A Note to Hayley's Family

August 25, 2008

Elder Walters sent his sister, Hayley, a letter for us to pass on to her. I could feel his sweet personality in the letter and wanted to share some of the excerpts with you.

Hello! It was so great to hear from you in your note from the family reunion! . . . We did service tonight at the nursing home, which inspired my letter to you! We had SO MUCH FUN! It was Bingo Night! Holy Moly, there were all types of folks there. I asked Roger how he was doing and he said, “I don’t sleep well,” then wandered off, staring at things. I felt so badly. Billy, an eighty year old lady with oxygen, six kids and a cast where she fell and broke her thumb was SO friendly and talkative! She could carry on a shouted conversation so well! I was calling out the Bingo Number as LOUDLY as I could. Billy was sitting next to me, asking about my family and home. Then Flora kept shouting “Shut up, Billy, and let him read the numbers!” Then everybody got mad at Ben and Elizabeth because they had 5 or 6 Bingo sheets each. I was just smiling and chuckling the whole time! Last week we came to the nursing home and taught 30 to 40 people the Restoration and about the Atonement. When we came to the nursing home tonight for service, Flora said, ”I haven’t got time to listen to you again . . . I’m going to play Bingo.” Maybe when other people we try to teach say they don’t have time for us, we should just offer to play Bingo with them. We always ask people if we can serve them, even if they don’t want to hear our message. I like that. I imagine that’s what Christ did. I love Matthew, Chapter 9, how Christ serves people, so much and often and also preaches the Gospel . . .

Ryan goes on to express his love for Hayley and Ryan and baby Logan.

Miraculous Blessings

Transfers tomorrow!!!

Elder Nelson has been our great district leader for the past transfer, but he has been here for about 7 and 1/2 months, so we will likely be getting a new district leader tomorrow!

I saw this quote on the first page of our blog on Saturday December 31st 2005, “We pray for, have faith in, and expect miracles in the days to come. Those miracles will be chronicled in periodic updates to this website.”

There truly have been many miracles performed by the Lord in my own life. Many of them are recorded on this blog as often as we’ve been able to share them. While in Craig Rehabilitation Hospital my parents and I would often reflect on the amazing ways in which the Lord had blessed our family. Before Dad went home for the night, he and I would usually chat for a few minutes about the situations in which God had blessed us that day in particular. I could never fully describe the ways the Lord blessed me while at Craig. The Hospital was only about twenty minutes away from our home and my sister Whitney’s home. This meant that I was often able to see my Mom, Dad, sister Kaitlyn, and the whole Henwood Gang, including my sister Whitney, her husband, Justin, and three of my favorite little people, Callum, Isabelle and Tate. The Lord had also blessed me and other patients in that Craig is one of if not the best of Spinal Chord injury Rehabilitation Hospitals in the world. The medical care was excellent and compassionate and the therapy programs, including Occupational, Physical and Recreational made my progress enjoyable and gave me something to challenge myself with.

And the mission has been just as miraculous. A review over the past year shows many of the ways in which Heavenly Father has blessed my life, and the ways He continues to do so.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Love, Elder Walters

Elder Walters has asked me to write about some of the miracles I've seen in the last 32 months . . . I'll be sharing my thoughts in another post. Bridgette

July 28, 2008

Dear Blog Readers,

Elder Walters sent this blog last week but we have been in Island Park for a Walters' Reunion and recently returned to civilization so I'm just now posting it. It was wonderful to see all the cousins and Barry's parents at the reunion! I'm hoping we will receive another email from Elder Walters tomorrow. Love, Bridgette

Hello from Tar Heel Country! The work is going well out here. This is a slower time of the year because Summer session just got out and fall semester won’t start for about two weeks. We’ve had a lot of fun just tracting and getting better at transitioning into teaching. We’re going to help out the other Elders’ areas by tracting in their area and going on exchanges with them. That should be a lot of fun! Our district is huge right now! Eleven missionaries!!