A Good P-day!

Hey!!! 


Well that sounds like fun— Ha ha! Good old yearbook camp. Thanks for sending those pictures! That is so awesome! I am doing great! This week was a pretty good one. We have been working so hard to get the coorperation of the ward members for the longest time and we are finally starting to see the results. I just got done writing President Watts about how we have this part-member, inactive family that we have been working with for quite a while now and we haven't been able to see much progress, but at the beginning of the week we got our ward mission leader and our relief society president to come with us and when they opened the door and saw them instead of just us thier attitude was completely different! They totally opened up and listened and really felt wanted. And throughout the week we have gotten our bishop and our elders quorum president and other members of the ward to come out with us and we have like picked specific members to come and visit certain people to make them feel comfortable and so they have friends in the ward and everything and we have started to see such a difference even with this being the first week we have done it. It is amazing. We had three families at church yesterday that we have been trying to get to come for SO long! and they are all super happy! It is so amazing!


But anyway, what about E? Ha ha ha! Isn't he such a stud?! He is such a good guy! And I would LOVE it if he came to live at home after the mission! Oh and I got his mom's email address so you can talk to her. Maybe you wrote it down wrong or something. But she invited us over for dinner yesterday and it was SO! good! and she gave us SO much! Ha ha— it was so funny! She gave us some super good tamales and some really good beans that she makes in her own special favorite way and with toasted tortillas and she serves them with sour cream!!!! First time I had tried it in almost 18 months! Woo Hoo! And then she made us "mole" you'll have to ask Bryan what that is and it was super good and then she had this papaya juice that she made into like a slushy that was so good! and then a mug of this drink called mosh—it is basically oatmeal but it's really good. But it was SO good! and the whole time we were eating she was toasting bread for us so it didn't get cold while we were eating and so it was nice and warm! Ha ha! She is SO nice! So here is her address—she speaks English too so you can write her in English. She has worked in the Distribution Center here in Guatemala for like ten years or more I think! and she is finishing an English translation course. Her name is A. and she is SUPER nice

I also got E's MTC mailing address cuz I didnt know if you got it or not

I love you mom! So much! thank you so much for everything especially everything with E. And his mom was SO thankful. She said to tell you all thank you SO much and E. says you are all INCREDIBLE! haha she read us his emails that he wrote. He really had an amazing time and absolutely LOVED seeing the temple! Thank you so much! Here are some photos for you.

K, the first one is of Elder K's last night with us in the mission before he went home.

The rest are of our p-day today. Elder V. planned a trip to the 3D map of Guatemala today and there is a nice big park right there too so I took the new little football I bought and my baseball mitts and my Frisbee and some other stuff and we just went and hung out in the park and it was super fun!!! I really liked it especially since the only thing that we do for p-day around here is play soccer. I love playing soccer! but it was good to change things up.

And then we went to Subway for lunch and it was INCREDIBLE!!! Ha ha!  I didn't get any pictures of the park though, idk why. I was just having a little too much fun playing Frisbee tag and throwin' the ol' pig skin! Ha ha!

See the cheddar Sunchips?The BEST!!!

It was a good day!

Con amor,

Elder Welch

E arrived safe and sound!

We had the most wonderful privilege of picking him up at the airport, taking him around temple square, taking him out to dinner and then sharing our home with him for a night. The next morning we were able to deliver him to the MTC so that he could prepare and start his own mission where he will be serving in Pocatello Idaho.

Hayden has known E....(We refer to him as Elder "S" since I can not pronounce his name :)....for just about a month. E was a member of Hayden's ward in the area that he is serving in right now. He has been going on splits with Hayden and doing great work. Hayden just loves him. We now know why....we LOVE him too!

This was quite possibly one of the most wonderful experiences that our family has had and we so appreciated the opportunity to meet such an amazing young man.

Here are a few of the highlights:

He thought Utah was so peaceful and beautiful and he was so amazed at the safety here.

At dusk he was certain we should find shelter so that we would not be in danger :)

He was dumbfounded that in my over forty or ......so :)..... years of life that I know of only one murder in Heber City.

He could not believe that we could eat at Ihop at midnight and be safe

He could not believe that the Beehive House could be full of so many beautiful things, stay lit up at night and not get robbed. He said in Guatemala it would not be so.

He was emotionally and spiritually overwhelmed with Temple Square.

One of the first things we did was to take him to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We went to the top floor and looked over Temple Square. As he stood there he got choked up and said in his broken English that he never dreamed or imagined that this would be possible! He was so grateful to be here. He  ran around Temple Square for hours like a three year old on Christmas morning. He took a billion photos of him in front of everything. He kept saying how he had seen everything during the conference broadcasts and had only dreamed of being there. We were there almost at closing so we were not able to go into the buildings and yet it was still an amazing experience for him. At one point when we were walking around Temple Square I said, "You must be pretty special to make it all the way here and have this experience." He looked at me and surprised me with his response. He said, " I was just  thinking the same thing....I think I am." He then got very serious and replied, "I have been thinking about it and I must have a big work to do." I agree with him. He is going to have a great work to do for the Church! He is an amazing person. He then went on to tell me that all of his life he has dreamed of going to BYU and that standing there at the base of the temple in Salt Lake he now believed that it was going to happen. Later my husband offered that he could come back and live with us after his mission and go to school at BYU if he would like. We really felt like he was one of our kids and just part of the family only minutes after meeting him.

He was taken back with how close the Temples in Utah are to each other and to all of the members.

Before he had arrived he had looked up all of the LDS temples in Utah. He could not believe that there were so many. But as we traveled from SLC to Heber and then explained how long it would take us to get to the MTC the next morning the distance between the SL temple, the Provo, and the Mount Timpanogas temple began to sink in to him. He then started drilling us on the other temples with close proximity to where we were. He could not believe how close they were. He told us that he had the privilege of going to both the Quetz. Temple and the Guatemala City Temple. We asked him some questions and he shared with us that many saints travel from Hondurus and El Salvador to the Guatemala City Temple with their families to be sealed. It is a long distance to travel and they have to walk or hitchhike to get there. He said that sometimes it is easier for the family to go a farther distance to the Guatemala City temple than to the El Salvador or Honduras temple because at Guatemala City they have a guest house where they can stay over night and get cleaned up and stuff so they come that long distance. After talking with him I made a goal to get down Provo Canyon a little more often. We take things for granted that is for sure.

He Loves the work.

When I asked him how Hayden was doing he told me what a good missionary he is and then went directly into the work. He was so excited to tell us about each person that they had been teaching (a few which now have accepted baptism.) He loved these people, He loved the work. He will be greatly missed by the Elders and his ward but Pocatello Idaho just got a fantastic missionary. He was so well prepared and ready to take it on. We were so impressed!

He was so grateful and gracious:

He was so appreciative of everything we gave him and everything we did for him. Bedding folded nicely in the corner, blessing us in prayer, smiles and kind words and care for everything that we offered. For the monetary things we were able to give I could tell he was forever grateful. What a blessing to be able to share what we have. He was so refined and gracious. His mother had prepared him well and I can not wait to talk to her. I could tell she is an amazing women as well. When she heard we had taken such good care of her son she immediately had Hayden over for dinner and she has been spoiling him since. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to take care of her son and that she is watching over mine. What a wonderful experience that I will never forget. When I dropped him off at the MTC it was literally like dropping of one of my sons.......I cried as I gave him a last farewell and a hug(with permission of course). I was so proud of him! And just like when I dropped my other sons off.....I cried most of the way back down the canyon to home......but they are always happy tears. Good Luck Elder S. you will always be in our thoughts and prayers. 

Carol Anne

E is on His Way.....

Hi Everybody, 


I do not have a lot of time today but I am going to send some photos. 

The first one is of Elder V., E. and me at E's setting apart yesterday night. We thought that it was going to be the last time we saw him.....

....but then later that night he showed up to our house to say goodbye one last time and to take another picture. So this is the that one. Well it's not really our house, it is Elder K's but they just live like upstairs so we were up there to get the call for changes. I really can not believe that your going to meet that kid that is with me in like five hours!!!  and I just took that picture last night!!! How wierd is that?!?!

And then the next one is of a giant slug that we found by Elder V's bed last night when we knelt down to pray! Ha ha! My companion threw a ton of salt on him to kill him!!! I thought it was kinda mean...but whatever...Ha ha! idk, but I filmed it when he did it I'll show it to you someday if you want.
 

OK— the next two are of this taco place that we LOVE! It makes these things called JUMBOS and last week after writing we took almost everyone in the zone to show them and they all loved them too so were going again today. 

Then the other two are of a fairwell breakfast that we threw for Elder K. that is going home this week and the is the Hermana in the photo made the whole breakfast for us and she made a cake too that was super good!

So, I just finished writing President Watts and I have a little more time, so whats up? Guess what! only about six more months! Holy cow can you beleive it?! Oh and Mom I'm sorry for you that time is going by a bit slowly lately, but for me the time is still flying!!!

Oh sorry! Gotta go! My time is out.....

Love you! bye!!!!!

But yeah, everything is going well!

Hey Mom, 

OK, so, Erwin will be coming in at Terminal __________ His flight number _____. If you have any problems, you can look up his flight on the _____________ website and his reservation number is _________"_I think that is all it asks for. You should think after dealing with that for four and a half months I would remember! Ha ha! But I'm not sure. I think that should be all the information you need anyway... 

I'm sure that you can take him to get something if you want. He doesn't have to be in the MTC until Tuesday but they said because of his flight they will accept him at any time on Monday. I haven't talked to him about it though so if you want I can let him know that you are going to take him to dinner...

So for p-day we played a little bIt of soccer today but not a ton. We played weird Latino around the world today for a lot of the time. I kicked some trash! haha. It is like around the world, like with a basketball ya know? But with different rules.

But yeah, everything is going well. We are kinda having a tough little while with the zone, but it's OK. It is just hard to keep everyone working. It is incredible really how things work. Idk, it is just at the beginning of my change here we saw huge progress, now it is just like everyone just burned out and is not working. We are trying super hard but idk....we'll figure it out though. But everything is OK. 

So what do you want to know about my area? and where is this chemical waste area?......Oh....So, I've got some good news and some bad news.....the good new is, I loved your advice, and I love you!!!! The bad news is, after looking at those coordinates of the chemical thing....they are the borders of my area. Hahahahahahahaha

Well, mom you asked me about my area and stuff, but idk what to say about it. haha Next week I will try and take some pictures of our house and send them. But, out of all the houses I know in the capital (and I know a whole lot!) I think it is definitely the best other then the office house. That one is incredible. The only think we have to do is get a new water heater because before I got here it broke and we still havent fixed it so we just shower with cold water haha. 

Well that sounds fun.......You and Abby..... oh boy! Now we're gonna have two of you!!!! Ha ha ha! How are things going

Oh and I just read about Tay's text....yea...that question definitely could have been worded a little better. Hahaha that is hilarious. 

So are bryan and whittney coming up like right now? or what?

I love you! bye!

Elder Welch

And this is to Abby—

How the heck are you doin Bagabsta?! And tell Bryan and Grant hi!

Oh and...........HAPPY FREAKIN BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! Little miss fourteen-year-old! I love you!

Hade

alright, so, the first two are of me and elder Velasquez on a surprize visit we made to some elders in an area called Durazno to eat breakfast and study with them and stuff.

 It was a super good day. And the next is of Elder Velasquez and I at the front door of the temple when we went as a zone and the other three are of concilio. I will send some more of concilio too

Same generous Hade!

HI, 


So— I am not up to much today. I just got done playin some serious soccer all morning. I'm wiped! But we won! So it's OK! Ha ha! 


So, before I forget, how much money do I have in my personal account.......that is actually mine though. I might ask you to do me a favor. Well here's the deal. You know E. right? The kid that you are going to pick up from the airport? Well I love that kid!  I asked him if he still needed anything for his mission and he said that he still needs to find a pair of dress shoes. So I was wondering if maybe you could take some of my money and go buy him a pair of Eccos to give him when you pick him up. I don't even remember how much they were but if I don't have enough I will pay you back when I get home. This kid is such a stud. I really wanna help him! Would that be something you could do? OK, so, I don't know what kind, just nice black ones like mine if you remember. Just ask them which are the best and that don't split at the sides and which sole will wear the best. He wears a size 41. Don't worry, I'm not crazy. Ecco works in European sizes. And we got mine at the University Mall. I got one pair at Nordstrom and one at Mr. Mac. You'll probably just have to see which one has the best prices. I'm not sure about anything else he might need. I'm sure some gold toe socks while your there at Mr. Mac wouldn't hurt. But If you do just get some black ones cuz I think that's all he's got to match with. But idk. Whatever your heart tells you would be nice. Ha ha ha ha! And about the flight, I don't have the information right now. Sorry, I definitely dropped the ball on that one. I didn't even think about it. But I will look at his papers to make sure and either let you know next week or I will have him call you or something. And—yeah he does. He works in a call center and speaks super good English. 


Alright, as for the room. Ha ha! No! I am totally fine with it! I want to change it anyway. I would have never left all that junk up there anyway. At least not the Lexi junk! And don't worry about fixing it up when I get home. I can do it. It will be fun. Put everything in a box. Posters, pictures, everything and just stick it somewhere. I'll go through it and see how much I chuck when I get home and go ahead and paint it however. Please do leave the Across the Universe Strawberry though. That I definitely want to finish sometime. And I figure, other than that I can buy paint and repaint it if I want when I get home anyway...right now, I don't really care to be honest.  I'm going to be able to do so many things I want to do when I get home, and do them right and be happy that I don't even care! Make it a great home just how they want it. Even if they're only going to be there for a week.


Oh and by the way, I am almost 3/4's the way done thank you very much! Ha ha ha! I almost have 18 months! If I was a sister missionary I would have my ticket bought and everything! Now that's old!!! 


And dad, I think I will have to help you figure out new teaching techniques with your iPad when I get home too!  At least a week with it I think would be good so that I could get to know it and then we can collaborate! Ha ha! 


Alright, I've gotta go. We have to go buy groceries and then like half the zone is going to come to our house and we are going to order McDonalds delivery. And yes, they deliver here! Crazy huh? Oh and concilio is tomorrow! WOOO HOOOO! I am so excited! I get to go see President and Sister Watts! and of course eat some of Sister Watts good cooking! It will be good. My first zone leader conference as a zone leader. (All of the others I was the office guy.) So that will be different! But the food will be the same and I can not wait! So I will for sure have some pictures to send to you next week! 


Sorry I did not have time to tell you more about the work...things are good! I will tell you more next week!


I love you all so much! I hope everything works out with B and W's move and everything and that it all works out in the best way possible for everyone. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Con amor,
Elder Welch


Oh yeah, and for the extra space in the package, just whatever. You know me—I'm easy to please! Ha ha! Love ya Mom! You're the BEST!!!!!!

So—this has been a pretty good week!

Hey edybody!

So, this has been a pretty good week. And the zone is doing super well lately. We are working super hard. Me and Elder V. had an amazing experience this Sunday! It was super awesome! So we have this investigator. His name is M. He is an older guy that came up and talked to us in the street so we set up an appointment to go visit him and we have been visiting him since then and that was like three weeks ago or something. He is super awesome and is reading the Book of Mormon and everything and he accepted a baptismal date and everything. He does have a son-in-law though that is crazy! He is this crazy Evangelical guy. We talked to him and he just like went off on all this crazy stuff. And after that we didn't talk to M. for like a week because we would show up and the son-in-law would be there and say that M. wasn't there even though we were pretty sure he was. But then just a few days ago, like Thursday or something, We went and M. answered the door and let us in. And the crazy guy was there and we could tell that he was not happy that we were there but M. was super happy and was like wow it's been so long since we've talked and he had read part of the chapter we left him and the pamphlet and everything and we asked him how he was doing with his baptismal date and he said fine and everything. So then, yesterday we decided to go early to take him to church cuz he hadn't been able to go up till then. But when we got there he said that he was so sorry but his daughter (wife of the crazy guy) had told him that she was going to pass by and take him to visit his wife's grave so he couldn't go. He then asked if we could just come in real fast and pray with him before we left because we were on our way to the church. So we went in and said a prayer with him and it was super awesome and he said, next week, if anyone calls, I'm telling them that I have another commitment. I'm going to church next week. So we went and passed by another family to invite them to church real fast and then we got there. And we were sitting there in church and all of a sudden M. shows up! He told us that like fifteen minutes after we walked out of the door he got a call from his daughter saying that their car wouldn't start so they couldn't go pick him up. He said he knew that it was an answer to our prayer and that he was supposed to go to church! It was so awesome! Then there was another guy that showed up to church that I had never seen before and my companion went to talk to him and realized that he was a guy that had gotten off the bus at a bus stop and saw my companion holding a Book of Mormon and said, "Hey, how much do those cost?" My comp. answered, "Nothing, we give them away." So the guy then asked my comp. for a Book of Mormon and he gave it to him. I guess my comp thought nothing of it. But after talking to this guy about for it for a minute, the guy went on to tell that he had asked about the Book of Mormon that day because one day in a Mega Paca (which is like a big chain of thrift stores her in Guatemala)  he found a video from the our church that said at the end to learn more read the Book of Mormon or something. So that is why he asked for it that day in the bus stop. Also that day at the bus stop, my companion asked him if they could have his address so they could go visit him but he didn't want to give it to them. He said, "After I have read the book, I will go to your church and find out more."  And, just like he said, after he read the book, he showed up to church with a ton of questions and everything and he loved it. He is also an older guy but he is kinda like an old hippie dude. But he is super smart and has studied the church a ton since finding that video and now wants to learn more. It was soooo cool. We can only visit him on Sundays though but we gave him a pamphlet about the restoration and he said by next Sunday he would have it read and be ready with questions for us and asked if we could meet in the church an hour early to be able to have a lesson before church started. It was super cool! And we have a ton of other awesome investigators too!!! I hope that everything works out!

But anyway, sorry for being so boring, ha ha. Today was pretty cool though. Elder V. got permission from President Watts for us to go to the CCM to see his sister that is leaving on her mission to Panama today. So we woke up early and were gonna leave but then they called us and told us we had to get our dat report to send to Salt Lake ready for the whole zone, so we had to do that and everything so we didn't leave as soon as we should have, and we didn't want to take a taxi because they charge an arm and a leg! For real! So we decided to go in bus. I was pretty sure that from traveling around so much in the office I could get us there but I wasn't sure cuz I never went in bus, just in the truck or in the taxi so I didn't know the bus routes and I was pretty nervous we wouldn't make it! Ha ha— just kidding. But we made it just fine and I got to meet his sister and he got to talk to her and say bye to her and everything. It was super funny cuz we were there in the CCM and there was my companion talking to a sister missionary kinda off alone and like three instructors went up and started like
yelling at them and stuff. It was super funny! And he just said she's my sister. and they were all like oh my gosh I am so sorry! Ha ha ha! It was super funny. And he got permission from president to give her a hug so when they were saying goodbye he gave her a hug and a group of elders walked by and you should have seen their faces!!! Ha ha ha! It was so hilarious! And we might even be doing it again soon cuz his brother leaves on his mission soon to Nicaragua so he's not going to be able to see him for like four years if he doesn't see him in the CCM.

I love you everybody!!

Love,
Elder Welch

P.S. I am thinking about letting you paint the room. But you have to convince me. How are you going to paint it? If I approve, I just might allow it.

We'll see the fruits of our labors someday....

Hi Mom,


Ha ha! Sorry I did not write yesterday! We didn't have p-day yesterday cuz today we got permission to go to the temple as a zone and it is closed on Mondays. Sorry I didn't tell you. We didn't get permission until Tuesday when we had our interviews with President. But I'm here now! But I had to do this dumb questionnaire thing so I have already wasted a ton of time doing that! So I'll have to write quickly! 


Ha ha! You crack me up Mom. I love you! I am doing really great! Me and my companion are doing awesome! We set a huge goal for the zone this past  week to find new investigators because that is a real challenge that the zone has had for a while and we really helped them with it a lot and we were able to more than double the investigators we are teaching in just one week! And just with doing that, everything else improved so much. And we put like six more baptismal dates as a zone and we are working with the members more and everything! It is so amazing! Me and Elder Velasquez prayed super hard at the beginning of the change and we did a fast with our district leaders to know what it was that would help us improve and that was the answer we got. It has been amazing to see how it really did help everyone out so much. We still have a whole lot more to improve, but we are improving!


I really like being a zone leader and I'm super grateful for it, but it sure does seem like I'm just a straight up babysitter all the time! Ha ha! But I really like my companion and we are improving our area a ton also. We have some really good possibilities, but they also have their challenges as always. Its pretty tough. 


But I better get going! I gotta print off your letter to be able to read the rest and write President real quick. But I love you so much! Thank you for everything! And that is so awesome you got to go see old Toby!!! Ha ha ha! Love you!


Hey! I guess I have ten more minutes! Because of the survey! So I'll just tell you a little bit more. So, me and my compa have been finding a ton of new people to teach! We have been working pretty hard. Two of them so far have accepted baptismal dates, but I'm kinda worried that they are not going to be able to be ready for their dates. It is super frustrating but we will see the fruits some day. I really have to go now though! 

Erwin the kid you said you would help....said at 8:45PM on Monday the 18th at the airport and he needs to go straight to the MTC supposedly! Love you! Bye!
Con amor,
Elder Welch