Elder Talon Walz

Elder Talon Walz

Monday, June 5, 2017

It was a week of miracles!

I am doing pretty well with the cold. This week was actually a little warmer and we weren't really on bikes much because a part broke on our bike and we also spent a day in Maipu at a conference with Elder Packer (the son of Boyd K Packer). That was awesome! He and his wife speak Spanish so they gave their talks in Spanish and they were super good. They really inspired me to do better. I have already been trying to work on obedience with exactness and they really talked about the importance in that so that was cool. They also talked about a few ways we can carry the things we learn on our mission to the world after we get home. Elder Packer is in the area presidency of South America, he is an awesome dude!

This week has been amazing! I'm not sure what really was different yet but we saw a lot of miracles! The first happened last Tuesday night. We got out of a lesson at 9:45 PM and had to be in the house at 10. We were about 25 minutes away walking. We waited five minutes for a bus and then decided we needed to just start running. Then mid run, I prayed saying "Father I'm sorry that the time passed faster then we noticed but I really want to be 100% obedient so please put someone in our path to help." Then I threw up my thumb and a dude stopped and took us home! We got there at exactly 10 PM! But also this guy was interested in the church so we set up a time to visit him! It was a miracle! Then this Sunday we had five investigators at church and we were able to set baptism dates with three of them! This whole change we have only had one investigator and he got baptized on Saturday. Now we have three more! It was all out of nowhere but I know we are being blessed for the work we are putting in and for our obedience. We are teaching a super cute little girl that is 11 named Vanessa, a man named Christian, and a little dude named Freddie. Vanessa is from an inactive family so we are working to reactivate them. I'm helping them to understand that Vanessa's baptism needs to be a team effort. Because if the whole family isn't all in, it is much harder to endure to the end. Then Christian is the father of a member family. We are helping him understand the plan of salvation and the importance to act now. He has been listening to missionaries for years but has had problems with smoking until now. We are helping him realize that he needs to make this decision now before he is tempted to start smoking again. The Holy Ghost really does help us fight temptation when he is with us. Then Freddy is the only member in his family. He is 14 and was kind of a bad kid up until I got here. He has slowly been changing at ton! It is awesome to see and on Sunday he told us he is ready to be baptized! All these people have just decided to make the decision to be baptized in the same week! It was so cool to see! It is awesome to see how much the gospel changes lives.

I have learned so much about myself and the gospel here on my mission, and more than anything, the importance of the gospel within the family. I want to be married in the temple and to raise my family in the Gospel. This is like the most important thing to me now. I know that the church really does bless our lives. I have seen people’s lives change from the light of Christ in their lives. It is amazing. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be raised in the church. That is also what I want for my family. I have been able to do a lot of family nights here on my mission. I'm sure sad I didn't think those were too important while I was in high school because now I do. The family night really does make a big impact. I know the church is true with all my heart.

Have a great week!