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