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