’s time. Anyway, it was sad to see him go. He was sad to go too. But life goes on. With those two ending we got two new guys. Haven’t met them yet though. But how crazy is this, every area in Chuuk Zone is training right now except for us and the zone leaders. Now even more crazy, all the missionaries in this zone are under 1 year except for the zone leaders. This is a super young zone! It’s awesome!
Time for some more awesome great news! On Saturday we had 2 baptisms! And it was super awesome. J.S. and Hernando were their names. J.S. is 17 and Hernando is in his 40's I think. I didn’t work a lot with Hernando, Elder Sofele and Elder Johnson did most of that. But they only taught J.S. one time before I got here so I’ve been with him the whole way. It has been a bumpy road with him, but it has been so great! He is so great! He has really turned himself around and towards the Lord. I have really felt the spirit with him. It has been so awesome to see him change and feel the truthfulness of his words to us through the Holy Ghost. And, he asked me to baptize him. :) Oh man it was awesome. My first baptism for the living. We went out to the small island for the service. Elder Sofele had me conduct and talk on baptism. Then we did the baptisms. These big dark rain clouds moved in towards us over Romanum and it was pretty cool looking. :) I baptized J. S. First. It was awesome. Then it started raining super hard. Elder Sofele then baptized Hernando. We were all just as wet as those who were baptized because of the rain.:) It was a great service. It was awesome. I love J. S. He cant’ read but we’re going to get him on a mission in a year. At least that’s what I want. :) He came teaching with us today. Man he’s great. Fun times.
Well I love you guys so much! Thank you for your prayers. You are in mine. :) Until next week, I send my love. :)
Love,
Elder Walters
Monday, November 19, 2012
Dear Family!
The letter I wrote last week is still with me. I haven’t had a chance to get that handed off to get it in the mail yet.
Well news from the week . . .It rained a lot on Thursday and quite a bit on Saturday too. I wonder if there was a tropical storm in it’s development moving over . . . I forgot when that season was. When is that again? We taught some lessons. They started a basketball tournament this past week so that has had a pretty large affect on our proselyting. Lots of people attend. I noticed and felt some more growth in my language this past week! It was cool. I started and fairly well maintained a couple of casual conversations and understood decently. It was pretty neat and it made me more excited to keep on learning and improving in the language.
Yesterday we actually came in to Weno because Elder Sofele was having some bad stomach pain. He didn’t sleep much Saturday night and just tried to sleep all day Sunday until we came in. So we stayed with the Eakins (they are the best!) And they took SUCH great care of us. We got some meds. for Elder Sofele from the hospital and he also took some anti parasite pills. So we spent today here on Weno as well with the Elders here and it was pretty fun. We’ll go back out to Romanum tomorrow morning. So hopefully he’ll be feeling better really soon.
We are coming back in on Thursday for Thanksgiving. I’m excited for that. :) It will be so great. Oh! And I just got a big envelope from the primary! Oh man I love it! Ha ha! It is so great. It really made me smile. Please let them know I am very grateful and that I loved it. I would like to send a note back sometime, so we’ll see. :) I love you all so much. I am so grateful for you guys. Happy Thanksgiving! There is so much to be grateful for. I love you guys.:)
Love,
Elder Walters
November 26 Letter
Hello my dear Family!
I am e-mailing you! ha ha I will give you more on the details on how this has come to pass in just a little bit!
I am so sorry that this is the first letter you guys will have gotten for a while! I have had letters written and
haven't been able to get them to the main island into the mail. But I just put one in the mail Friday with 2
letters in it. :)
Right now when I got on I didn't look at the two new emails I haven't seen from the past 2 Sundays. I will look if I have time in the end.
The picture I attached was from a couple weeks ago. Baptisms! J.S and Hernando! I don't know if you guys have got that letter yet explaining, so look for that. :) It was so sweet. :) I got to Baptize J.S. That's Romanum in the
background there. We went to the small island to do the baptism. And yes those clouds brought HUGE rain. It was awesome. We were all soaked. I was so grateful to baptize him. It was wonderful.
Well!
Now for why I am in and can email! I'm going to skip over last Sunday
and Monday because you'll get that letter soon. But we were on Weno
those days. We went out Tuesday morning, stopped in Romanum, grabbed
some gear, then continued on to the island Pata (also in our area, we
wanted to get some good work done there because there are people there
ready for baptism and we wanted more time out there). Worked, slept
there (scary). :) Then Wednesday evening we came back to Weno. Thursday was Thanksgiving! I thought of you guys and thought how grateful I am for you and for the
good times we've had. But also thought how grateful
I am to be out here at this time. The dinner was awesome!! I ate so
much. The Senior couples did most of it but we Elders were able to help
out too. It was a fun day. Being with all
the other Elders is super fun. Friday we did shopping. Elder Sofele was sill not feeling better from his stomach pains. So the Zone
leaders decided
to keep Romanum in and send the other Elders back out still. We went to
the hospital that evening and they gave more medications and told him
to come back on Monday for some tests. So that's
where he is right now! So we have been here on Mwan for a really long
time. Its been fun working with the zone leaders in their area. but we
are ready to get back to Romanum. Also yesterday I woke up really weak and it got worse as the day went on. Sore throat, body aches. by evening I had a bad fever and my head was throbbing. I felt awful. I haven't
been able to take as good of care of my self because all my stuff is
still on Romanum. But I
was able to get some meds from the Senior couple. I still felt terrible
before bed. I asked the Elders to give me a blessing. And today, Oh my
goodness I feel so much better than yesterday. Thank goodness. But still
improving.
So I'll see soon whats up with Elder Sofele's Tests. I really hope he gets better soon. And we really hope we will be back on Romanum soon.
I love you guys so much! Thank you so much for your prayers. I am doing well. Happy Thanksgiving! In one month we'll be talking face to face! :) I love you guys so much. :)
Love,
Elder Walters
November 5, 2012
My Dear Family!
Today was a pretty cool p–day! It was zone p-day so all the missionaries came out here to Romanum to check it out and for Elder Fisher to say his goodbyes. They were going to get out here at 8:00 am but didn’t till after 12. But this morning Elder Sofele did some fishing! Man that was great. I caught this little reef fish (about 10 in.) off the dock on like my 3rd cast ever out here! That was fun. Then we got on a boat with a member man named Seabas and went out about another 50-100 yards past the dock , cast anchor and did some more fishing there. It’s done by just unwinding a bunch of line, swinging the hook with a little fish on it around, and then letting ‘er fly! Ha ha great stuff. Elder Sofele is a pretty darn well experienced fisher out here. And today . . . oh man . . . He caught such a HUGE fish! It was so massive. The length of my arm big. Ha ha! Oh man that was so exciting watching him pulling that thing in. Hooo! Man you can’t catch fish like that in the lakes of Utah. Ha ha oh man that was so fun.
We played a ton of basketball today, despite the wet court from the rain, on and off today. Man when we were out on the boat fishing it rained on us so hard, for quite a while. We were so soaked. SOAKED. Good times. So the basketball was pretty darn fun. Now that we have a ball I think Elder Sofele and I will be playing every morning.
It’s been great working with Elder Sofele. He has helped me out a ton with the language by just forcing me to do it. I think that we will be spending one more transfer together here on Romanum. This transfer is over! Pretty crazy.
During this past week we watched conference each evening in English! So that was pretty nice. Also this past week was the week, as I mentioned, that we only spoke in Chuukese. It went pretty darn great! Sometimes it was a little tricky or frustrating, like during weekly planning, but it , over all, went really pretty great. Ha ha today it was kinda weird speaking English. Every time I would go to say something in English I would stop myself subconsciously, try to think of it in Chuukese, then remember that I can talk. :) It is nice to be able to speak freely again, I am so excited to have that same ability in Chuukese.
Our investigator JS is really progressing well and will be baptized on this Saturday. :) Awesome stuff. It is sometimes pretty tricky to proselyte here on Romanum because sometimes all of our plans fall through because they’re not home, they’re working, or cooking, and so sometimes we’ve spent 3 hours or so back and forth across the island before we get a lesson or find the person we need. Ha ha It’s awesome. :)
This sure is a cool place. This sure is a cool experience. This is such a cool opportunity. I am very grateful for it. I have discovered so many little things, big and small, that I want to change or improve in myself. And I am so grateful that I can have Heavenly Father’s help in that through the Atonement of Christ.
Well I think I’ll wrap this one up for the week. I sure do love you guys a lot and pray for you. Thank you for your prayers. Don’t forget to pray. :) That can be our first reaction to any situation or problem, and Heavenly Father answers our prayers. :) I know it. I love you guys so much. I am so blessed to have you guys as my family. I love you. :)
Love,
Elder Walters
Today was a pretty cool p–day! It was zone p-day so all the missionaries came out here to Romanum to check it out and for Elder Fisher to say his goodbyes. They were going to get out here at 8:00 am but didn’t till after 12. But this morning Elder Sofele did some fishing! Man that was great. I caught this little reef fish (about 10 in.) off the dock on like my 3rd cast ever out here! That was fun. Then we got on a boat with a member man named Seabas and went out about another 50-100 yards past the dock , cast anchor and did some more fishing there. It’s done by just unwinding a bunch of line, swinging the hook with a little fish on it around, and then letting ‘er fly! Ha ha great stuff. Elder Sofele is a pretty darn well experienced fisher out here. And today . . . oh man . . . He caught such a HUGE fish! It was so massive. The length of my arm big. Ha ha! Oh man that was so exciting watching him pulling that thing in. Hooo! Man you can’t catch fish like that in the lakes of Utah. Ha ha oh man that was so fun.
We played a ton of basketball today, despite the wet court from the rain, on and off today. Man when we were out on the boat fishing it rained on us so hard, for quite a while. We were so soaked. SOAKED. Good times. So the basketball was pretty darn fun. Now that we have a ball I think Elder Sofele and I will be playing every morning.
It’s been great working with Elder Sofele. He has helped me out a ton with the language by just forcing me to do it. I think that we will be spending one more transfer together here on Romanum. This transfer is over! Pretty crazy.
During this past week we watched conference each evening in English! So that was pretty nice. Also this past week was the week, as I mentioned, that we only spoke in Chuukese. It went pretty darn great! Sometimes it was a little tricky or frustrating, like during weekly planning, but it , over all, went really pretty great. Ha ha today it was kinda weird speaking English. Every time I would go to say something in English I would stop myself subconsciously, try to think of it in Chuukese, then remember that I can talk. :) It is nice to be able to speak freely again, I am so excited to have that same ability in Chuukese.
Our investigator JS is really progressing well and will be baptized on this Saturday. :) Awesome stuff. It is sometimes pretty tricky to proselyte here on Romanum because sometimes all of our plans fall through because they’re not home, they’re working, or cooking, and so sometimes we’ve spent 3 hours or so back and forth across the island before we get a lesson or find the person we need. Ha ha It’s awesome. :)
This sure is a cool place. This sure is a cool experience. This is such a cool opportunity. I am very grateful for it. I have discovered so many little things, big and small, that I want to change or improve in myself. And I am so grateful that I can have Heavenly Father’s help in that through the Atonement of Christ.
Well I think I’ll wrap this one up for the week. I sure do love you guys a lot and pray for you. Thank you for your prayers. Don’t forget to pray. :) That can be our first reaction to any situation or problem, and Heavenly Father answers our prayers. :) I know it. I love you guys so much. I am so blessed to have you guys as my family. I love you. :)
Love,
Elder Walters
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
October 22 Letter
Mon Oct 22, 2012
Dear Family!
Another week has flown by! October is almost finished. And that scares me! The time is going too fast and I don’t know the language well enough yet! Transfers just seem to fly by. Well I’m only in my third, but it’s going fast. And I don’t know if I’ll still be with Elder Sofele next transfer . . . my fate for this next transfer is so uncertain. But one thing is certain. I will still be on my mission. :)
It was nice to be able to e-mail you guys last week! I hope I’m able to get some valuable information out. How about that picture! Ha HA! Isn’t this place awesome?! Ha ha I am so blessed to be here.
It has been a pretty great week. We had zone conference last week which was awesome. We only got to do proselyting Wed-Saturday but still got a bunch of good lessons in. We’ve started teaching this SUPER cute little girl and her mom, and they are totally going to be baptized. The mom wants it and we will eventually get the father too. But this little girl is super cute. I love it. :)
Well Dad, ha ha once again things don’t always go according to plans. :) We didn’t do the baptisms on Saturday. We had them all interviewed and everything. But turned out that they decided to show conference Sat. Sun. so no go on the baptism. Also they couldn’t find a ride into Weno (they wanted to both be baptized there because that’s where their families live and they wanted them to come). So we’ve moved them to this weekend.
So on Saturday we were supposed to watch conference. But because of a bit of osukosuk (looks like he’s plugging in Chuukese for English - a good sign :) ) with the branch president not being there and equipment missing, it didn’t happen. We were pretty bummed. But we got a good day of proselyting in AND (!) had cake (Birthday cake!) at Seramino’s house that night! Oh man cake is so wonderful . . . :) So good.
But on Sunday we got to watch some conference. We watched the Sunday morning session and priesthood session. It was all translated into Chuukese so sadly I didn’t understand much. But! It gave me such an appreciation and gratitude to God that I know English and that the talks are given in English. No translation needed. So I can really understand the emotion and feeling behind the words. I’m so glad that I already understand and know English. In learning Chuukese it has really opened my eyes to how complex and unorganized English is. So glad I already know it. I hope I can see the full conference in English soon.
Chuukese . . . Man I want to know it so badly. I must say though, that it is so cool to feel the spirit while I am testifying in Chuukese. The past two times we have taught this woman in her 20's, Menora, when I have testified at the end, I have felt the spirit come in so strongly and all of the words just flow from my mouth in Chuukese. Oh man it is so cool to feel Heavenly Father helping me.
And answering my prayers! Today, this morning I was feeling a little weak and tired and my stomach was in knots. I was worried that it was the beginnings of something awful. So I prayed to feel better and to not be sick. I feel great now! :) Another one, our water pump has been fussy lately, even with super sunny days. So it was sunny today, and after finishing my wash, I went inside and wanted to fill our buckets with clean water, because once again, we were almost out. Before I flipped on the pump I said a quick prayer that it would work. And it started right up. So great. :) I know that Heavenly Father knows us and answers our prayers. Yours and mine. :)
Well family I think I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts and letters. I enjoy the decorated envelopes. :) Thanks kids. :) I love you guys so much. I hope you are all doing well. Keep up the good work. Keep praying. :)
I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Dear Family!
Another week has flown by! October is almost finished. And that scares me! The time is going too fast and I don’t know the language well enough yet! Transfers just seem to fly by. Well I’m only in my third, but it’s going fast. And I don’t know if I’ll still be with Elder Sofele next transfer . . . my fate for this next transfer is so uncertain. But one thing is certain. I will still be on my mission. :)
It was nice to be able to e-mail you guys last week! I hope I’m able to get some valuable information out. How about that picture! Ha HA! Isn’t this place awesome?! Ha ha I am so blessed to be here.
It has been a pretty great week. We had zone conference last week which was awesome. We only got to do proselyting Wed-Saturday but still got a bunch of good lessons in. We’ve started teaching this SUPER cute little girl and her mom, and they are totally going to be baptized. The mom wants it and we will eventually get the father too. But this little girl is super cute. I love it. :)
Well Dad, ha ha once again things don’t always go according to plans. :) We didn’t do the baptisms on Saturday. We had them all interviewed and everything. But turned out that they decided to show conference Sat. Sun. so no go on the baptism. Also they couldn’t find a ride into Weno (they wanted to both be baptized there because that’s where their families live and they wanted them to come). So we’ve moved them to this weekend.
So on Saturday we were supposed to watch conference. But because of a bit of osukosuk (looks like he’s plugging in Chuukese for English - a good sign :) ) with the branch president not being there and equipment missing, it didn’t happen. We were pretty bummed. But we got a good day of proselyting in AND (!) had cake (Birthday cake!) at Seramino’s house that night! Oh man cake is so wonderful . . . :) So good.
But on Sunday we got to watch some conference. We watched the Sunday morning session and priesthood session. It was all translated into Chuukese so sadly I didn’t understand much. But! It gave me such an appreciation and gratitude to God that I know English and that the talks are given in English. No translation needed. So I can really understand the emotion and feeling behind the words. I’m so glad that I already understand and know English. In learning Chuukese it has really opened my eyes to how complex and unorganized English is. So glad I already know it. I hope I can see the full conference in English soon.
Chuukese . . . Man I want to know it so badly. I must say though, that it is so cool to feel the spirit while I am testifying in Chuukese. The past two times we have taught this woman in her 20's, Menora, when I have testified at the end, I have felt the spirit come in so strongly and all of the words just flow from my mouth in Chuukese. Oh man it is so cool to feel Heavenly Father helping me.
And answering my prayers! Today, this morning I was feeling a little weak and tired and my stomach was in knots. I was worried that it was the beginnings of something awful. So I prayed to feel better and to not be sick. I feel great now! :) Another one, our water pump has been fussy lately, even with super sunny days. So it was sunny today, and after finishing my wash, I went inside and wanted to fill our buckets with clean water, because once again, we were almost out. Before I flipped on the pump I said a quick prayer that it would work. And it started right up. So great. :) I know that Heavenly Father knows us and answers our prayers. Yours and mine. :)
Well family I think I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts and letters. I enjoy the decorated envelopes. :) Thanks kids. :) I love you guys so much. I hope you are all doing well. Keep up the good work. Keep praying. :)
I love you guys!
Love,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
October 15 Letter
Note: Aaron's current assignment is on the island of Romanum. Interestingly, there is no electricity on this island, other than from solar panels, etc. So most of his communication (except for this e-mail) has been through regular mail. Aaron took this picture of his house (right next to the church) when he was first arriving on the island.
My Family!
Haha! Wow so much has happened
its awesome! Grandma and Grandpa! I'm so excited for you guys. :) That
is so wonderful. Senior missionaries are so great. I'm so glad that
you get to do it. ( and grandma thank you so much for your letters. :)
They make me happy. :) ) (Congrats to Denise too! That's exciting. I got
your letter too. :) )
Oh man the change in age! When I found out last
Sunday night I was so extremely excited. My thoughts went straight to
all of my friends who are suddenly available to go! Oh man so awesome.
They have been in my prayers so they will know what Heavenly Father
wants them to do right now. And all of my cousins! Oh man the numbers
will increase in our family soon! So awesome. :) There are going to be
so many more missionaries now. Heavenly Father is really accelerating
the work right now. So awesome. I pray for you all. :)
Speaking of accelerating the work! I will have my
first two baptisms this Saturday (20th)! We met Patrick the first day I
got to Romanum. So sweet. JS is awesome too. Its been so fun teaching
them.
Elder Sofele, my new companion, is so great! He has helped me so
much with the language. Mostly because he forces me to teach, and its
awesome! Heavenly father has helped me out so much. I have grown so much
in the language in the past 3 weeks. I can really understand a lot more
and I can work my way through lessons. But holy cow have so much
farther to go. Its fun though!
Romanum is awesome! I attached a picture of arriving
to my new home. That's my little house on the beach. :) SO awesome. I
have eaten a LOT of fish. So awesome! The members fish a lot and always
give us one. I love it. :)
Zone conference today was super great. President Mecham is so great.
I
have sent out a couple letters so be looking for those! Thank you so
much! I love you guys so much. I have such a great family. I am doing
really well here. Thank you so much for you prayers. :) I need it. And I
feel them. :) I love you all so much! This work is awesome and it is
really accelerating. I love you all so much!
Family I love you. :)
Love, Elder Walters
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
September 10 Letter
Family!
Man its been a fast week! It went super quick. So much is
going on its awesome! I got a bunch of letters this week so thank you so
much too all. The pictures you sent me were great! I hope and pray C (cousin) is still doing well. I love our family. We have such great extended
family on both sides. :)
We're going to have the first baptism in our area
since I arrived here in Chuuk this Friday! Super exciting! He is so
awesome. 17 year old Forwin. He is actually the first investigator that I
started meeting with; all the people we had been working with before we
first met with him, Elder Fisher had been working with them before I got
here. We first met with him on July 17th in a group of teenage boys
outside the church. I couldn't understand Chuukese but by the end of the
lesson I could tell that he was the most touched and receptive to what
was taught, so we talked with him more after wards. And now here we are!
He's getting baptized this Friday. :) So sweet.
We had never been to his house because it was way up the mountain
in a place Elder Fisher had never been. But we needed to find it to find
his parents to get permission. Saturday we went out to find it. I
prayed as we were looking that both Forwin and his dad would be there.
We found it and they both were! Super great. We are going to try to
reactivate his parents. Such great stuff.
This sure is an awesome place. The people here are
so awesome. Our branch president is the best. The language is really
coming. I am struggling to understand what people are saying, but its
coming. In priesthood yesterday I felt I needed to talk about inviting
people to come to church especially less actives, and I was able to say
what I wanted to in Chuukese! It was so fun. I didn't know what they said
about it afterwards but it was good. :)
I'm doing well! Its beautiful out here. I'm so happy you all are doing well. My wonderful family I love you so so much. :)
Love,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
September 3 Letter
My Wonderful Family!
Goodness how is it already September! Good
stuff. I am so glad that you got the SD card! It is so fun to hear about
how you all are doing. Thank you for continually sending letters. :) I
love it. They are extremely appreciated. I'm so glad Sister Eakins got a
hold of you! She and Elder Eakins are the best! I love them so much.
They bring so much comfort to me.
Speaking of pictures! This picture is a picture I
took from on top of a mountain called Six Step. We hiked it two weeks
ago to watch the sun rise for a youth activity. Man it was so pretty. I
took so many pictures.
It does rain quite a bit here. Pretty regularly too.
Almost everyday. Sometimes really hard, others just a sprinkle or a
mist. But goodness I sure do love it when it does. It means that our
water tank is full. :) Our house is good. Solar power for the fridge and
a couple lights for when the power goes out. Good stuff.
The package turned out great! Thank you so much for
all that you sent in it! It has been so great. I'll right more about it
later... again... sorry... :)
I got a letter from J today! Thanks so much buddy. I love it. :) You are the best.
Well I am doing well! Life is good. I really want to
be able to understand and speak to these people. It is hard. But its
coming. Its hard for me to use what I have learned because it takes my
brain a while to process and translate what I want to say, then by the
time I know the opportunity has passed. But I am still seeing
improvement. It's good. :)
I love you guys so much! I hope that you have a great week! You are the best family ever. :)
Ei tong ngeni ami, (my love to you all ;) )
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Pictures!
Aaron sent the SD card from his camera. Here are a some of the pictures:
 |
| In the Salt Lake Airport. |
 |
| Mission President and other new missionaries in the Mission Home in Guam. |
 |
| Reading his "Mission Call," called to serve on Weno, Chuuk. He was stoked :-) |
 |
| Meeting Elder Fisher, his companion. |
 |
| New missionaries and companions at Guam airport, ready to go to their assigned areas. |
 |
| Looking down at Weno, his island. |
 |
| New Elders welcomed with festive headbands :-) |
 |
| Meeting some of the local children. |
 |
| Fresh picked! You can't get 'em like that back home! |
 |
| Big shell. |
 |
| Looks like a tropical paradise :-) |
 |
| P-Day adventure. |
 |
| Coming back down the hill. |
 |
| Brand new, missionary approved machete! |
August 26 Letter
My Family!
Wow it was so good to here that you had a
great week! SOOOO Busy! Hahaha good work. Momma, Dad thanks so much for
the letters. I'm so glad things went well with K and C
(cousins from Texas) and taking him to the MTC. I was thinking of you guys the whole day. It was
kind of a low day and thinking of what you guys were doing helped... and didn't. :) But It was a good day! I am so happy that we have another
Walters missionary! It makes me so happy. I made sure to ware my yellow
tie that day too. :) Send C. letters while he's in the MTC! Even
just DearElders! I sure did enjoy it. I'm happy some of the Walters
family was able to get together the night before. I think that just
started a tradition! Wahoo!
Kids! I'm so excited for you all to be starting
school again! Good stuff. N, you are amazing. You have so many
great talents and I admire you for working so hard to develop all of
them. :) J! My little buddy. You are such a nice kid. You do a great
job at making other people happy. Keep it up! Little A. :) Babe, you
are so sweet. You keep learning, you little smarty. Ok? :)
Momma, Dad, I love you guys. :)
It was a
pretty good week here! I have to remind my self that it isn't a normal
every day thing to eat a freshly caught eel cooked on hot coals at
branch President Maki's house with limes and con (pounded breadfruit)
with my hands. Then later in the after noon help move branches from a
cut down tree and drink a coconut and talk about reading the Book of
Mormon. This is such an amazing experience! Hahaha and goodness I am
really starting to love it. :) The fact that I haven't been able to
preach the gospel very well has made it hard as well as missing you,
but things are getting better. The language is still coming. Akis me
akis (Little by little). What a blessing this is. I am learning so much
about so many things from working with my companion. It has been hard
sometimes but I am very grateful for it and for him. It is so great that
I can learn and study so much about the gospel! There is so much to
learn! So much I can read! I know that we have a prophet on the Earth
today. I am so grateful for that. What a blessing it is to have his
words.
Family, I am happy. I am happy for you. I pray for
you. I hope that you all have a great week. Have a great second week and
school!
I love you all so much. :)
Love, Elder Aaron Lane Walters
August 19 Letter
Dear Family,
Dad, Momma, thank you so much for your letters. I love
you two so much and I am so grateful for the great council you have
given and continue to give me. This week I've been trying and praying
really hard that I will not miss you guys excessively. I've been praying
really hard that I would be able to just "forget my self and go to
work." Its been good. But its hard too, thinking of the great
missionaries of the Book of Mormon and how they really took no thought
of them selves is amazing. The sons of Mosiah were on their missions for
14 years! I only have 2 years away from you guys thankfully. But on the
other hand I only have 2 years out here to do this! Ive been told many
times that the time is short and it even says it at the beginning of the
White Handbook! Haha! I pray so hard that I will be able to take full advantage of this time. Other people have made it through their missions
so I think I will too. I only have this one opportunity to do this.
Funny how I have a really different perspective of missions now being in
one. Lots of people have said its the hardest thing they've done. I
always assumed they meant hard as in "hard work", but now I have seen and
am experiencing that it is "hard trials" too. But they all say it was
the best. :) I'm excited to do this work.
I'm so excited for my buddies getting on their
missions! Its and exciting time. I'm sorry to here that you all (except J) got sick this week! I actually got a nasty cold Wed Thu too. My immune system probably finally had enough. :) But I am well now. Life is
good.
We've had a really good week out year! We have and
investigator who is 23 named BigMan who is doing awesome! He's been
reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and knows its true and has been
sharing it with people he knows. He came to church yesterday and has committed to being a missionary in a year! Awesome! He'll be baptized on
Sep 15. We had a good number of people at church yesterday which was
great! The people here are awesome.
I love you all so much!
Thank you for your prayers. Have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Aaron's Aug 12 e-mail
Aaron titled this e-mail: "Rough, but looking up!"
Nekkunion Annim My Monderful Family! But when you get this it will be Nesor Annim (good morning)! :)
Oh my goodness I love you guys so much! I really can’t say it enough. I pray for you so much. Praying is something that I talked about last week, but this past week I have relied on it more than ever. This past week was so hard. It all started last Monday evening when I was able to finally hear how you all are doing. It made me so sad I was so rushed in my email. As soon as I finished and went out side I just started crying. I wanted so badly to share more with you. I was able to pull my self together before anyone really noticed, with exception to Elder Fisher. But my sadness lingered.
The next day things got worse. I found that I had lost my camera sometime the day before in our journeys around the island for p-day. I was distraught. I called the other Elders to ask if it was at their house and they said they would check that evening. I prayed all day long. I called them back that night and they had not found it. I had no idea where it could be. I went into the other room, dropped to me knees and wept in absolute despair. All I could do was pray.
Wednesday and Thursday were so terribly hard. I missed you guys so much. Remembering your letters made me want to be with you so badly. I think what really made it worse was that my camera was lost. I was so distraught. I prayed so much. I would just have times where I would just brake down and start crying I was so full of sadness. I made sure that no one saw me though. I prayed so much for faith that my camera would be found. I honestly was praying all most all day long.
Friday I felt more comfort but I was still a little depressed. I didn’t want to let it show though. Friday evening I received glorious news. My camera had been found! The Sapuk Elders were asking people about it the whole week and some kid found it in the road in the mud! He took care of it and gave it to them! I my goodness I was so extremely full of gratitude and joy! Heavenly Father answered all of my prayers. Every single one! I really wish I could share all of the details. It is so wonderful. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.
Family I am so glad to hear that you are doing well. I love you so much. I miss you. But Heavenly Father is helping me not miss you too much. That is something I've really prayed for the past couple days after finding my camera. I really believe that this is where I need to be right now, and where my thoughts should be as well. But please know that I love and care about you so much.
This place is really cool. I am so blessed to be able to serve as a missionary at this time of my life. There are four branches on Weno. Our Wichap branch is really small. We are struggling with inactivity. But it’s good! I like it. Our house is right on the Church property with a big cement basketball and volleyball court. My area is pretty third world but on the west side of the island is where the town is. There are full grocery stores and even an ACE hardware store. The prices are just a lot higher on some things in the grocery stores. Like $5 for a peanut butter. But we are given a good amount of money to be able to provide for all of our needs. There are bakeries and little restaurants. Good stuff. In my area I get to eat the food that comes from the land. Bananas, coconuts, different fruits. Its pretty cool!
Thank you so much for sending me the hard copies of the emails! I got my first letters 2 weeks ago which was great. But the letters you sent a week ago got here today! Haha! Sometimes the mail goes pretty quick I guess. :)
Although last week was really hard emotionally, it was really good for me with the language! I can pray pretty well. I can basically follow a conversation, and I can really follow how the lessons are going and what they are talking about. So I hop in at the end and share my testimony. This past week I have been able to make a new sentence or say something different every time I said my testimony, and I can feel the spirit as I do. It’s really fun. :) I am really grateful to Heavenly Father helping me with it. I am so grateful for all of your prayers too.
Momma, you will be happy to know that I am trying really hard to take care of my self. I often think "Momma would want me to be doing this." So I'm taking care of my teeth, health, and body. I try really hard to sit up strait when we sit on the floor (which is all the time). :) I think my body is doing well. Thank you so much for all that you've taught me :)
I am so excited to have another Walters missionary out! I'm so glad that you will get to take care of Cameron and Kalisha when they fly up. Cameron, I am so excited for you. This is really hard, but I believe that it is really rewarding too. There is so much to learn and share. You will do awesome. My small bit of advice from one thing I've learned thus far: Pray. Heavenly Father loves us and He answers our prayers! I'm excited for you my friend.
Well my lovely family. I love you so much. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Kids I'm so excited for you to all start school again! You will do great. Momma, Dad. I love you so much I am so grateful for you guys.
Haha I probably took to much time this week but I am so grateful I was able to send you an email. Thank you so much for being such a great family!
I love you so much,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Nekkunion Annim My Monderful Family! But when you get this it will be Nesor Annim (good morning)! :)
Oh my goodness I love you guys so much! I really can’t say it enough. I pray for you so much. Praying is something that I talked about last week, but this past week I have relied on it more than ever. This past week was so hard. It all started last Monday evening when I was able to finally hear how you all are doing. It made me so sad I was so rushed in my email. As soon as I finished and went out side I just started crying. I wanted so badly to share more with you. I was able to pull my self together before anyone really noticed, with exception to Elder Fisher. But my sadness lingered.
The next day things got worse. I found that I had lost my camera sometime the day before in our journeys around the island for p-day. I was distraught. I called the other Elders to ask if it was at their house and they said they would check that evening. I prayed all day long. I called them back that night and they had not found it. I had no idea where it could be. I went into the other room, dropped to me knees and wept in absolute despair. All I could do was pray.
Wednesday and Thursday were so terribly hard. I missed you guys so much. Remembering your letters made me want to be with you so badly. I think what really made it worse was that my camera was lost. I was so distraught. I prayed so much. I would just have times where I would just brake down and start crying I was so full of sadness. I made sure that no one saw me though. I prayed so much for faith that my camera would be found. I honestly was praying all most all day long.
Friday I felt more comfort but I was still a little depressed. I didn’t want to let it show though. Friday evening I received glorious news. My camera had been found! The Sapuk Elders were asking people about it the whole week and some kid found it in the road in the mud! He took care of it and gave it to them! I my goodness I was so extremely full of gratitude and joy! Heavenly Father answered all of my prayers. Every single one! I really wish I could share all of the details. It is so wonderful. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.
Family I am so glad to hear that you are doing well. I love you so much. I miss you. But Heavenly Father is helping me not miss you too much. That is something I've really prayed for the past couple days after finding my camera. I really believe that this is where I need to be right now, and where my thoughts should be as well. But please know that I love and care about you so much.
This place is really cool. I am so blessed to be able to serve as a missionary at this time of my life. There are four branches on Weno. Our Wichap branch is really small. We are struggling with inactivity. But it’s good! I like it. Our house is right on the Church property with a big cement basketball and volleyball court. My area is pretty third world but on the west side of the island is where the town is. There are full grocery stores and even an ACE hardware store. The prices are just a lot higher on some things in the grocery stores. Like $5 for a peanut butter. But we are given a good amount of money to be able to provide for all of our needs. There are bakeries and little restaurants. Good stuff. In my area I get to eat the food that comes from the land. Bananas, coconuts, different fruits. Its pretty cool!
Thank you so much for sending me the hard copies of the emails! I got my first letters 2 weeks ago which was great. But the letters you sent a week ago got here today! Haha! Sometimes the mail goes pretty quick I guess. :)
Although last week was really hard emotionally, it was really good for me with the language! I can pray pretty well. I can basically follow a conversation, and I can really follow how the lessons are going and what they are talking about. So I hop in at the end and share my testimony. This past week I have been able to make a new sentence or say something different every time I said my testimony, and I can feel the spirit as I do. It’s really fun. :) I am really grateful to Heavenly Father helping me with it. I am so grateful for all of your prayers too.
Momma, you will be happy to know that I am trying really hard to take care of my self. I often think "Momma would want me to be doing this." So I'm taking care of my teeth, health, and body. I try really hard to sit up strait when we sit on the floor (which is all the time). :) I think my body is doing well. Thank you so much for all that you've taught me :)
I am so excited to have another Walters missionary out! I'm so glad that you will get to take care of Cameron and Kalisha when they fly up. Cameron, I am so excited for you. This is really hard, but I believe that it is really rewarding too. There is so much to learn and share. You will do awesome. My small bit of advice from one thing I've learned thus far: Pray. Heavenly Father loves us and He answers our prayers! I'm excited for you my friend.
Well my lovely family. I love you so much. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Kids I'm so excited for you to all start school again! You will do great. Momma, Dad. I love you so much I am so grateful for you guys.
Haha I probably took to much time this week but I am so grateful I was able to send you an email. Thank you so much for being such a great family!
I love you so much,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
July 23 letter from Aaron
Note: Aaron has somewhat sporadic e-mail access, so for a couple of weeks we didn't receive an e-mail from him. Last week we received his first snail mail (dated July 23), and also the latest e-mail. Here is the July 23 letter.
Monday, July 23, 2012
My Dear Family
Well it
looks like I probably won't be able to e-mail every week. And I
definitely won't if I get sent off to another island in the lagoon. But
on the bright side, this will give us a pretty good idea of how long
letters will take to get there! It probably can change depending on how
flights line up.
I sure hope you are all doing well. I think
and pray for you. Natalie I hope that you are healing comfortably.
That surgery doesn't sound fun, especially at your age. But I have
faith that you are doing well.
I've been here for a good
amount of time now and I'm
starting to get the hang of this. This is really not what I expected
missionary work to be like. It's not like the missionary work that I've
seen. This is hard. Really hard. Sure it's hard that I can't fully
fulfill my potential as a missionary because I can't speak the language
yet, but that will come. What's really hard is that the people don't do
what they're supposed to. We only had 15 people at church yesterday.
Over 100 baptized members. It's sad. This missionary work goes
forward but if they don't endure to the end after baptism, what's the
point? There have been 10 baptisms in this area since it was reopened
in January but where are they? Elder Fisher and I talk about this
problem a lot. what can we do to try and fix this problem. We've
talked about lots of different things. Something that has worked other
places in the pacific is church schools. It
would be so good if one started here.
The language is hard.
There is so much to learn. But I am starting to be able to somewhat
follow conversations. I'm really happy about that. Memorization is
hard for me but I am feeling my abilities strengthened. I am really
excited to be able to express to people how I feel and to really get to
know them and for them to get to know me.
We've had some
cool experiences out here. I'm really grateful. I can say some of my
testimony in Chuukese and Elder Fisher can translate really well for me
when I say things in English.
This is a super cool place with really nice people. I'm excited to learn and do more.
I'm
so sorry I'm not very good at letter writing! I'm always not sure what
to write. But I am well. I hope that you all are doing well too.
Jared and Allison, I love you and I hope you
two are having fun and learning lots. Natalie, I am so excited and
proud of all the good things you are doing. Momma, Dad, you two are
such great examples. Thank you for all the good things you have taught
me. I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Monday, July 30, 2012
Aaron's letter, week 2 (July 15, 2012)
My Beautiful Family!!!
Oh so good to here from you all! Momma! Haha!
I am so grateful to here that you got to see my letter before you took
off for camp. I knew that you would. Tender Mercies! Haha! Oh I love it.
:) After I sent the e-mail I was praying the whole rest of the evening
because I knew that you would be waking up to go to camp in a matter of
hours and I knew that it would be of great comfort to you to hear that I
was well. The Lord answers prayers. :) Well I am so glad that camp went
well for both of you! Dad its good to hear that you were able to make
it through the week! Haha you're the man.
Well the past week here has been about the same
every single day. We go to an appointment's, Elder Fisher talks to the
people, I try to pick out words, my mind wanders, then we hike to
another home and do it again. Its fun playing with the kids but it is
super frustrating that I cant understand what they are saying to me.
Haha sometimes I can see it in their faces and hear in their tone of
voice that they are trying so hard to speak so that I can understand but
I cant. The people here live in groups of huts so there are a bunch of
little kids under 7 that I always play with when we go to that place. It
is super fun.
But my area is very third world. The people live completely off of
the land. Money isn't a necessity, its a luxury. Most of the members here just don't understand how the
gospel of Jesus Christ works. There are 130 baptized members in our area
and only 20 people were at Church yesterday. It is super frustrating.
They believe that its true, I think, but they don't understand the endure
to the end part. Or many other things. I don't even know how to describe
it all! AW! Its so frustrating... I wish I could describe it better.
The Chuukese language is crazy! I have so much to
learn it's scary. I want to talk to these people so badly. But life is
good! This is really hard right now but my companion is great and is
helping me a ton. The people are super nice and the island is beautiful!...
Thank you so much for your
prayers. You are also in mine!
I love you so much!
-Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Aaron's first letter from Micronesia
Momma, Family! Ran Annim!!
Haha! I have
been assigned to Chuuk! Oh man this is so cool. I am on the main island
called Weno or Moen. The language spoken here is Chuukese, but I'll
talk more about that in a minute.
The trip here... Wow. It was 27 hours from leaving the MTC
to walking into the mission home. But it didnt feel like that because
"when the night came it was still light as noon day." ;) President and
Sister Mecham and the AP's picked us up from the air port in Guam. We
arrived at the home (on Guam) at about 12:30 am on the 5th so we went
strait to bed. The next morning we had a great banana pancake breakfast.
So Good. Sis Mecham was a girls camp cook just like you Momma so she
cooks well. They only call the best for that job. :) Good work and good
luck this week Momma! Anyway, after breakfast the AP's gave us
orientation and President gave some super awesome thoughts. The
orientation was about the islands and the people and the living
circumstances. After that was done we opened our "mission calls". It was
pretty great because we had grown pretty close together over the past 3
weeks. Its a bummer that Elder Cook couldn't make
it (I heard that he's in New Mexico until they can get him here). Elder
Despain went to Kosrae, Elder Hadder: Guam south, Elder Meyer: Yap,
then Elders Obre, Bowers, and I to CHUUK!!! So sweet!
After some dumb complications at the airport that President
Mecham (a lawyer) worked out we got here to the Chuuk lagoon on Friday.
Oh!!! My COMPANION! Elder Fisher! Holy moly this is so awesome! So you
know how (Sister T. from our ward) was telling us about her nephew who was in Chuuk,
THIS IS HIM!!! HAHA! Oh man when we found that out at the Presidents
home I was so stinking excited and amazed! He was, needless to say, a
little surprised. Then on top of that he's from Allen Texas, and I'm like
"I've been there!!! My cousins live in McKinney!!" Hahahaha Oh so
great. What a huge tender mercy to have him as my trainer and first
companion.
Our area is Wichap (Wee-chap). Elder Fisher told me that I
am the first trainee to go this area in 4 years. It was closed for 3 1/2
years and he reopened it in January. The area is on the south east
1/4th of the island. It starts at the southern tip and goes up to the
start of the north east peninsula. This place is so cool. It is a
jungle. We hike all around to the peoples houses on little hiking
trails. The hiking sandals are working great. They are definitely the
shoe of choice for this area, hiking up and down these slick muddy
trails. I slipped twice getting my hands all muddy yesterday hiking the
sacrament around to people. It rained a bunch yesterday. It rains about
everyday, but yesterday when we were coming home we got soaked.
Elder Fisher is so good at the language. So Good. And I don't
know any thing. Im trying really hard not to get discouraged. I want so
much to be able to talk to these beautiful people. They are so nice! So
friendly. I want to talk to them so much but I cant. Its no fun. The few
things I know I struggle to remember when the opportunity comes up to
say it. Its getting better. I want to talk to them so much!!! Thats what
I'm here to do and I cant! AAAHHH.......
Anyway it is so cool here. The mail takes a really long time I
here. Elder Fisher got a letter yesterday that was sent on June 19th.
The good news there is that you can use just normal forever stamps to
get it here! I guess the PO box address that we put on the card works,
but it isnt the one they like us to use so much. The package address (
is the one they like so spred that word around. They'll forward those to
where every I'm at in the mission. But here in Chuuk we have an
address! Here it is:
Elder Walters
PO Box 861
Weno Chuuk, FSM 96942
Elder
Fisher told me that if you send a package you should write on the box
"mission supplies". Maybe you could send some more dried mango... :)
That is such a great snack. Elder fisher said that any dried fruit is
great. Maybe you should talk to Sister T. and Elder Fishers mom and
send us a package. :)
Well I'm doing super well! They house is nice. I've been
drinking from coconuts and eating breadfruit, fish and rice. The people
are so great. My companion is awesome! He is so great. He's helping me
learn so much. The other Elders here are great. The couple missionaries
here are so awesome! Elder and Sister Eakins. The Jim Eakins! (look him
up) Super cool. They work so hard. This is such a great place! I'm so
excited to be here.
Love you all! So much. :)
-Elder Aaron Lane Walters
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Aaron's letters from the MTC
Here are portions of Aaron's letters from the Missionary Training Center:
June 24, 2012
Well goodness gracious, one week down! And I'll tell you what it hasn't been easy. It has been so busy I hardly have time to take care of myself. The time between 9:30 and 10:30 pm is probably the most crazy, stressful, exciting, happy, relaxing, fast, and ridiculously busy hour all day. Personal time. I always have so much I want to write, and letters to read and pictures to look at and get ready for bed. Its always a rush but its great. It's been a week of ups and downs that's for sure. There's been moments when I'll see myself in the mirror with my tag and suit on and I'll think "This is awesome!" But there has been a lot of time thinking to myself "What the heck am I doing. Am I really leaving all the people I love for two years? I miss them so much already and I've only been out here 3 days. How the heck am I going to make it 2 years?!" I've had a lot more thoughts similar to that been flying through my brain, I just don't remember them right now. Needless to say I've felt pretty down. But the spirit and the tender mercies the Lord has been blessing me with have been helping me.
...
The classes here at the MTC are so great. My district - we have the same classroom and we have 2 teachers. They are both so great. Bro. Austin and Sis. Hoopes. They both have recently returned from their missions (past couple years) so they are well experienced and so good at teaching. One activity that we are doing is teaching investigators. But he investigators are our teachers. They act the part of a person they met on their mission. It is so real. It is a huge learning experience. Its really something I am enjoying. But it is pretty darn discouraging as well sometimes. But life's good.
My district is really great. We do just about everything together. We are learning a lot from each other and it's pretty fun. We are a high energy group and we have had a lot of good times. And a lot of spiritual learning experiences too.
I've seen SO many Elders from high school. What a blessing that has been. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with so many great friends. I am so excited for all my buddies that are coming in today. In fact! I just went out for lunch ans saw Elder Issac Parkenson from my ward at USU. So exciting. I can't wait to see Elder Spencer Vernon.
I can't believe that I'm a week in! It seems to go so slow but it seems so fast.
I'm doing pretty well right now. Quite happy. I want to hear how you guys are! I love you so much.
Aaron's MTC district (and teachers):
Aaron and MTC companion, Elder Meyer
June 27, 2012
Family!
Goodness I love you all so much. A week and a half ago I couldn't imagine being able to make it all the way through my mission while feeling the pain of missing family, home, and friends. I was really concerned about that. So I prayed. I didnt want to forget about the people I left behind, wanted to still be able to love them but I didn't want to feel the pain of loss. And my prayers have been answered! I started feeling it after I got past last Wednesday. I am beginning to see that it is possible for me to be able to lose myself in the work. I really hope I can do that.
I have been blessed with so many tender mercies over the past week. I have seen so many friends from college and from home it's been awesome. I've seen so many people from Dear Old AF High its been so great. What an amazing school that was. I am so glad that I got to go there. There were so many good people in my class. I am confident in saying that our class was one of the very best classes to walk the halls of that school. I've seen my buddy Elder Spencer Vernon every single day. What a blessing it is to see and talk with one of my best buds even though we are in a completely different situation. He is doing so well. I've also been able to see and eat with my awesome friends that I met up at Utah State! My longboarding buddys from my singles ward up there. Isaac Parkenson and Weston Killpack. I love those guys. We all had church callings up there and we did some crazy awesome stuff together. It is so cool that we are all doing this crazy awesome mission thing now.
Ok! Here is the awesome tender mercy of the past week! Ok so its been pretty crazy thinking that we are going to be on our islands in two weeks. The schedule for the past week has been pretty different because the new batch of mission presidents are in here for training. So Saturday night, we got sent to the large meeting fireside devotional place to watch a movie. So I had no idea what the movie would be. Somthing like the Joseph Smith movie or something. But guess what movie it was.... The Other Side of Heaven! Oh man I was so excited. It was so good. Not only did it kinda freak me out, it got me super crazy excited. It was so great. So when that was done we walked out the south doors to where the ring of flag poles were. The day before there were no flags up except for the USA flag in the middle. When we walked out after the movie, there was only one other flag up. The Federate States of Micronessia flag. Oh my goodness gracious. It was amazing. I still cant figure out why it was the only flag up because the next morning every single pole had a flag on it. Heavenly Father loves us and knows who we are personally.
It is so amazing! I am going to be in Guam this time next week! I am so excited to know what I'll be doing. I have learned so much here in the MTC.
I love you!
June 24, 2012
Well goodness gracious, one week down! And I'll tell you what it hasn't been easy. It has been so busy I hardly have time to take care of myself. The time between 9:30 and 10:30 pm is probably the most crazy, stressful, exciting, happy, relaxing, fast, and ridiculously busy hour all day. Personal time. I always have so much I want to write, and letters to read and pictures to look at and get ready for bed. Its always a rush but its great. It's been a week of ups and downs that's for sure. There's been moments when I'll see myself in the mirror with my tag and suit on and I'll think "This is awesome!" But there has been a lot of time thinking to myself "What the heck am I doing. Am I really leaving all the people I love for two years? I miss them so much already and I've only been out here 3 days. How the heck am I going to make it 2 years?!" I've had a lot more thoughts similar to that been flying through my brain, I just don't remember them right now. Needless to say I've felt pretty down. But the spirit and the tender mercies the Lord has been blessing me with have been helping me.
...
The classes here at the MTC are so great. My district - we have the same classroom and we have 2 teachers. They are both so great. Bro. Austin and Sis. Hoopes. They both have recently returned from their missions (past couple years) so they are well experienced and so good at teaching. One activity that we are doing is teaching investigators. But he investigators are our teachers. They act the part of a person they met on their mission. It is so real. It is a huge learning experience. Its really something I am enjoying. But it is pretty darn discouraging as well sometimes. But life's good.
My district is really great. We do just about everything together. We are learning a lot from each other and it's pretty fun. We are a high energy group and we have had a lot of good times. And a lot of spiritual learning experiences too.
I've seen SO many Elders from high school. What a blessing that has been. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with so many great friends. I am so excited for all my buddies that are coming in today. In fact! I just went out for lunch ans saw Elder Issac Parkenson from my ward at USU. So exciting. I can't wait to see Elder Spencer Vernon.
I can't believe that I'm a week in! It seems to go so slow but it seems so fast.
I'm doing pretty well right now. Quite happy. I want to hear how you guys are! I love you so much.
Aaron's MTC district (and teachers):
Aaron and MTC companion, Elder Meyer
June 27, 2012
Family!
Goodness I love you all so much. A week and a half ago I couldn't imagine being able to make it all the way through my mission while feeling the pain of missing family, home, and friends. I was really concerned about that. So I prayed. I didnt want to forget about the people I left behind, wanted to still be able to love them but I didn't want to feel the pain of loss. And my prayers have been answered! I started feeling it after I got past last Wednesday. I am beginning to see that it is possible for me to be able to lose myself in the work. I really hope I can do that.
I have been blessed with so many tender mercies over the past week. I have seen so many friends from college and from home it's been awesome. I've seen so many people from Dear Old AF High its been so great. What an amazing school that was. I am so glad that I got to go there. There were so many good people in my class. I am confident in saying that our class was one of the very best classes to walk the halls of that school. I've seen my buddy Elder Spencer Vernon every single day. What a blessing it is to see and talk with one of my best buds even though we are in a completely different situation. He is doing so well. I've also been able to see and eat with my awesome friends that I met up at Utah State! My longboarding buddys from my singles ward up there. Isaac Parkenson and Weston Killpack. I love those guys. We all had church callings up there and we did some crazy awesome stuff together. It is so cool that we are all doing this crazy awesome mission thing now.
Ok! Here is the awesome tender mercy of the past week! Ok so its been pretty crazy thinking that we are going to be on our islands in two weeks. The schedule for the past week has been pretty different because the new batch of mission presidents are in here for training. So Saturday night, we got sent to the large meeting fireside devotional place to watch a movie. So I had no idea what the movie would be. Somthing like the Joseph Smith movie or something. But guess what movie it was.... The Other Side of Heaven! Oh man I was so excited. It was so good. Not only did it kinda freak me out, it got me super crazy excited. It was so great. So when that was done we walked out the south doors to where the ring of flag poles were. The day before there were no flags up except for the USA flag in the middle. When we walked out after the movie, there was only one other flag up. The Federate States of Micronessia flag. Oh my goodness gracious. It was amazing. I still cant figure out why it was the only flag up because the next morning every single pole had a flag on it. Heavenly Father loves us and knows who we are personally.
It is so amazing! I am going to be in Guam this time next week! I am so excited to know what I'll be doing. I have learned so much here in the MTC.
I love you!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Elder Aaron Walters' new blog
Welcome to Elder Walters' blog! Here you will find posts composed from his letters home, plus other fun tidbits and info about his mission in Micronesia Guam.
Aaron left the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, early on July 3. After 27 hours of bus rides, flights and transfers, he arrived at the mission home in Guam at 12:30am July 5 (local time). That's some serious travel!
We received an e-mail from him today and learned that he has been assigned to serve in the Chuuk Atoll (or Chuuk Lagoon), a group of islands in the State of Chuuk, one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. You can see these links for more info if you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuuk_State
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuuk_Lagoon
He is currently on the main island of Weno. His companion is Elder Fisher, from Allen, Texas. We have a friend in our ward (Shari T.) whose nephew is currently serving in the Micronesia Guam mission, and she was very excited for Aaron when he was called there. She was a great source of info about the mission. It turns out that Elder Fisher is her nephew! Needless to say, Aaron is super excited about his assignment to Chuuk and to have Elder Fisher as his first companion.
We will post today's letter, and probably some of his earlier letters from the MTC. We also have some MTC pics we will post. So stay tuned!
Aaron left the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, early on July 3. After 27 hours of bus rides, flights and transfers, he arrived at the mission home in Guam at 12:30am July 5 (local time). That's some serious travel!
We received an e-mail from him today and learned that he has been assigned to serve in the Chuuk Atoll (or Chuuk Lagoon), a group of islands in the State of Chuuk, one of the four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. You can see these links for more info if you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuuk_State
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuuk_Lagoon
He is currently on the main island of Weno. His companion is Elder Fisher, from Allen, Texas. We have a friend in our ward (Shari T.) whose nephew is currently serving in the Micronesia Guam mission, and she was very excited for Aaron when he was called there. She was a great source of info about the mission. It turns out that Elder Fisher is her nephew! Needless to say, Aaron is super excited about his assignment to Chuuk and to have Elder Fisher as his first companion.
We will post today's letter, and probably some of his earlier letters from the MTC. We also have some MTC pics we will post. So stay tuned!
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