More Photos...

I had a hard time yesterday getting all of Hayden's photos to download. Finally this morning I was able to get the last ones. So here are a few more from his letter yesterday. Hope you enjoy!

Carol Anne

This one is of us playing Mario Kart with the turtle while we waited for our interviews with President Watts.
Yeah, pretty dumb, i know...but we were bored!

More photos of our hike to Ixcun —It is SO beautiful here!

A parrot just for Mom....

Waiting to catch a ride home from Ixcun on a Jalon—Yes Mom—Hitchhiking!!

Living, Preaching and Loving it in Dolores!

Hey, So I don´t have much time again so I'll just try to answer your questions. It is so awesome here in Dolores! We are doing awesome! We had 18 people in church yesterday! And we are helping all of them out so much! This branch is going to boom here in the next little while! We are reactivating a bunch of young kids that are at the age that they should be going on their missions and we are going to try and start teaching a mission prep class! It is so awesome! But the living quarters really aren´t bad. We are still just using rain water but that is totally fine! Like it has been raining a ton so we have all that we need and more. We have cleaned everything else pretty much by now so it is really not bad at all. The only thing is we have a rat or two! Ha ha ha! But we are going to take care of that today! Also, you asked about Elder H. He is way cool! We get along really well and we are really working hard. We´re going to change this place!  I am doing really well, and yeah we can get all the food we need. It is really awesome. And it is SO beautiful! We have a part of our area that is basically Polochik! Ha ha! Except most everybody can speak Spanish! 

Ok, so these are still from our activity last Monday, but these are the hilarious pictures I told you not to let me forget to send. We are all in the back of a truck on our way back home from our activity. This is how we usually travel so we don´t have to pay. We hitch hike! Ha ha! They are called ¨jalónes¨ here and they are the best. But here's the story. We were on the side of the highway trying to hitch a ride and then this guy pulls over. I let everybody get on first and then I went to get in. I stepped up on the bumber and put my other leg over into the bed of the truck. Then my other foot slipped off the bumper to the road. It was a short truck so the fall was just fine, but then I guess he thought we were all in so he started to take off. So I had one leg in the bed of the truck and one leg on the road and they quickly started moving farther away from each other untill I was completely in the splits and, as you can see, so were my pants. It gave us quite the laugh! But luckily we had all our clothes from the trip so I just jumped into the bushes off the side of the highway while we were waiting for our next jalón and changed into my sweats! But they were the only pants I brought, so you´ll get to see the new shorts I bought from a paca for ten quets in the other pictures I send from today!

 Ok, so for today's P-day we went to a place called Ixcun. It is an archeological site of Mayan ruins like an hour walk from my area. The first picture is just a picture I took on the way there.

We were like right in the jungle! It looked like I was right in a Tarzan movie or something! It was super cool.

The next is just the sign of the place. 

Oh yeah, and there is a picture of one of the monkeys we saw there! They were way up in the tree but I got some alright pictures of them. I hope you can see it OK.

Then there is one of me by one of the Mayan tablets. And it has Mayan numbers on it and I know how to read them now! It's so cool! Elder Mitchell taught me —last change— cuz they still use them in some Q´eqchi areas!

At Ixcun, there were these caves. This was like one of the littlest ones but we didn't have much time so we just went to it. The guy with elder H is the guy that works at the place. He was way cool.

These are just a few pictures inside the cave.  It was pretty cool!

The cave was used as an ancient Mayan tomb at one time and in the last picture I am in like the part where the body was. It´s kinda been distroyed but you can kinda see behind me where there were and still are some adobe bricks layed up for the tomb.

...and then there is one with me and H A. He is an investigator and he is the one that took us to see Ixcun. He is awesome! There are seriously trees everywhere that are just like the ones from Tarzan! 

...then there is one of Elder H. playing Tarzan.

 ....then the next one is just of this giant pig we saw on the way to where we went for Pday today. You can't even really see how big it was in the picture but it was enormous!!!

I thought the next one was pretty darn hilarious. I was going to send it to L. and say "Hey, don´t worry. God knows I didn´t deserve for you to give my turtle away so he sent me a new one!" Ha ha ha! We found this on the church grounds after our district training meeting and interviews with President Watts! Ha ha! 

Alright so here is the last picture I took with Elder Davis. He goes home in three weeks. Idk when his welcome home is going to be but you should find out and go! He is amazing!

K —I better go. Love you! And it was so good to hear from you! And grandma too! and yes, I could definitely tell you were asleep! I was going to say something about it before I even read the other message!  (Note from Carol Anne: I sent a letter way early this morning and later in the day I checked it to see how it sounded and realized I had written half of it while still mostly asleep and it showed....it was kind of funny with a lot of spelling errors....whew I will use the excuse that it was a long busy weekend!:) 


Ha ha— love you! 
Love,

Elder Welch

Yaxha—Ancient Mayan Ruins

We finally got an email from Hayden.....The good news is he was out having fun and exploring the jungle of Peten! No monkeys though! :)

So here goes:

Hayden and his new companion Elder H.

Hey everybody,

OK so, not much time because I sent a lot of pictures, 

But I will try to answer your questions Mom.

How long was the trip to Peten? and how did you travel?

The trip was super long! We left the Cap. at 2 pm and there was a wreck on the way. I got to bed and 3:30 am —not even in my area. I stayed with some Elders in Santa Elena (Note from Carol Anne: It is the same Elders that he stays with in the photographs later on in the post.) and then I had to wake up three hours later to drive another 2 hours to another area in my district and then another half hour to my area!!! It was crazy!  So a total of 16 hours just driving!

What is the ratio of Kechi to Spanish speakers?

Q´eqchi elders or people? idk the answer to either one— Ha ha ha! But there are surprisingly quite a few Q´eqchis here in this district but none of the missionaries speak the language.

Who are your zone leaders?

 Zone leaders are Elder J. and Elder T. They´re pretty cool. Elder T. knows Q´eqchi. 

District Leaders?

District leader is Elder S. He just came out of the office. He is awesome. He only has like one or two more changes than me. He is from Argentina. I really like him.

What is your living situation like in Dolores?

Living situation, the bathroom reeks! We are in the process of deep cleaning it though because it was disgusting! But it's not that bad anymore. We shower out of one of those giant blue water drums and a bucket because we only get water every once in a while so when it comes we have to fill up the bucket so we know how much we have but as of now we got water the day I got here and it hasn´t come back since so we have been out for like a week or so. We showered in Santa Elena on Sunday and Monday though!!! Ha ha ha! But we have been catching a lot of rain water lately in big buckets. So we´ll see what we can work out.

Zetas around?

We haven't seen or heard anything about the Zetas at all since I got here. We are only like a couple hours away from where that whole thing went down a while ago though. (Note form Carol Anne: He is referring to the massacre in May by the Zetas of 27 farmworkers on a ranch near La Libertad. )....but everythings cool here. There are like soldiers set up with turrets all up and down the highways everywhere you go though. Like huge turrets! Ha ha!

Did you get a new back pack?It looked like in the last photos you had a different one.

I did get a new backpack for my go bag cuz I know you´ve been stressing out about it mom...Ha ha! But there´s still nothing in it! (Note from Carol Anne: A go bag is an emergency bag .... a missionaries 72 hour kit. Glad to know he really does read the boring parts of my letters. I have been "ON" him to get his go bag!)

When does Elder D. come home?

Elder D. goes home at the end of this change. He is coming here on Friday though! I am super excited! But I have to give part of the training thing they´re doing or something...idk... so I´m pretty nervous about that. But I'm sure I´ll do fine.

Oh I acted as branch president on Sunday! I conducted Sacrament and taught all the classes and everything! Ha ha ha! It was crazy!

 I gotta go though.

 If you wanna hear more ask me and I'll write more about it next week. 

OK so these are some pictures of what we did for our zone activity.  On Sunday we traveled to an area called Santa Elena. That is where the ZL´s live and a bunch of other Elders. So we stayed the night in these other Elders´ house with our district leader and his companion too and it was way fun.  

The first pictures are of us at their house on Sunday night.

Elder H. had the great idea of getting on the roof so he and I moved all the cots and chairs up there and we just all hung out. 

We were gonna sleep up there but then it started raining.

 Then the next morning we went to a city of ancient Mayan ruins called Yaxah, again I look kinda goofy in the picture —but whatever. It was SUPER cool!

Ok, these are all of Yaxah.

 

.....and this is the LITTLEST spider we saw all day! I´ll send some more pictures of the big ones! Ha ha ha!
I just really liked that picture! 

 Now for the BIG ONE it is like as big as my hand! You can´t really see it in the picture but its enormous! They are all over the place and their webs are huge! They are so cool! And they are like all different colors and stuff like bright green and blue and purple. They were way cool!

Love you all! Thanks for everything! 

And remind me to send you a hilarious picture next week! I forgot so DONT LET ME FORGET!  

Love you all! Talk to you next week!

Elder Welch

No email this week!

Family,

We did not receive an email this week from Hayden. There was an election in Guatemala on Sunday and I know the missionaries were asked to stay "in" for safety reasons. I do not know if this had something to do with the missing email ....Or there is a rumor with the Missionary Moms that there may have been a conference for the Peten area missionaries on Monday......Or you know Hayden— he has finally made it to the jungle so maybe he is out exploring waterfalls, Mayan ruins and chasing a monkey or two.

I assume that we will hear from him next Monday!

Have a great week everyone!

Carol Anne

My new area is......PETEN! It is WAY SWEET!!!

Hayden and Elder M.—His companion while in Las Victorias. Elder M. is from Las Vegas.

Hey!

So, I'm here in my new area. I don't have a whole lot of time after writing President and sending the pictures and I had to write Jan back too. But my new area is in......................Petén!!!!!  Ha ha ha! It is way sweet! I am more than absolutely positive though that I have become the "fixer upper" missionary! Ha ha ha! My area is called Dolores (I´ll let you ask Bryan what that means in Spanish) but no, it is SUPER pretty! I love it a ton! Yesterday we had our first sacrament meeting. Oh, my companion´s name is Elder H. He is from Arizona. He´s way cool— I like him a lot. But anyway, so we only ended up having like two days to work before Sunday but in those two days we got the church attendace to double!!! From 7 to 15!!!!!!!! Ha ha ha! That might not sound like a lot but that is the highest it has been in like six months!! Or more! So —I felt pretty good about that! And we found a really good possibility for a baptism. His name is E. He is 20 years old and the only thing is well, he has to get to church more. He has a hard time but other than that he wants it and is totally prepared! I think we're going to have a good change. We are mainly working with inactives though. Like that's what President Watts told Elder H. he wants us to do— cuz he was here last change too. But yeah it is way pretty here! It is pretty dang hot though and way humid. Dad, if you remember, it feels exactly like Kansas City when we went. Maybe a little hotter sometimes, but I have gotten reminded of that trip so much since I got here! It is nuts! That trip was so dang fun! Anyway, our district is like made up of a ton of new people. Like most of us are like way young in the mission and a lot of us are brand new to Petén. It´s pretty crazy. But we are like only a couple hours or so from Tikal and a bunch of other ruins and apparently we have the biggest hyroglyph in Guatemala right in our area! So one of these days we are going to go to that. And we hopefully are going to some other ruins for a zone activity and maybe if I´m still here next change we might go to Tikal! So we´ll have to see....But I´ll be sending you some sweet pictures here in the near future. And mom, I'm hoping your heart attack wasn't so... huge when you saw the bridge pictures! Ha ha! But just so you know, those pictures don´t even come close to giving the height of that bridge justice! Ha ha ha! It was the best! Alright, well I´m out of time so I better go. I hope all is well! I love you all a ton! Talk to you all next week!

Love,

Elder Welch

P.S. Hey! Here are some pictures.  They are from Fiscal.

 The first is of J. and his mom E. They were investigators that were way awesome! They are going to get baptized within this change— I hope! 

The next is of a family that we reactivated. Not the one that we baptized the daughter, but another one. 

Then the other two are pictures we took on this giant train bridge that we walked on like four times a day! 
Ha ha ha! It was pretty cool. 

Alright, so this one is just another of the bridge. Probably my favorite. Trademark brown shoes baby!!! Ha ha!

The second one is of B, D, J, J and J. They are the amazing family that Elder M. and I found and were teaching. They are so awesome! The mom B absolutely loves the Book of Mormon! This is the last night I was in Fiscal. In this picture she doesn´t look too happy, but like three minutes after we took the picture she just like burst into tears and like tried to give me a hug. I was like —"Whoah, whoah whoah!!! Ha ha ha! Can't do that! Sorry! But she almost had me crying too!  

Then the last one is the last picture I took before I hopped on the bus after change conference—cuz I think it will probably be the last time I see him in sixteen months! Crazy huh? 
Note from Carol Anne: This is Hayden's good friend from home AP Elder D.

New Photos from Hayden's last area Las Victorias!!!

Hey! I couldn´t get the pictures from S´s baptism that we had the week before last. They are on another Elder´s camera but I'll try to get them. These our from my last zone activity in Las Victorias and Elder N. and his Zone showed up too. It was the best!!! This is in a mall Tikal Futura. It was way fun. And the last one, I think, is me and Elder Taco. I thought you all would think that was funny. We are like way good freinds! and we are in the same group. We leave at the same time.

So great to see Hayden being a little crazy and having fun!!! 

Hayden's zone in Las Victorias

For those of you who do not know Hayden LOVES bowling and is really quite good at it. He owns his own ball and everything!!! He and Jordon Duke used to go bowling all the time. So he must have been in heaven!

Elder Taco and Elder Welch

I have a change! But where?

Hey everybody!

This change flew by! It seems like I just got here like two weeks ago! So, for the news, I HAVE A CHANGE! I am soooo sad about that one! I did not want this change to come! We are seriously just starting to see the effects of our hard work here! We have a family of gold that I am leaving! And another lady and her son! They are all so amazing, and we have done awesome with them! All six should be baptized within the next three to four weeks, and it is going to be awesome! But I´m not going to get to be here to see it!  But I know that Elder M. will keep it up here. He´s an awesome guy! But also, we have just barely started to get a lot of support from the members. Something we´ve been trying so hard to get since I got here! Like this week we have members scheduled to do visits with us like every day! This area is changing so much! And I feel like I am not even close to finished with what I could do here! It is such a weird feeling! But, I guess I just prepare to do the same thing wherever I get sent right? I have no idea where I´m going to get sent though! I feel like I might just be a capitol elder my whole mission — but idk. There are ten people leaving Petén I know, so maybe I´ll get sent up there. Who knows?

So, That really stinks about everybody getting sick! I sure hope they all don´t get sent home! (Note from Carol Anne: Several of Hayden's friends in missions around the world are sick right now.) That would be terrible! But as for my health, I am totally fine. Like— I haven´t even really gotten sick once. I got a little food poisoning twice, and that was from the food they gave us at Zone Conference when I first got into the mission. But other than that, I have been totally fine! It is way awesome here. Elder M. and I have eaten so well here! Hamburgers with bbq sauce from Walmart!!! Ha ha ha! and fajitas and a whole bunch of awesome stuff...yeah...I´m a pretty dang good cook if I do say so myself! Ha ha ha! Just kidding. But yeah, I am doing awesome!

That is so awesome to hear how everything is going so well with school and everything for everyone though! That is so good! I miss you guys a ton! But I know before I know it, I´ll be right there hangin' out with all of you again. These eight months have flown by!!! It is crazy how fast it has gone! Especially this last change! It went by WAY too fast! Well, I better get going. I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your prayers and support. It really means a lot to me! I will let you all know where I end up next week!

Love,

Elder Welch

PS.  In the next package, there is this puzzle thing that Elder M. had that was incredible! I think G-ma Murdock gave it to dad or something one time. It is of the plan of salvation. It is a round wooden puzzle thing. If you could find one in Spanish that would be incredible!!!! Alright, I love you so much! Talk to you next week!