Dear Parents of our Foreign Missionaries,
At 6:00am this morning (Sunday Morning in the Philippines) we received a text warning of possible costal flooding along the eastern shores of the Philippines possibly triggered by the massive earthquake that hit Chile. We were attending a District Conference on the Island of Masbate at the time. It’s now late Sunday night and we are just arriving back in Naga after a pretty long day. The only effect that we have been able to learn of was delays to some of the boat schedules. Own boat off the Island was delayed for about 3 hours as a precaution this afternoon.
None of the missionaries live on or near beach- front areas that were in the caution areas. Everyone is safe. All is well.
President Gordon C. Smith
Philippines Naga Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
39 Panganiban Road; PO Box 8847
Naga City

Hey,
Well i dont think Justin is home yet, i think he comes home this week. Thats nuts i cant believe all my friends are home except for me. Crazy!
Thank you soooooooo much for the money you all have put in. It was much needed. The robber didnt take much, just my brand new cell phone and my flash drive and watch. And my keys.
Its been a crazy week for crime. The church got broken into and also the stake president got robbed. All in all the church or people from the church have gotten robbed 5 times this week. Crazy huh?

Well we had some crazy cool teaching this week. Yesterday especially, it really felt like the Lord guided our work. We taught alot of lessons and in each one i felt the investigator really learned from it. Yesterday was a really cool day, Elder Teh and Elder Augustin came from Manila, they are General Authorities they reorganized our stake yesterday. It was way cool because i got to see teh Bantog family, Do you remember them? From pili... Day Day was there it was soooooooooooooo coool i loved it. I took some pictures. It seriously made my heart swell knowing they were all still active. Jona is a mia maid president, and Nanay is a ward missionary. Her husband lost her job but she still goes to church, even though they have no money. They are so amazing. I also saw a family who i found when i was in Pili, they ended up getting baptized after i left! teh Sanchez family!!! that was cool too. It is awesome i love this work with all my heart! It is the best thing i've ever done in my life. I really dont want these next 7 months to go by fast. I hope they take another year!!!!

Well i gotta go. I love you and i am sooooo thankful i have such an amazing family. Dont worry about me. I love you
Elder

Hello,
Well that was a really cool letter to read, i loved it for some reason. Probably because it mentioned me getting to hunt in less that 10 months. I better get drawn. Dad you should put me in for The Archery hunt 1st choice, and muzzleloader 2nd choice, unit 1. the 3rd and 4th choices are yours, as long as i get drawn i'll be happy, so try and make sure that happens hahaa..

Well this last week i traveled a bunch, like everyday i was traveling. And on monday we went to Naga for ZLC, well i got sick and threw up for the first time in my mission. I think it was just a 24 hour flu though. It sucked though, i couldnt enjoy all of the amazing food there.
We now have 3 areas we are working in, i dont know if you know how much that is but its alot!. Its really hard, but cool at the same time. I have got to meet alot of new people. It's just hard coordinating with 3 different wards and trying to get people to work with us.

Well i love you gotta go... Elder Walker

Finally updating... starting in January (sorry)

Hey mom, and family,
Well this week was cool i loved talkin to you all. It was awesome.

Well this week we went to Masbate we took a big boat, not a canoe. Its a different island, not the canoe island. But i found a place that looks just like America, it has rolling hills with the horses grazing. and the grass is brown. Wierd huh. i was homesick while i split there because it looked so much like home. But then when we were on our way home they canceled the boat because it was new years eve. So we had to take a boat that takes 4 hours to get back to the mainland. So we ended up on the mainland at 6pm then they had no jeeps or vans going to Legazpi where i live. So we had to take a tiny tricylce and pay 100 pesos each (thats alot) there were 7 of us on the tricycle so it took 2 more hours to get home. On top of that i forgot a razor for 5 days so i looked like Grizzly Adams when i finally got home! Wow it was a really awesome trip.
Tell the Hamblins i said hello, i love them.
Well sorry this is short but i have to go to Naga today. I love you all and miss you. Have a great week.
Elder Walker