Monday, February 29, 2016

February 29, 2016 Service in Phoenix, AZ

Hey y'all how's it goin? Random quote of the day " Love BIG, play HARD & eat DESSERT. Savor the simple things and don't worry about the rest. Choose today to be AMAZING!"

I read that on a paper towel so I write it down because it was cool. We had a zone conference where our mission president shared a story.

"There once was a boy named Benjamin. Benjamin loved to play his violin. Well he loved it so much that his mom would lock it away so he would do his chores on the farm. Once his chores were done he would play the beautiful violin. He got so good he auditioned for a symphony and was they were so impressed with his ability to play that he got a job where he would make enough money for himself and have enough to send home to the family too. Benjamin thought his life was made that's when his bishop called him into his office and asked him to accept a mission call. Benjamin ran home and told his mother, she was delighted but when he told her of the expenses her smile faded. They had nothing but land to sell and Benjamin would not let her sell the land. They had one thing to sell one thing that meant soooo much to him. The only thing they had that would cover the finances was Benjamin's beautiful violin.

Benjamin records in his journal "I woke up early and played my violin all day long I played wonderful melodies and played late into the night where the light grew too Dim for me to play anymore so I put away my violin knowing that in the morning I would not see it anymore.

Well he went on his mission and over 40 years later recorded in his journal " I am so great full I made that sacrifice and gave up something that was so dead to my heart for the God that I love even more."

Wow what a powerful statement what a great story. Now you know I am serving my mission in the Scottsdale Arizona mission where I am currently serving in Mesa. I was called to a marvelous work and a wonder to help "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

So my commitment to you to think about and ponder today and throughout your life "WHAT IS YOUR SACRIFICE FOR THE GOD YOU LOVE EVEN MORE?"

Now mission update this week was slow. We worked hard! we peddled hard, we biked, we sweat, it was in the 80's and 90's this week so biking was a blast you know (it was no sweat) Hahaha little humor well Sunday was our stake conference and 2 of the members in one of the wards I am serving in were translating English into Spanish. It was cool. The talks were great I sang in the stake choir we sang "this is the Christ" and I believe in Christ those 2 songs were sung with conviction and power it was truly amazing singing and feeling the spirit of music I love music.

We also got to do a HUGE service project. The Phoenix marathon was on Saturday and guess what station I get put at? none!!! I got to do garbage. Now man I have so much more compassion on garbage men. It is a nasty job. The liner would fall into the trash can and people would still put stuff in the garbage so we'd have to put a liner over the top of the whole garbage can and flip it upside down and dump the trash in and then put the liner with the garbage back in the can.

Now a little bit of math for y'all 15,000 runners and plus their families that is a TON of people!!!! And a TTTOOONNNN OF GARBAGE!!!!!! Now let's see 10 garbage cans and 6 of us at trash we would go around to all 10 garbage cans and if they were full we would tie it up pull it out of the can and have to walk it to a little cart that loaded up the trash and took it to a dumpster. Now it was crazy there was a lot of nasty food there was Famous Dave's, kneaders French toast, muscle milk with buff dudes and nasty girls handing out muscle milk, there was creamies oh man we would load up the little golf cart full of full bags of garbage and take them to the dumpster. When we got to the dumpsters we would have to throw the bags into the dumpster and sometimes the liners weren't strong enough so when we would throw the garbage the bags would sometimes blow open and cover us in melted creamies, Mac and cheese, Famous Dave’s barbecue sauce, kneaders syrup, and muscle milk!!! Nasty we were covered in nasty garbage.

we started at 6:30 A.M and got done at 2:00 P.M. We got 4 things of Gatorade concentrate kneaders gave us 25 14" x 6" trays of French toast and a ton of syrup and muscle milk gave us like 68 protein shakes which is a ton of money like a TON!!! So helped out got free stuff got to learn a lot about garbage and how oblivious people really are.

So had a good week full of service on Saturday and stake conference on Sunday I got to go to a Spanish baptism where I couldn't understand them but I could feel the spirit. So that was cool and yeah you are caught up on my life now.

Peace for now!!!!

Love you so much!!!!
-Elder Walker


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