Just like a normal missionary day....

Hey Mom,

I´m doing good. How´s things?

It's going fine. Just like a normal missionary day. It definitely does not seem like Halloween.

I have not received the Halloween package yet. But—Oh man—that sounds like a pretty sick package! But the ZL´s just left to the cap for concilio today so I think next Monday I´ll get it if it's at the office—I sure hope it comes on Monday! All I have gotten since the package from L´s family is a Dear Elder from Nannette. Oh and tell her I'm writing a letter to her right now and to preocuparse!  Ha ha!

(He has not received any of our three packages that we sent for Halloween/Thanksgiving.....so sad!)

I was just talking to the other Elders in my district about how if I was at home right now I would definitely be wearing a very flattering pair of green tights right now!!!! Oh how I miss being Peter Pan!

Yeah—I am just doing "good" not "great"  Ha ha! But no, it wasn´t for the whole Halloween/holiday thing that I am bummed—Even though I sure do miss those tights! Good times! Idk...yesterday was kinda a hard day for me. Idk why. But today´s been good and other than that I have been super awesome. I will be fine mom. Don't worry. But it doesn't mean I'm not gonna have hard times, I know I will, but it is still super hard. It's been kickin my trash lately.


Me and my comp are getting along well though. He´s a good guy. Not the most obedient, but we´re workin on that. Ha ha! I definitely do feel like the mom in this companionship though. I do all the cooking, cleaning, dishes, everything! But it's alright. I love cooking. I´m learning a ton and it's the best. Cleaning, I don't like so much, but I´ve definitely learned to do it!!! Ha ha!

No, that's not true at all about the food. That's a bunch of casaca as we say here. Ha ha! We got extra money and they said that it is enough to eat in one like cheep little restaurante once a day for lunch. I´m pretty sure that it is to save time so we don't have to go all the way back to the house and cook and then leave again. But we, well —I— still cook lunch cuz usually we´re pretty close to the house around lunch time. When we´re short on time though we just grab some food from a comedor.

The best thing I ate this week was a lunch I made the other day for me and Elder P. I made steak with sauted onions, tomatoes and peppers with mashed potatoes and rice. We ate it with this super good bread from this awesome bakery that I found in our area! It was super good. And I totally made up the sauce that I marinated the meat in and it was SUPER good!

And the worst thing I ate wasn´t this week but last week. It is called Atól Shuco. It literally means dirty hot drink. Ha ha ha! It is made from corn. They boil it, then let it sit and get rancid and then they make this like really runny oatmeal kinda stuff out of it and it is SUPER disgusting. It was the second time I had had it. I just downed it —but my companion—he had a super hard time! Ha ha! He about threw up!


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Ha ha! That's ma' boy Tay! Doin' it just like his older brother! Ha ha! Don't worry mom, he´ll pull it out.

(He is referring to Taylor trying to pull his grades up the last week of the term.)

Oh, about the sleeping bag. No I am fine. Tell Grandma Murdock thank you so much though! But I don't have too much room and by the time I get it it will be super hot I'm sure.

Oh, hey— and if you can by any chance get a hold of Elder Sorensen tell him to email me again! I have tried to email him back. He emailed me once and I don´t know if my email has ever gotten through to him because now it is saying it can´t recognize the address so I don´t know what´s going on with that —but I really wanna talk to him and see how he´s doing.

(Kyle if you are out there....I hope you get this message!!! He could really use hearing from you! You have been such a good friend to him and you lift him up. Thanks for all you have done for Hayden and the good person you are!)

Also I have a picture I wanna send to Jake and Mandy but i don´t know how to get it to them. What do you think?

Oh and I was gonna ask, how is the whole deal with Taylor and McCabe? Do they still hang out with Chance? I hope that whole deals not awkward now...if so, sorry Tay!!! Ha ha!

The water situation is we only get water like every five days and we just have that big blue water drum that we have to fill and our pila. The rain has basically stopped. It has rained like once in like two weeks or so.


Hey just finished reading Dad's email.


So—Thanks so much Dad!  I love you! Don't worry though—I´m doing my fair share of splitting wood here too! Ha ha! The thing is that they use it year round here though! But I´m getting pretty dang good at splitting wood. We do it at least like twice a week or so and also folding corn and a bunch of stuff! I don't know how to say it in English but folding corn is the direct translation. It is doblar milpa. When the corn is ready, still on the stock you have to go and bend the stock just under the ears of corn so the husks are pointed downward and the water can't get in and the corn dries. Then you pick it all after it has sat and dried. Then you shuck it and decurnel it and then you dry it in the sun for about a day so it gets really dry and then it is ready to put into the silo to use for maza for tortillas or tamales or whatever. We´ve been doing a TON of service lately! Love you Dad!

Hey— I gotta get going. I love ya too Mom! I love you all! Tell everybody I say hi and everything!


I love you! 

Elder Welch

Things are really going well here!

OK, Mom, before I read or send anything else...CHRISTMAS...I don’t really NEED anything. I am actually doing pretty awesome!!! But I will tell you the stuff that I would like and I’ll tell you my sizes and stuff in case you wanna send anything like that...

-PICTURES!!! That would be the best! Pictures of the family, of the house, the garden, the snow, my room, the back yard, my guitar, whatever....I always talk to people about stuff and they´re like do you have a picture I can see? and I don’t have hardly any!!! So that would be the best.

-I know this is super picky! Ha ha ha! But I have a red pen that I mark all my scriptures with and I want to use the same one the whole mission —so I can see all I marked on the mission. They don’t sell them here and mine is almost out. It is called Pilot G-2 0.7  they sell them here but only in black and blue and I need a red one!

-The typical Christmas candy--swedish fish, sourpatch kids, maplenut goodies...you know what I like! Ha ha!

-And more of that cream. Yes, I have pretty much used it all. I only have like a fourth of a tube left and that´s the third tube! Ha ha! My eczema is real bad... it’s the sweat. Its not EXTREMELY bad, but I’m not gonna lie it’s kinda bad! Ha ha! Nothing like when I played football but probably the next closest thing.

-OK and my pant size is 32 -30 in those VanHuesen ones the kind I like with the stretchy wasteband. Longer is better than shorter, there are a million tailors around here and I like the pleated front. My shirts are 15 1/2 I´m really good on those though and that´s really all....I am actually doing really fine on everything except the pen and the cream!

-My shoe size is 44 —yeah or 10 1/2—sorry! Ha ha! That´s how they do shoes around here. And on my eccos too. Totally forgot my shoe size in American talk for a second...

-No, not really craving anything....but EVERYONE else is....well the Latinos at least, all want beef jerky. So if you sent that, I would have a lot of happy comps and members I think! Ha ha ha!

Thank you! I love you! Thanks mom you are the best!

OK, so yeah,  I got half the Salt Lake pictures and half of the St. George boating pictures. Idk what happened but I could not view half of each one. But the Salt Lake ones woould really be awesome if you could send some of those in a package or something...

OK, so, don't have a lot of time, but my week went really well!!! First I'll answer your questions Mom. Elder P. has 20 months in the mission. As we say, ¡ya se va! He's a good guy. We get along and we´re doing some good things around here. Elder H. completed the year with me and now has thirteen months. 

The rain has stopped now. Now we are kinda lacking on water Ha ha! But we´re hangin in there...but its pretty dang cold! Like between 12 and 4 every night it is dang cold! Last night I slept in my sweats with socks on cuz I was so cold! Ha ha ha! 

But the work is going really well here! Yesterday we organized for the first time ward conference for the branch and it went really well. We are working on getting the organizations up and running and leaders for each one and everything and evryone is super excited and willing to work really hard with us. Also I am teaching English classes and guitar and music classes and this Saturday we are having a talent show!!! It is going to be super awesome! That kid´s name is E. and he came again. His family didn't but he did. He comes with his uncle that is a member—he is the 2nd counselor but was inactive but we reactivated him and now they're coming every week. Out there in that same village we found two more awesome families just this week. We only taught them once but they said they´re all going to come to church this coming Sunday. Things are really going well here. We are also having what are called Fellowship Nights every Saturday and we are having them in less active families houses and it is a really good thing! Our goal is that the branch can be totally self sufficient before we leave and especially with these new meetings that we are setting up and everything —we ARE going to see it! It is awesome!!!!! I gotta go though. I'll fill you in a little more nextweek on everything! 

Love you so much and thanks for everything!!!

Con amor,

Elder Welch

Zone Conference!

Abby and I were both on the computer today when Hayden wrote —so today's email is compiled of fragmented comments from our conversations back and forth.
Carol Anne 


Hey!!! I love you too!!! I don't have a ton of time left! But I really wanna talk to you guys! that would be awesome! I am downloading pictures off of here that you´´ve sent me so that I can print them off right now!


I´ve already read everything, I'm just downloading family pictures to put in my album now and I would rather talk to you since your on, than write a big email! Ha ha! 


No— we didn't get caught in or even hear about any mudslides. 


So, my comp is Elder P. he is from El Salvador. He is pretty cool. He was Elder D.´s comp. a while ago so that´s pretty cool. He´s a good guy. We´ve only been together like five days but we´re getting along pretty well.




Yeah that´s crazy! I heard about that! That´s pretty nuts! My week wasn´t nearly as eventful. We just had zone conference yesterday that´s why I didn't write until today. But the conference was amazing! President Amador from the area presidency came and talked to us for like nine hours!!! Ha ha ha! But it really was amazing! That guy is awesome! 


The weather has been a little crazy. It has been raining a ton lately! We´ve had a bit of water coming into the house but its not a big deal. We´ve just gotta watch it and take care of it. And it takes forever to dry my laundry with no sun! That stinks! but other than that nothing really has happened...


No— I'm not down at all! I'm justifying to get in as much talking to you as I can before I have to go while also getting the pictures! 


I don't think that's what kinda snake it was. Maybe, but I don't think so—and any way I killed it good! Ha ha! If I went back in time...sorry...but I would totally do it again!!!


Oh! For the zone conference we went and stayed in Santa Elena again Sunday night and that is where Elder H. got sent to —so we gotta chill all night again! That was way cool! and we played ping pong again with the desks put together! Ha ha ha!




I got the package with the socks and the journal. Journal.....BEST EVER!!! I thought for sure there was going to be like a letter in there at least or something! Just kidding. But it was awesome! Thanks! 


And the family that went to conference, one of the kids came to church this week but other than that nothing. They said it's way hard to get there cuz it takes and hour and a half walking. It's hard for us to get out there too! But we are working.




But hey my times up. I gotta go. 


I love you all so much!!!


Elder Welch

No news is good news—right?

For those of you looking for a new letter from Hayden—he did not write today. Hopefully he will write tomorrow. I will post as soon as he writes.

As always—Please keep him in your prayers.

Carol Anne

Hayden's snake!

So I decided to find out a little more information on Hayden's snake....only makes me worry more. He will be getting a little "mothers advice" next week!

Carol Anne

Species: Bothrops asper
Family: Viperidae
Common name in Guatemala: Yellow beard or Yellow Throat. 
Also known as:  Pit Viper or Ultimate Pit Viper
Distribution: Low and moderate elevations from Mexico to northern South America
Habitat: Humid areas. 0-1,150 m.
Microhabitat: Terrestrial
Activity: Nocturnal.
Food: Vertebrates, primarily rodents. Juveniles may consume insects and other invertebrates.
Reproduction: Viviparous, up to 90 young per parturition.
This snake causes more envenomation accidents in Central America and northern South America than any other. In Guatemala it is involved in more than one thousand serious bites inflicted to humans, many of them fatal. It is extremely abundant in palm plantations and rice paddies. It can reach more than 2.5 m long. 

It is Extremely venomous, unpredictable and excitable.

OK—So I am warning everyone that if you are faint of heart or stomach—this email may not be for you! Yuck!!!

Carol Anne

Hey everybody,

Alright, so, this was a pretty epic week! 

Oh, first before I forget, why is Bryan going to Florida? If you told me I can't remember and I can't find it in my old emails. Sorry if I forgot! 

But anyway, so, also before I go on to tell about what happened in the week, I am staying in Dolores! I am super stoked about that! I love it here so much! But Elder H. has a change. I´m pretty bummed about that. I was hoping we were both staying here, but, such is the mission. 

Anyway, so remember that rat I told you about? Yeah, well we have had multiple battles with that darn rat! BUT....WE GOT IT!!! It was the most epic night ever! We snuck in quiet when we got home at night and we stuffed blankets under the doors so it couldn't get out and we hunted it for more than twenty minutes! Untill finally Elder Hopkins nailed it with the broom and it was finally done for!!! I am sending some pictures of it and the broom and everything! 

Note from Carol Anne: I am sure that if I had this climbing all over me at night and eating all of my food I would not feel this way —but his little face reminds me of the rat in the Disney movie Ratatouille! It kind of pulled at my heart strings. Like I said I am sure I would be feeling a lot differently if I were living with him everyday. I am sure I would be the one saying that the night of his demise was"Epic"! But for now every time I look at him I still say,"Aww...poor thing!" And.....

I think the broom came out a loser as well. What do you think?

And also, we were doing service helping this guy fold his whole corn field and we ran onto an enormous snake!  I hunted it down and killed it with my machete while Elder Hopkins filmed the whole thing! It was crazy! I felt like the Crocidile Hunter! It probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done. Especially cuz it was super poisonous and the guy that was with us was way scared and wouldn't get within like twenty feet of the thing! Ha ha ha! But....it was AWESOME! Ha ha ha! I took it out with rocks and a machete! It was super intense. But the video doesn't really do it justice either because Elder Hopkins wouldn't get close either! 

\

Note from Carol Anne: For those of you who do not know—Hayden has been a "snake hunter" since he was 2. He loves to find and kill the snakes to protect everyone. We have a lot of little snakes on our property and he has always protected me. I do not like snakes ....at all. The only thing that worries me is that he thinks all snakes are as harmless as a garter snake...Oh Hade!?!?! Look at that proud face! He has not changed since he was 2. I made sure to give him a good lecture and informed him that if the locals run.....so should HE!!!!

 I will write a list of what I would like for Christmas and send it to you next week. But I would definitely rather stuff and not money! It is definitely better to get the stuff you guys have sent! It means a lot more I think.. But I should be getting your package this week with all the people coming from the cap for changes and stuff. 

Oh and me and Elder H. usually cook everything together. He is a way good cook too. They tried to get us to cook today too for the district but we had a lot to do so we didn´t, But I really love it. It's the best! Alright, well I love you all so much! You are the best! And I promise I´ll write a lot more next week! OH and with the Spanish, it's OK...but it would definitely help me to have a Latino companion for once! Ha ha ha! I haven´t really —other than Navas!

 Alright, well I better get going.

Con amor,

Elder Welch

Conference Party!

Hi everyone, 

Hey! So, sorry Mom, it´s not really going to be a novel But I´ll try...So, idk..I had a ton of favorite talks. One of my favorites was Elder Holland´s talk in the priesthood meeting. And of course Mom, I also loved the one about the dads. Ha ha ha! It sure made me super baggy! But that´s ok. It was super good! I really did love all of them though. I can´t really pick a favorite. I seriously have like a page of notes on each one! It was so awesome!  

Conference Party!!! So for conference we had to stay the night over at the Elders´ house in Poptún. It was awesome! 

Me and Elder H. brought like half of our own kitchen and we cooked breakfast for all six of us and it was super good!!! If I do say so myself.

Banana Pancakes (could not get the song out of my head the whole time...), eggs, hashbrowns, and ham!

And we did it super cheap too!!! It was only like ten quetzales each! That's like $1.25! Ha ha! Then I made dinner for everybody that night—spaghetti with meat sauce that was pretty darn good too! But Elder H. didnt have a picture of that...

The rest of the comments are about some photos that Hayden thought he sent but he did not attach. So we will have to wait for next week to see what they are. It sounds like today for p-day he got to do one of  the things he loves most in life —play a guitar.I am sure he was in HEAVEN!

So...first of all...can you say ¨giant asparagus¨?!?! Ha ha ha! Good ol' California trip with Grandpa Cleve! Ha ha! But then the others don´t really need too much of an explanation, nor an explanation of why this was one of the best p-days ever! This is like a pool hall with ping pong and fooseball and a bunch of stuff and its super clean and doesn´t even have a bar! So we can go there! It was super fun! They didn´t have distortion, the band brings that every night, but other than that they had everything and they let me mess around as much as I wanted. WOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! Oh yeah, just before I forget. The only thing I was missing today was MY DRUMMER!!!  Tell Tay I sure do miss rockin' out with him! 

We sent some photographs of our traditional family 

"Conference Party". It is tradition to watch conference together, eat Mexican food, drink Pina Coladas, take family photos and choose and pick a pumpkin from the garden for Halloween. Here are Hayden's comments on a couple of the photographs.

Whitney needs to use the big pumpkin Bryan picked out and it might be about the size as her belly! Ha ha ha!

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! OK.....You got me! When I saw that picture of Dad, Bryan and Taylor! I just cracked up— OUT LOUD—in the internet cafe place—  HA! HA! HA!  I was going to say something about the pumpkin on the rump missing. But then there it was...Ha ha!

I don't have my memory card with me right now, I lent my camera out today but last week I did and I downloaded the pictures you sent me onto it and I printed them out and it´s the best! I made the album L. sent me into a family album now and it´s the best!!!!! Ha ha! But I will do that with these ones next week so I can have them too. 

Elder H. and I actually had a super spiritual experience this week! Well, really it was like two days, but still. I can't tell the whole story cuz it´s super long. But Pres. Monson´s talk about calling the guy up to talk without him even being there really reminded me of our experience! We just followed a huge series of promptings by the spirit which led us to try and find this less active guy named M. in this little tiny like village that takes over an hour and a half or two hours to walk to. So we walked out there, didn´t find him but we found his brother who he´s living with for a while and his brother´s family. We taught them and everything, but in the end, all seven of the brother´s family, M. and two of their freinds all came to conference! Which was a huge deal because like I said it is long walk to Dolores (2 hours), then a 45 minute bus ride to Poptún! But they all loved it so much and they are all so excited! And M. was once the second counselor of the branch and he is super excited too! So we are hoping to now have 2!!! active members that have the Priesthood!!  But I know that we would absolutely never have found any of them if we had not been completely following the spirit. It was so awesome! I sure hope everything works out. Pray for the their Family!!! 


Alright I gotta go. I love you all!!! Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Welch