So in the "office" my job is like a mix between that of Jim and Pam....

Hey!!!!!!

So, I have to tell ya, idk why, but that was one of my favorite letters! Ha! Ha! It sure did make my day! You are the best Mom. I am so glad to hear how everyone is doing and everything! I sure hope that dad gets feeling better and Abby too. Well, and Bryan and Whitney too... Ha! Ha! I guess everyone basically is sick, but even with that, it still sounds like everyone is doing really awesome. Tay, you are the freaking man!!!!! I SOOO wish I could have been there to see that drum off!!!!!!! When I read that you got the drum off part I totally freaked out. You should know I brag about you all the freakin time! You are such a stud!!!!! And I am glad to hear that you are still chillin with good ol´ Ben! Tell him that I say hi. I love that kid. And that is really good to hear that C. is doing so well. Tell him that I say hi and I miss him a ton next time you see him. I always wanna write him but idk....kinda sketchy....

 

But anyway...things are going really well here. It's been kinda weird in the office this past week cuz the AP´s haven't been there. I am SOOOOOO jealous! They flew to Petén with Pres and Hermana Watts for zone conference!!!! The jerks! Ha ha! They left me stuck in the office! But it's OK....I'm really getting to know the office better. It´s taking me a little longer than I thought it would to ¨agarar la onda¨ as we say here but it is not a hard job at all. So, I will give you a brief overview of ¨the office¨. So, my job is kind of like a mix between that of Jim and Pam. Ha ha! We have to call all around finding out what materials we need and where they are and then we have to organize all of the shipments and a lot of the time do the deliveries of all of it. And not only materials, but all of the mail and packages too. We are also known as the ¨secrateries¨ of the mission. So all of the forms and papers and anything that has to do with indexing like baptismal records and stuff we do. Also whenever there is like a project like that has to be designed and printed off for the mission we do that too...idk it sounds like a lot, but its really not. But I kinda like it. A lot of the stuff I do takes me right back to being in yearbook!  So anyway, I am like Jim. And, you could definitely say that my companion, is like Dwight. They even have the same job. Now, Elder LP...definitely Andy....even down to the singing. He is Andy to the T. Except instead of Cornell, it's BYU. His companion, with exception of the gay factor of course, is like Oscar. Except a way cooler and buff version. Ha ha! I haven´t decided who the AP´s are like though. That´s a little different. But that is what I have come up with so far.

 

We have some really good investigators though and I have a really awesome story to tell you about a reference that just happened today, but write me in your letter next week and tell me to write about it because now my time is up. And I will keep sending more orphanage pictures. Tell Gma and Gpa thank you so much for writing! I love it! And I will try and make time next week to write them too. I love you all SOOOOOO much! Have a great week and I will be praying for you all!

 

Con amor,

Elder Welch

Kind of tired....a few early mornings, work and fun!

Hi Mom,

Here are some pictures from the orphanage. I am going to send you as many as I have time for today. I'll just start from the first one I have and go down. deal? 

OK, so, about your questions...are you TRYING to make me baggy?!?!?!?! Ha!Ha! Just kidding. I am not sure what day I will be getting back but I am almost positive it is going to be in January, Ha! Ha! Ha! well...I didn't want to tell you a date because I am not sure.... but I think I remember looking to see when that change was with Elder M. and I think that change conference falls on like the 24th of January but I am not sure. I do know it will be after the 12th, but I can look it up.  About the extension...I am actually thinking about it—I'm not going to lie—because when I get out of the office I am only going to have 6 months left and those six months are going to go by so fast I'm not even going to feel it... but I don't know yet. If I extended, the most you can extend your mission is a month.....but idk if that is a month from the twelfth, when I finish the two years, or one month after the day the change conference would be....idk.....Maybe that gives you an idea. I will try and look into it.  I don't know what I'm going to be thinking when it gets closer.

And school, I don't think that it is really going to be an option to go right when I get home. Even if I did get back in time that would be NUTS!!! and.......some snowboarding also sounds pretty darn nice right about now.....Just Kidding!

I'm doing well. Kinda tired. I haven't really been that busy I have just had a few early mornings lately. We have had to deliver a ton of materials to every zone in the mission these past couple days —but it's really not that bad. And we played catch and basketball this morning and then cleaned again and then went to pick up my comps new suit from this tailor and then we came here to the mall to use Internet and then we´re going to lunch.

I have a quick question. Can you look and tell me how much I have on my personal card for me? I have no way to check. If I am out you guys don't have to put money on there! I'm pretty sure I still have money in my other account that you can move over.

But —I think I am going to have me a sick suit made by this guy that made Elder D's and Elder W's suits. He does them for super cheap for what they are and they look SUPER nice! Yeah they are the sickest suits ever they are even three piece suits! And....to make it even cooler, idk if you saw Elder D´s, but I am going to have the lining made from the Guatemalan flag!!! It is sooooo sick! and it looks so slick! And, I took quite a bit of money out because I ordered some hammocks from Dolores and I had to send the money to pay for them that's why I was wondering how much is on my card...but if I don't have it then I'm not gonna do it. I was thinking that I could use the money that Granny Mae gave me for Christmas on my suit as my Christmas from her! Ha! Ha! Because it is going to come out around about that amount...maybe a little more.


Yes! Mom one of the hammocks is for the fam and one is for me. I just told them to make the one for you guys the prettiest colors that they thought cuz I couldn't be there to pick so we will see how it turns out. It is only going to be two colors though. And I will have to see when it gets to me if it is going to be big enough. because the people I ordered it only did smaller sizes but I haven't seen how small exactly they are...so we´ll see. Ha ha! Well I don't think it is going to be like a mini hammock...but it just might not be like a three person hammock. I will have it when Elder P. goes home at the end of this change. THAT´S CRAZY!!!

Alright, hopefully I answered all of your questions cuz I gotta go now. I'll send more pictures next week. Sorry it's being kinda slow and I'll tell you about my office experiences hopefully.

Well I love you all,

Elder Welch

I am doing AWESOME!

Hey!!!  I am doing  awesome! How are you all doing? Sorry to keep you from what sounds like an amazingly fun jobby!  Ha ha ha!  But what's up? 


Hayden used to help out on his great grandma Stella's farm. If the job was an unusually nasty one she would call it a "jobby" and if it was really —REALLY bad she would call it a "LITTLE  jobby". Just a bit of Hayden humor because it was our families turn to clean the church this morning.

The office is treating me really well! I actually like it. Yeah, so nobody really tells us what to do—we basically just do it. It's pretty coo!l My companion knows basically what to do but things he doesn't .....well.....I just kinda have to figure it out. So me and Elder C.(Hayden's companion) and Elder L. and Elder B. (The finance Elders) basically run a large office. It is super cool! I am learning a ton and I am loving being able to spend more time with Hermana and President Watts and also Elder T. and Elder G. (The APs) Those two are awesome. My companion is a good guy and I am learning a lot from him he's a good missionary. But I really do like living all together. It is super fun.

And yeah, I am really getting along with Pres. and Hermana Watts. I don't see them a whole lot, but they are amazing!!! I love them a whole lot and I learn so much from them! Pres. Watts is seriously one of the most incredible men I have ever met! He is SO impressive! And Hermana Watts is amazing!!! 

Oh— and about the soccer balls, Hermana Watts said that she doesn't think that they ended up charging anything extra— but that was when they first showed up so she wasn't 100% sure.  I will make sure and ask her again. She took me aside to show them to me and everything though and was super excited! Ha ha! She is such an awesome lady. We are going to do the same thing next year for Christmas Conferences (Going to the orphanages, rest homes, etc.).and they are going to use the soccer balls then because they didn't show up in time for this year. It was a bummer—they showed up like just after all of the activities were over. But they are going to use them next year so that will be good. And I'll try and ask her what she`s going to want for next time so I can let you know how to get started getting stuff for it. 

So Matt D. told me, that all the snow came and melted in the same afternoon!!! Crazy!

In just the past week we have seen so much success in our area even dispite the little bit of time that we have to work. We are going to see baptisms soon!!! I sure hope anyway....

I will tell you more about it next week though. My times up. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

Hey so I was going to send more pics of the orphanage but I couldn't find them and I ran out of time so this is just the picture of my lunch that was made for us with love by Hermana Watts for Concilio!!! IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!!! 

But alright, I gotta go. I love you so much! I'll talk to you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Welch

Hayden's Change to the Cap......A Little Different Than We Thought!

Hey so these are pictures of me saying good bye in San Jeronimo.

The one guy that we are sitting on the bed with, he is amazing. He can't walk on his own. He even has his whole house run with metal handling, like a theme park line so that he can hold on to the bars and get around and he goes to church every Sunday. He has so much faith it is crazy! The branch is so good with him, someone goes to pick him up every Sunday for church and to go to every activity. His name is Y.

  Then there is one of me in my Christmas Story PJ´s (Thanks Aunt Kris and Lani!)
with my Egg Nog that I found in the store in San Jeronimo and it was SUPER good!

Now —on to today. 

OK— So HEY! Sorry to catch you by surprise—writing on Saturday! Don't worry, I´m not being disobedient or anything using Internet today, and once again, don´t feel bad mom! I sent his email, got off quickly this morning and missed him by a couple of minutes! He had a couple of things he wanted to ask me. I know that you were definitely not expecting me to email today, but...ya better get used to it. I am now in the office as the new pouch elder and our pdays are on Saturday. So the good news, I get mail faster than anyone else in the mission! Ha ha! But no, it is way cool. I only have like three days being here. Really only two days in the office, but I like it. It is SUPER different! Not even the same world as before, but it's OK. I like it. 


I get to be with Elder T. all the time and I love that kid! He is sooo cool! And also I get to see President and Hermana Watts so that is awesome! When President gave me my interview he told me that at pretty much my exact time in the mission he got called to be in the office too, and he told his president no, that he didn't want to go to the office, but of course, he ended up going anyway and he ended up loving it. And I'm sure that I am going to end up loving it too. 


But anyway, my companion´s name is Elder C. He is from Costa Rica. He is a good guy. He´s kinda funny. He gets really frustrated about things really easy, but he´s a good guy. Ha ha!. We already have some good investigators that we are working with. It is SO different teaching in the capital! I don't wanna say it but its true...the people, for the most part, are just like so much more intellectual and educated. It is like I am teaching completely different lessons now than I have been before. I don't know how to explain it really, but it is definitely going to take some getting used to. But we are doing really well with the area. It is way different because we are in the office all day from early morning until five in the evening. We don't even get study time in the morning, which I miss a WHOLE lot! And then at five we go back to our area and we have until nine or nine thirty to work, so we have to be really efficient in the work in the area. And something else super weird is that we share the area with the finance elders and the AP´s. Its not divided or anything. We just all work in the area together. I knew that before, but it is still super weird getting used to.

So, just a little about the day today, we all woke up this morning and went and played basketball on the little half court that we have in the colonia where we live and that was way fun! I hadn´t played basketball since the MTC! It was way awesome! After that, we all deep cleaned the house for the first time I think, in like six months! Ha ha! It was pretty crazy! It is way crazy though because we have like a real, straight up house. Not like a mission house.  We even have an oven, a toaster oven, a washing machine, a dryer, a really nice iron, a hose out back, planter pots, a back hard with a little patio. It is NUTS! But anyway, we did a super good job cleaning! We even found food in the fridge that was Elder Davis´s! Ha ha! It was crazy! But we got it super clean, and then we came to this mall place. I can´t remember what its called, but it is really nice. And we all ate lunch in the food court. I had Wendy´s and that was absolutely delicious! And then we just came here to use Internet.

Alright, got a little more time, so I´ll tell you a little about an investigator we have. I don´t really know him that well, we´ve only visited him once, but his name is C. My companion calls him Rey Lamoni! He is an evangelical pastor, but he LOVES to listen to us. The lesson we had was kinda like an argument at some points but not like a bad one, a good one, because he just has so many questions! It is super awesome because he has so many good questions though. He really wants to learn. He´s kinda hard though, its hard for him to accept some things, but I know that he will eventually, and when he does, he is going to be SUCH a strong member! I hope everything works out with him! 




Con amor,

Elder Welch

Hayden's Birthday Photos

Ok, these are the pictures of my birthday party with the C. family last Monday!!!!!! It was the best! I loved it so much! They were so awesome. They made us dinner first and then they gave me presents and while I was opening the presents and talking to President C, Hermana C. made the cake for me and then we all ate cake and played with the balloons and we all wore the party hats the whole time! Ha ha ha! It was super fun. And they bought firecrackers and set them off while they put Happy Birthday on the stereo super loud when we first got there! It was super fun! I will miss them. They are such nice people.

A Change to the Capital for Hayden!

Hey! 


Alright, so I am super sorry for writing so early. I really don´t know why we are. Our district leader just decided that we should do it now. But anyway...the long awaited news...........I have a change!!!!!! I am super not excited about that. This is the second time that I have been in an area for only one change and I still hold my curse of only being with a comp one change! Eight changes and eight companions! That is so crazy! So, to make matters worse, it´s not only just a change, but a change to the capital!!! I am even less excited about that! But whatever. I´ll go where you want me to go, right? So I have all day today to say goodbye to everybody because we´re not going to do anything as a district and then we leave tomorrow at like three or so for Coban and then we will leave from there I think at like two in the morning to be at the change conference in the capital at like eight or so. Pretty crazy...I did not think I was going to be leaving here. 


But today should be a good day. President C. surprised us and came back from Mexico. He decided to set up his new business here in San Jeronimo instead of up there so today we are going to go over to their house and make my birthday cake with them and their kids that I haven´t had a chance to make yet. So that should be super fun. I was way happy to see him again and I´m pretty bummed that right when he gets back I´m heading out. But this area is going to do awesome here in this next change. They are going to have baptisms for sure. Especially with the help of President C. Elder M. is not too happy about the change either. He is all worried because he doesn't know who he´s going to get as a new comp. and that someone is going to come in and ruin everything we have been doing. But I told him it doesn´t matter who his comp. is going to be, if he does what he knows he needs to do his comp. will follow. And if he doesn´t, well Heavenly Father wants everything to work out here and he has a little more of a say in things than a new comp. will!!! Ha ha!

Anyway, so this week has been pretty good. We have found some new people to teach, some new families. And they look like they are going to do well. These past two Sundays were super hard to try to get people to go to church because both of the Saturdays have been late nights for all the Guatemalans. Ha ha! They all stay up on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve until like four in the morning. But yesterday, even though they were up until like three or four, we got the P. Family to go to church!!! We had to wake up super early to go bug the crap out of them so they would all get up and get ready on time. And we still got there like half an hour late because we helped this inactive girl in a wheelchair that is a relative of the P. family go to church. She hasn´t been able to go in a long time. So we went and picked up the P. family and on the way to the church we stopped by that lady, E´s house and helped her out of the house in her wheelchair and we all walked to church. When we got there they were already giving testimonies and everything but it was really good. Everybody was super good with E. Another family even took her to their house after the meeting to have dinner with them and then took her home afterward and everybody was awesome with the P. Family too. We only had sacrament meeting though for New Years so after that, we went and had lunch at the C. Family´s house and we talked with President C. about all the missionary work in the area and what we need to do and how he can help and everything and then he showed us this book that he brought back from his house in Mexico called ¨Discovering the Lands of the Book of Mormon¨. I think that's what it was called. But it was SUPER cool. You would love it Mom— you should look for it. It´s in English and everything. But it talks all about the history of the lands of the Book of Mormon and talks about where they think everything took place and they have all of the archaeological information to back it up and everything. It is way cool!

Anyway, then we went out too work and it was the worst! No one was home! and the ones that were home did not want to even see our beautiful faces! Ha! Ha! Ha! So we decided it was better to visit some less actives. So we went and visited some less actives and I think we actually really helped them out. We´ll have to see if they end up coming on Sunday. Then at seven we had a dinner appointment with some members and we went and ate and we had to be in the house for dats at eight so we went home, gave dats I started to write in my journal and didn´t stop untill they called to give us changes. And then there were weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth for a while because of the changes and then we went to bed. That was my day yesterday. Oh and New Years was pretty crazy. We had dinner with a member family then went home and went to bed but at twelve the fireworks woke me up so we went out and watched them for a while. It was pretty crazy. It was like a war zone!!!

So, I´m gonna run outta time here but I´ve got a pretty good story!

Not this last Monday but the week before, when we got home the Assistants were at our house. They have been traveling like all over the mission just doing divisions everywhere and they showed up to do them with us. They forgot to let us know so we just showed up at our house and there they were. It was pretty crazy. But anyway, so I did divisions with Elder Williams. He´s an awesome guy. While I was tracting with him that Tuesday, we contacted this couple walking down the street and they were super receptive and they told us to pass by their house that same day to teach them but we couldn´t because we had other appointments so they told us kinda where their house was and told us to pass by whenever. So all this week, Elder M. and I have been trying to find these people looking everywhere in the area of where they told us their house was. We found them on like the main street of San Jeronimo and they told us that their house was like two blocks behind the church. So we looked everywhere! Going from house to house asking everyone and nothing! So like three or four days ago we were working and both our plan A and plan B appointments fell through and we even scrounged up a plan C and that fell through so Elder M. just said,  "Hey, I´ve never been up this way. Lets check it out." So we walked like ten minutes or so to like this little subdivision I guess you could say— It is just like this group of houses. And the first one we saw was a tienda, or like a little store thing, of fruits and vegetables and things. Elder M. didn't see that it was a tienda at first and said, "Lets contact this one." Then when he got there he saw the little table filled with the fruits and vegetables and was like, "Ah crap! Never mind, its a tienda." Then we just like sat there for a while and he was thinking and then he just said,  "Nah...let's just contact it anyway." So he called and this lady came walking up and Elder M. started talking to her and stuff but I knew I recognized her so I asked her what her name was because I wasn´t sure and she is like half blind I think so she couldn't recognize me but she said, "M". And I said, "M. R.?" and she said, "Yeah" and then I started talking to her about the other day when we talked and everything and she was all excited. Her husband wasn´t home though so we couldn´t go in and teach her so we told her we would come back and check on Sunday. So yesterday we stopped by to see. He wasn´t there yesterday either. But she was super nice and super excited that we passed by. We were talking to her just at the door and she was like, "Hey, just one second. I´ll be right back". And she went running off to the house and like two minutes later she came back with a tamales for each of us in a little bag and everything!  So we haven´t been able to teach the family or anything yet, but I really think they are good possibilities and I thought  it was pretty cool story of how we found them.

Anyway, now that you´re probably super bored...Ha ha! I´ve gotta get going. Sorry I don´t have any new pictures to send. I wasn´t able to get the pictures from the girl of the Christmas party. Today when we go to say good bye I will try and remember to transfer them to my card. Hey thanks for all the pictures you sent! They were awesome! And thanks even more for the recordings!!! Those were so awesome! I sure did miss "Happy New Year Hanner!" And that just made me feel like I was right there! Ha ha! Alright, I better get going though.

Again, I am super sorry for writing so early. I am mostly so sorry because Mom, I know you´re going to feel so bad for not having written yet. So don´t! It´s totally fine. I will talk to you guys next week and let you know where I end up. I love you all and thanks for everything!!!

Con amor,

Elder Welch