Hey familia!

As of today I have only three weeks left! I cannot wait to get out of here, the MTC is great and I have learned a lot but it gets old. Although its starting to become fall up here, the leaves are changing and that’s a fairly new experience for me so I’m happy about that. It’s awesome to see what fall is supposed to be like. So I tried to send a second email last week but I ran out of time, I just thought you should know that I’m going to conference! We will be singing in the priesthood session though so most of you won’t see me. Its going to be awesome though, the music is pretty cool and I’m excited. The choir director was talking to us at the end of practice about how we need to make sure we look good because a lot of people will see us and I realized…I’m going to be on TV in front of millions of people…crap…I don’t know how to sing. Anyway it’s going to be crazy and I’m pretty pleased that I’m going. I’m not sure if he would want to but you should convince Grandpa to go. I got the hurricane pictures and stuff. The CD is great but I have to say the CD of instrumental music Called to Serve Him is the best by far, if you send more music in the future, instrumental is a good choice. Anyway the pictures are crazy! I can’t believe the house isn’t damaged, by the way, why no pictures of our house. My room isn’t gone is it? lol. Oh and tell Bro. Singer and Nathan that they are crazy and I can’t believe they cut down trees at night, and that I’m really jealous I wasn’t there to help them. Oh and Mom, no I have not met this Blake person you keep asking about and I’m not sure why its hard to believe that finding one person in a devotional with over 2000 people in the room is impossible, but its true. Sorry. Oh but I did find Spencer, he is on the floor right above mine so we hang out for a few minutes every night. Yeah, I heard about the Bolivia stuff a few weeks ago. Stuff like that is pretty much the only kind of news we get in here. From what I have heard it’s pretty unlikely that we will have the same problem with Ecuador so I’m not worried about it.

Te quiero,
Elder Walke

____________
Olivia

I got your letter and card! They are great! I’m sorry you haven’t gotten your card yet but it should get there soon. I have no idea what movie you were talking about in your letter, is it a new one? I am already starting to lose touch with what is happening in the world I’m afraid, but it sounded like a pretty weird movie. Just so you know I do not have a favorite sister and I will never have a favorite sister but I do like getting letters from all my sisters and every time I get one I love that sister a little more *hint hint*

From the homefront back in Texas: 

Unfortunately Hurricane Ike has left us without power (and internet) for almost two weeks. We were lucky and did not have any fallen trees or damage to our house. We’ve been running a backup generator to supply us with enough power to keep our refrigerator/freezer cold and run a couple of window AC units, a TV, and some lights.

Hey everyone — I got your letters this week much to my surprise, I didn’t think I would hear from you for a week or two. I still can’t believe how hard you guys got hit. I’m in the MTC for a couple of weeks and you people go and get yourselves hit by a hurricane. I keep feeling like I should be down there helping with cleanup but I’m pretty much stuck here for the long haul I think. So Olivia mentioned that the Stolts got hit by a tree, I think that would have been a good thing to mention before. How many other people from our ward had trees land in their living rooms? Kayla asked some questions about MTC life in her last letter and I figured I would answer them here because I’m not sure if you post the letters I send to the girls online or not. Everyday is a little different but I don’t have very long for email so I’m going to pretend everyday is the same. We wake up at 6:30 and breakfast is at 7:00 then we have personal study at 7:30 for an hour followed by and hour of companion study and a half hour of language study, then we have gym until lunch at 11:30. After that we have class with one of our teachers for 2 1/2 hours and after that it’s MDT (missionary directed time, basically more study time) until dinner at 4:30. then at 5:15 we have class with our other teacher for about 3 more hours and then a half hour of planning with my companion for the next day and its back to the residence halls at 9:30 to take care of important business and stuff like cleaning my room and writing in my journal, I’m careful to maintain the same standards I kept at home. Then at 10:30 we go to bed and the whole thing starts over again. My district is pretty cool I get along well with all of them and we have a lot of fun. My companion is ok, I don’t know if I would have chosen to hangout with him in Babylon but it works well enough here. So I have gained somewhere between 12-15 pounds here. Yeah I’m impressed with myself for breaking into the 130s. On that note I thought I would let you know that the food here does terrible things to your insides, the running theory is that it’s because they don’t wash the dishes they just rinse them in water. An interesting thing happened the other day. During gym an elder from another zone snuck away from his companion while he was playing basketball and packed up his suitcases and left with his girlfriend. It was really weird because dad told me a story that was almost identical before I left. Anyway the mtc has been a great experience for the most part and I’m learning a ton, although I’m so glad that I’m past the half way point. The devotional speaker was Richard Hinckley it was pretty cool because he sounds just like his dad and his talk was the 9 B’s of missionary work. Thanks for the info about Spencer and yes I pretty much know how things work here now. Yeah we do keep the same companion the whole time which is ok I guess, I think Uchtdorf’s grandkids are both going to Japan but I’m not sure. They are both girls by the way. I have not heard anything on my visa yet but they still say we are leaving on time, I don’t think I will hear about it until the week before. I’m out of time so I will just have to send a letter in the mail for Kayla and the girls but tell them, no tengo una hermana favorita.

Te quiero,

Elder Walke

So I hear you guys are alive, that’s good. Otherwise who would write me letters and send me stuff? I got your package Saturday and now I’m pretty well equipped, everything is great but one of the CDs seems to have been lost in transport. It’s called the missionary hymn project and I got a cardboard container for it but I didn’t find a CD in the box. The cookies are awesome I’m not sure what kind they are but I like them a lot. Tell Andrea that I got her letters and they are awesome! They are the best part of every package for sure. I’ve had her “letter” reduced and made into a bookmark — it’s pretty cool. I’m honored to have her first letter I can’t believe she can already write her A’s and B’s so well, and her picture of me is great — it looks just like me!

So last Tuesday for our devotional President Uchtdorf was the main speaker I guess having a member of the First Presidency come is pretty much unprecedented, but he has couple of grandkids in the MTC right now so that’s why he came, I had a good seat and it was a pretty cool event.

Spanish is going well but tell Kayla that if she wants to write to me in Spanish she also needs to send me the translation. It took me a long time to figure out what a couple of the sections said. Tell Grandpa that I said hola and that I’m proud of him too So you sent me a new CD player instead of the old one. The old one would have been fine I don’t understand why you went out and spent more money on me like that. Anyway good luck trying to survive hurricanes and stuff. I can’t believe that Simeon is a branch president, that’s really funny. Tell him I’m sorry he is being punished but he must have done something pretty bad to deserve it.

Te quiero,

Elder Walke
Hermana menor,

no tengo una hermana favorita ?porque haces malo a su hermano? yo trao cosas y escribo
amable palabras a tu y en volves tu escribir en espanol y hago trabajar mucho a
leo eso. no bueno. yo conozco un poco espanol. das me tiempo a aprendo por favor.
entonces, IB es malo si tu dejas que yo no digo cerca de eso. tu dices a mi amigos
que ellos necesito escriben mi y ellos hacemos con buen dicisiones. tu dices Sr.
Nelson yo digo “hi”. tambien tu haces un tanta nina, ?sarah palin? es
malo, puro malo. te mato sarah palin ?por que, tu dices? no se, pero es por queso.
entonces obama y biden ganaran por supuesto. haces buen en secondaria y dejas IB
ahora.

su hermano favorito,
                                                                               
Tyler

I can’t get the keyboard into spanish so there are no accents. y no tengo mi libro
de gramatica o diccionario aqui yo hacia escribir “from memory” entonces,
no gusta a orar cerca de mi espanol estas mal.

Tyler sent us a CD with his first pictures from the MTC. We were excited to see the pictures, and Andrea was especially excited to see the picture of the drawing (with stickers) she made for Tyler last week. Along with the CD, Tyler also sent some gifts for his sisters and one for Chris Gist.  Below is the letter Tyler sent with the pictures. Click on the picture to the right or the link below to view the pictures.

__________________

So, you might be wondering why I cam sending all the junk along with the CD of pictures and I guess its mostly because I had money left over from my “paycheck” (we get $6 a week to spend) so I decided to buy some stuff for my favorite sisters. Just so there is no confusion, the Spanish hymn book is for Kayla, the HLJ rings are for Allison and Olivia. “Haz La Justo” means “Do the Right” instead of “Choose the Right”, which I think is a slightly better slogan. The M&Ms are for Andrea because it was the only thing in the bookstore I thought she would like. The pen isn’t for any of you so don’t get to attached, I bought one for myself a week ago because its a really cool pen and it made me think of Chris Gist because he loves pens for some reason and has a pretty extensive collection so if you could get it to him, I would appreciate it. If any of you guys decide you want one as well, just write me a note and I’ll send some.

Tyler

Link to pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wwalke/MTCAug2008?authkey=MeRTSzbbrp8#

Hello everyone!

Greetings from the MTC I got your letters and they were much appreciated. Everything is still pretty much the same here but it feels like its moving faster and faster. My Spanish is coming along and we are all
having about as much fun as a person can/should have here. Last Tuesday the devotional speakers were Quintin L. Cook and his wife it was really cool he talked alot about preach my gospel (he seems to have had a bigger role in putting it together than i thought) and strengthening the church by better preparing the new members. My district is a “chat” district, which means that we are one of the groups that answer people’s
questions on mormon.org. Its pretty interesting stuff; the whole time I was there I don’t think I saw one normal question. It was all people who wanted to bash with us or talk about their feelings for men. I had a
pretty interesting chat with a guy for about an hour who claimed to be buddist and wanted to know how we could claim to be the only true church when there are so many in the world. Yeah it was hard. I have never
really tried to compare our beliefs with a Buddhist but somehow I was able to answer all his questions in a way that didn’t leave room for doubt or argument, and then he got mad that I had answered his questions so well and he started bashing the Book of Mormon. It was kind of a let down to find out that i had been talking to a professional Mormon basher instead of an actual investigator but there was nothing I could do about it.

Te quiero,
Elder Walke

Looks like Tyler may be missing his family. He complains about not getting enough letters but he hasn’t even been there two weeks yet and he has received two packages and over half a dozen letters from various family members.  Hmmm…

Well here is his email this week from the MTC:

hey everyone!

im still doing well here and i hope you are all the same (not that i would know because nobody seems to write much these days) i got both packages you sent and both the cookies and candy bars were in good condition. oh and why did you send me more work gloves and the girly note pad mom? i already have to pairs of gloves. the pictues were great tho, it would be cool if you would send a few more with each package. we have dinner at 4:30 so it helps to have the cookies and stuff to eat when i start getting hungry again a couple of hours later. oh and the letter i got from andrea was awesome its the best letter i have gotten so far. im going to send some pictures soon, im sending about 15 or 20 they are mostly from the provo temple and my room oh and the provo temple is really cool we go every monday and we get to wander around the temple grounds on sunday. the funny thing about sundays is that every girl in utah that is old enough to date “happens” to show up on sundays which i think is really funny, they aren’t very subtle about their reasons for being there either. we are of course forbidden from talking with them and such but i have noticed that some missionaries are better listeners than others. a couple weeks ago some missionaries got kicked out for associating to closley with some people from the outside world while they were making a trip to the temple so ironicly the temple grounds seems to be the most dangerous place for missionaries at the mtc which is pretty funny/sad. its really been raining here the last day or so i cant even believe it, its like texas rain i think there is going to be some flooding if it keeps up much longer the temperature has dropped 20 or 30 degrees as well so now we get pretty cold when we have to leave i keep almost buying a sweat shirt but i wont need it in ecuador so ive been resisting. i still have not seen steven and im not sure that i will at this point but if you could send me spencers mtc entry date and what time he is supposed to enter the mtc that day i would be thankful. spanish is still going well but i still have a long way to go. ive also been wishing that i had let aunt lori buy me that cd player now because life without music is wierd and church music keeps sounding better and better but its a little late now and im not going to ask you to send a cd player all the way to utah. anyway good luck with school and work and surviving hurricanes and such i hope i here from you soon!

Les Quiero,

Elder Walke