Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi Everyone,

Mom—Ha ha! Happy Valentine's day to you too!!!! I sure wish I was there to be able to make some pizzas with you! Ha ha ha! But I sure will try to study about Joseph. We really have super limited time here, especially with some of the projects I'm going to start trying to do, but promise I will do my best. No, we didn't have anything to do with the Worldwide Leadership Training...but that is way cool. Was it like a presentation on Guatemala? or what? How is the family doing? any funny stuff happen lately? I loved the pictures Abby sent! They were the best! Holy crap though! You were right about Taylor Mom...I hardly even recognized him! and Elder LP saw it and said that he looks just like me! Ha ha! Thanks Mom. You are the best mom I could ask for! 

Taylor and Abby—Thanks for the letters, wut up g-units?! How´s things?! I'm still in the process of reading your letter Abby. I just finished Taylor's, but it sounds like you guys are doing pretty well. I loved the pictures a ton. Thank you Abby! And I love hearing from both of you Abby and Taylor! And Abby don't ever think that I am bored of hearing from you!!! Ha ha! You are my baby sister! and your the best ever— no battle!!! I always love to hear from all of you.

Hey dad. Thanks. You really are the best. I miss you a ton, and I am so glad I have such an amazing dad. For real. I really have been thinking about it a lot lately and you really are one of my best friends and I wouldn't give that up for the world. Thank you for everything. I don't know where I would be without you. And I'm not going to lie...all that goofing around I did in your yearbook class sure is paying off here in the office! I have already altered and made new agenda cover protectors for the mission and I am going to start making new booklets, like covers and everything that we give out to all the missionaries that come into the mission and the ones that are leaving. I really love it. It reminds me of you a ton. Thank you for being so amazing dad and thank you for all you do for me.

So— I am doing great. I love the mission SO much!  The office is treating me alright. I sure do miss the jungle though—more than anything! But I know that I am supposed to be here and I know that good things are happening. And no, I am not homesick. I miss you guys a ton of course, if I didn't there would be problems, but that doesn't mean I'm homesick. I know I'm supposed to be here and I love it! So, about that, I have some news. Being in the office, we get the privilege of knowing our change a little earlier— So, here it goes—I am leaving the office and going back to Dolores!!!!! Ha ha! Just kidding! I am still in the office, but my companion has a change. It's pretty crazy though because usually the people that are in the office have two changes being trained and then their comp. heads out but I only have had one and now I have to do everything on my own! But it will be good. I'm getting to like it more. I have loved everywhere I have been so far in the mish and here is no different. I love the people, I love being around President and Sister Watts, and Elder T! And, idk...things are going well. We have a lot of investigators that we are teaching. They all have their challenges though, but we are helping them out a lot. The biggest problem we are finding is that the parents are not married and in a lot of cases, are married but not with the person they are living with. They have separated and have gotten together with someone else without getting divorced and getting divorced here is like cutting off your right arm basically! But we are doing well. We have actually been working with a family lately that the lady is a member but the guy is not and when we got there they were at the point of separating but we have helped them to the point that they are really talking and praying about staying together and getting married and the guy getting baptized. They are still having their problems of course, but they really are progressing so much. We have quite a few families with different situations, but we are seeing the same progress. I know this change we are going to see great things. Especially now that I am going to get to be working more directly with Elder B, the financial Elder that is staying in the office with me this change. He and I had a planning meeting this morning about what we can do to better the in area and it went super well. We are going to change a few things and put a few ideas that we have into practice so that we can get the members more involved so that we can use the little time that we do have in the area to work more efficiently. It is going to be super good!

Anyway, that is just a whole bunch of boring missionary stuff! ha ha I will send this and then send more pictures!!! I try to explain that it is the "boring" stuff that a mom loves to hear....he is getting better at sharing it. :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, so here are the pictures of our office breakfast!!!!  

This is the picture of the table that I set! It still didn't have all the food on it yet, but you get the idea...

...and then there is one of me and my companion, Elder C.  I am holding a giant plate of bacon! OHHHHHHHH—that was so good!!! 

Then there is one of Sister Watts and I. She is the best!!!!!

This is one with all of us in the kitchen cooking.

The first one is Elder T. cooking the pancakes. He is in Peten right now the lucky sucker! Right next to Dolores!!!!!!!

The first two pictures here are from the dining room window in President and Sister Watts´ house. The two like blueish skyscrapers that you can see is EuroPlaza. that is where our office is.

Then there is a picture that we took with President after we were all done chatting and visiting before we headed out.

Alright, I gotta get going. I love you all so much and I always love to hear from you. Oh! and tell Grandma Murdock that yes, there is a bishops storehouse here so not to worry—all of her efforts are well worth it! Ha ha! I love you! I'll talk to you all next week!

Elder Welch

REAL Milk...twice in one Week!!! Woo Hoo!

Hey everybody!!!

So, first of all, today has been the best! Every last Saturday of the change Sister Watts has all of the Elders in the office over for breakfast. And that was today!!!!!! So we woke up this morning, Elder Thacker and I went out and played catch for like forty five minutes. OH YEAH!!! I never told you about my Christmas present for myself!!! In San Jeronimo I found two baseball mitts in a Paca for 25 quets each!!!!!! That is like three bucks each! So I bought them for myself for Christmas and then when I got here I found a sports store and I bought a ball so now that is what we do on p-days!!!! It is SOOOO amazing! Anyway, so we did that, then we worked out for like another forty five minutes then we all got ready and went over to President and Sister Watts´ house and we helped cook a HUGE breakfast!!!! It was incredible!!! I have pictures but for some reason the computer isn't reading my card so I can't send them. I will try next week. So after that, we just sat at their house and visited for like another hour or two! I played the piano for a while. (the couple of hymns that I have learned so far... and then we came here to use Internet and buy our food for the week. But that breakfast was amazing. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, hash browns, fruit, real milk and everything!!! It was the best! And it was so fun to just visit them. They are incredible people. I love them so much.

OK, as for your questions before I forget, I would LOVE some more dried fruit! It is one of my favorite snacks and it is something healthy I can eat so I don't get fat here in the office!  And I am rationing my last bag of it right now. Also, talking about Valentines packages, sorry that I never wrote back about that. I totally spaced it and you probably have already sent it. But if you haven't, I just talked to this girl in the ward (Who is amazing!) and she is planning this whole big ward activity thing for like some personal progress thing or something and her topic is faith. So she is doing it around ¨Faith in Every Footstep¨ and she is doing this big old thing about pioneers. They´re going to make like a handcart to pull and everything. But she asked me if I had pioneer ancestors and I told her about Wee Granny and stuff and that you had a bunch of information. So, she said that if you haven't sent that package yet, if you could like make some copies of stories or something out of like the Murdock book or something and send them. She said that it is going to be in like mid March. So idk if you could or not. If not I can just share the story that was told in Conference two conferences ago.

Alright, on to the spiritual stories. So, last Saturday, we were here in the mall and we were going to the food court to get something to eat and this guy came up and told us he was meeting a friend for lunch and more than a year ago he had promised this friend a Book of Mormon, but  never got it to him. So I guess like just  two days before or something the friend said to him, "Hey, remember that book you promised me? You never got it to me." and so they set up this date to grab some lunch. Well while at lunch they ran into us —so we gave him a book of Mormon and then we saw them a little later in the food court and we went up and talked to them and we got the guys address  and everything so we could give the missionaries from that mission the reference —cuz he lives in like the Central mission. But we were pretty bummed because usually those references don't end up making it to where they need to get to and they get lost. So we were walking on our way back here to use Internet and this kid that was in a store kinda gave me a funny look like he knew me or something but I didn't know him so I kept walking. Then he like came out of the other door of the store in front of us and said ¨Elder! Elder!" So I went up and talked to him and asked where he was from. Come to find out he was from the ward where that guy that we had met like five minutes earlier lives! And he was good friends with the Elders there so we gave him the reference and he said he was going to give it to them and maybe even go to visit the guy with them!!!! It was so awesome how it all worked out all within like twenty minutes! It probably doesn't sound too amazing, but it definitely was not a coincidence! 

Alright, I have time for one more story. Not really a story but about an investigator. Her name is C. She is a reference from an amazing member named V. who was baptized only like a year and a half, two years ago but she seems like she´s been a member her whole life! Anyway, so she brought her to the activity night that we have every week in the church and that night Elder B. and I taught the lesson and were over the activity so I got to know her there. She absolutely loved the activity. She came to like three before we ever got to go visit her at her house because she was never home, but she loved it! For one of the activities we watched the restoration video and she loved it! But just last week we finally got in to visit her and while we were teaching, every time we would have her read from the Book of Mormon, she would almost start crying because she loved it so much and she just kept saying I just want to keep reading! She kept on talking about this feeling that she had every time she went to the activity night and and she felt it about everything that we would teach her and at the end of the lesson we had her read Moroni 10:3 and 4 

 3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

 4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

When she read about how the Holy Ghost will give us testimony about the things that are true, it was like a light clicked in her mind and she looked up at us with tears in her eyes, put her hand over her chest and just said. ¨That is what I have been feeling. The Holy Ghost. I know it.¨ It was pretty sweet!!! She is so awesome! And then after, she gave us big old glasses of real milk with these STEAK sandwiches that she had made special for us!!! Ha ha! She is amazing!!!! I love that lady.

Alright, well I better get going. I hope I haven´t bored you to death, but either way I love you all! Ha ha! I hope everything keeps going well for everybody. Tell everyone hello for me. Oh and idk if I want the trip as a secret or not mom—you decide whether it would be better as a secret or better if I knew...but if your going to tell me. Not yet...wait a while at least —ha ha ha. Alright. I love you so much! You are all always in my prayers!

K— gotta go! I LOVE YOU!!!!!! YOU ARE THE BEST MOM IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!  MMMMMMMUUUUUUUUAAAAAHHHH!!!!!! (that`s a big old kiss) in case you didn't know....ha ha!

Oh and tell Abby that if that was a picture that she sent from her ipod, I did not get it.

And send pictures next week please!  I wanna see how everyone is doing! Love you!

 

Con amor,

Elder Welch

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.