Elder Walker Goes Dutch: 7th letter from Leuven, Belgium

hey madre!!! I'm soooooo sorry haha I thought I sent you an email last week, but I must not have sent it but I really did write you it just didn't get there! Sooo sorry madre!

I think I will get your package on Thursday hopefully but thank you for all that you do and know that I love you dearly and again I am sooooo sorry for not sending that email last week. Know that you were in my prayers and thoughts.

okay so yes this is going to count as the blog as well for everyone!! :-)

okay so transfers went well! I'm staying here in the amazing city of Leuven and my new companion is Elder Silva. He is from Brazil but has lived in Portugal for most of his life.

So it's awesome I'm very excited for this transfer. I think we will see a lot of success.

I guess the biggest thing I want to talk about today is how amazing the Atonement truly is. I will not pretend to have any grasp of knowledge over how it works or what Jesus Christ truly went through for us in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, but I am eternally grateful for what he did and I have seen the effects of it in my life as well as sooo many people that I have met.

The reason why I bring this up is we had the opportunity to see an amazing lady get baptized and confirmed this week up in Gouda and it was truly as all baptisms are a special experience where the spirit truly testifies of the truthfulness of the Gospel.

But I just want to bare my testimony that I know that this Gospel is truly for our happiness. That Jesus Christ lives and that he died for us so that every single day we can improve and become better. That we can repent and receive forgiveness from those mistakes that we have made in this life.

I know that the infinite atonement that he performed for us is all encompassing. It doesn't matter where we are or what we have gone through or what we have done, the atonement has the power to change our hearts, to heal those scars, and to give us relief of burden. To strengthen, comfort and testify.

For me what makes this all so amazing, is that it is available to every single one of us. All we have to do is ask, have a desire to change and do our best.

haha thinking about it, I honestly cannot even comprehend the love that our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us and I'm grateful for the example of the kind of person I should be and as a missionary I do my best every day to become more Christlike, because I know that that is how I will be able to be the best I can be, do the most good, and be the happiest.

I just want to let you all know that you are loved. You are loved more than you can ever know. Firstly by your Heavenly Father, secondly by me and all of those other people in your life that you have influenced or have been influenced by.

I wish you all of the happiness that this life has to offer and encourage all of you to ponder on all of the blessings that you have been given and then find out how you can serve others around you. I promise that by doing so you will feel the weight of life become lighter on your shoulders and what is most important will truly become centered in your life again.

I think about all of you amazing people and I just smile. I love you and all I want to say is may God be with you till we meet again.

Love,

Elder Walker

I want to share a poem sent by Elder Strikwerda...

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.-Kenneth M Keith

There weren't any captions w/these pictures so I'll do my best to give you all some info about them! :-)

This is a famous statue in Brusses, Belgium called Manneken Pis, Flemish for "little pee man". History dates it back about 600 yrs. and there are a lot of different legends as to who the little boy was. Apparently the locals dress the statue for different holidays and events. Kind of funny! :-)