Friday April 18,2014

I can't send any pictures in the MTC, but I do have some to send as soon as I can. So it won't be for another week and a half, but you'll see some soon and I'll keep taking more.

So second day in, I already got assigned as district leader for my district. It's kinda overwhelming, I don't even know really what to do as a missionary, let alone lead them. But, it is nice because it already feels like I'm helped by the Spirit and told what to do.  It's comforting to know that we can be woefully underqualified and hopelessly lost, but God still gives us responsibility because he's still doing all the work anyway, just through my lanky, nerdy, curiously handsome frame. 

The MTC is odd. The people around are great and the teachers are great and my district and companion are great, but the MTC is odd. There's a lot of good, important rules that make sense and are good. Then, there's a lot of stupid, annoying rules that I hate. Like today, we went to the temple and we had to leave during breakfast, so we only got about five minutes to eat. That's ok, because I don't really care much about breakfast and I think it's the Canada of meals, the problem was I brought my temple bag because we weren't really gonna have time to go back and grab it. Apparently its against the fire code to put bags in the cubbies for bags in the cafeteria though, and my bag was taken to the front desk and I got written up for being too prepared to go to the Temple. I suppose I need to tone my spirituality down a bit.

This is really long already but we still have a lot of time left so I don't care, I'm gonna write more. All you punks reading this who haven't written to me yet... DO IT. I've only had a letter from Mom and Dad, and an email from Kendall. You all got beat to the first letter by Kendall, even Mom and Dad actually because she emailed the day I got here. Feel the shame of being beat to the first letter by Kendall. Let it sink in, feel bad, cry, and then write to me. If you don't I'll use my district leader powers to send you passive aggressive emails and letters constantly till you do.

And, it's ridiculously easy to write to me. just go to dearelder.com and follow the instructions, it's free and it'll take ten minutes of your I'm sure busy busy day. I will get it the day you write it, because mail comes twice a day and as district leader I pick it up so there is literally no way I can miss it. And I'll write to you, and getting letters will make you feel warm and fuzzy. Like a spiritual brown bear. You can do it. I have faith in you. Don't let Kendall be my only friend. Although she is a good friend so if you read this Kendall, you the best right now. Props to you, yo.

A few funny stories I guess. Everyone in my dorm is going to Ogden, there's my companion (Elder Muller pronounced mull-er not mule-er) and Elders Schillemat (pronounced ALSKFJADL:FKJ) Vincent (pronounced he is a ginger). And, all three of them snore but me. So I've got about 3 hours of sleep the past two days because I lay awake all night listening to the different cadences of their snores till they match together and I get a few precious seconds of silence. I feel your pain now Mom, except I can't kick them out to the couch and sleep for four hours in peace. I can just lay there cursing the MTC blankets that don't cover my feet, and my supersonic hearing.

Elder Schillemat and I played basketball yesterday, and a bunch of polynesian people came to play with us. We were trying to play bump/knockout/lightning, and they clearly did not know the rules even though they wanted to play and they definitely could not speak English at all. Elder Schillemat can't speak Tongan, and unfortunately I can't either because we didn't watch Other Side of Heaven and that weird rugby movie enough. So we couldn't communicate with each other, and eventually our game devolved into a line of several polynesian elders, and two pale white elders running really fast and shooting the ball, then getting back in line. So that was... fun. Maybe. Haven't decided yet. 

I've seen a few people I know. My zone leader is Elder March, I knew him from western wyoming. I also ran into Sister Barnes, from Western Wyoming as well. Elder March lets you kinda handle yourself which I appreciate. Sister Barnes is leaving soon to London, but she is awesome and so perky and exciting. It's nice running into her because she's the type of person where after you talk to her, you feel like you can do anything you want because she fills you up with energy. 

My district makes fun of me because I tend to stay pretty quiet during discussions and classes and meals unless I really have something to say, and then I do speak it's usually something pretty weird. I can't help that when I have something to say it's usually weird, I blame Dad. But, they all claim they love me for it and that they'll remember the things I say forever, so that's cool I guess. Fun times.

Umm... I don't have much else to say. Mom, you can always put my letters up for everyone to read, I don't care. You can edit whatever you want if you feel like it's not good for the general public to read, but everything is fine with me. Write to me you people, say your prayers, read your scriptures, and goshdangit just be wise. I will be back on to email next Friday so I better have something there. And some dearelder letters throughout the week. I spend half an hour writing you all a ridiculously long winded email/manifesto, the least you can do is send me back a one sentence letter that says "Elder you're stupid."

-Elder Walker

 p.s Brett tell me all about the stuff you do and the games you play and how you are doing! Slade, stop mumbling and write me a letter. Tyra, I know royalty doesn't associate with commoners, but jeez I'm your brother, write me a letter. Cole, I literally live 10 minutes away from you. You can probably spy on me if you try hard enough. Write me a gosh dang letter.