I don't think I have ever felt the Spirit so strong in one room.

Hi,


So I am feeling just fine. I woke up the next day and I was alright. Who knows what it was. How the heck are you guys?! I just finished reading about the Hobbit!!!!!!!!!!! I had no idea that it was coming out! I am so excited. And I just saw a billboard today for the new Batman too!!! Holy cow! I am missing so much stuff! Ha ha! but it's OK. How are things going?


Yeah, we had concilio and it was great! I love concilio! It is so good to see everybody and everything. And the meetings are so incredible! I'm not gonna lie, I don't think I have ever felt the spirit so strong in one room. It is just President, the Assistents and 18 Zone Leaders. It is incredible. and also today my companion and I got to go to the CCM again so that my companion could see his brother this time who is also leaving today for the mission in Nicaragua. They are going to be three that are in the mission. So we went to see him and stuff and then after, I ate the BEST meal that I have eaten in 18 months! We took advantage of the trip and went to a place called "the Estancia". It is a super nice STEAKHOUSE! Me and Elder V. both ordered the same thing. We got a 12 oz. bacon-wrapped filet miñon with a baked potato and beans, garlic bread and a giant lemonade! It was SOOOOOOO incredible! Ha ha ha ha ha! One of the best p-days ever! And I couldn't even take pictures cuz I think my memory card has a virus. After I got done with internet last week I put it back in my camera and now it doesnt even register that there is a memory card. But I'm going to try and get it cleaned today so we'll see whats up


So, to report on A., she is really doing well in the sense that she is really getting to gain a testimony. She just does not want to leave her other life. H. just told us yesterday that she goes to that other church EVERYDAY! so it's not just like a little thing that she has to leave. And the ladies from the other church pass by her house everyday to take her to church. But the other day we were there and we watched the Testiments with her and she LOVED it! One of her doubts was if Jesus had really come to the Americas and when the movie got over we asked her how she liked it and she said, well....it convinced me. It was super funny. But then when we were just about to finish, they run like a little store out of their house and so during the lessons H. always gets up to answer when people knock and this time someone knocked so he went to see and we kept talking to her and H. came back and said that it was one of the ladies from the other church to take her to church and A. asked him what he had told her and he said that he told her that she was going to go and A. said "why did you tell her that?" she didn't want to go, but because he had told her that she was going to go she hurried and got ready and went cuz she felt bad. And she didn't come to church yesterday either cuz she said that she had stuff to do around the house and she would go next week. It was kinda frustrating, but idk...she is going to get baptized. It just might take some time. And today we have an appointment with another couple that, last time we taught them they said they were going to talk and pray about what date their wedding and baptism is going to be and they are going to tell us today! I am super excited! I hope everything works out with them too!!! Their names are J. and T. They are super nice. They invited us over for lunch last week and made like carne asada and everything for us and it was super nice. And J. goes to the church to play soccer with all of the priesthood every thursday and he loves it and they are going to church every Sunday too. They just couldn't go yesterday because J. had to go visit his mom supposedly. But they are going and are super awesome! and we have another couple, I think I told you about them. M. and D. that their wedding and baptism is going to be on the 27th of this month and they are super excited! They are reading the Book of Mormon and studying the lessons together everyday before we get there and M. always has a ton of verses from the reading that he has underlined and he always shares what he has learned with us from what he has read and he basically teaches the lesson himself! It is super awesome! I love them so much!


Ha ha! No Mom......I am not homesick! Ha ha! I am doing great! I love it here. Of course I talk about home with you. You are my mom, and the rest of my family. If I didn't want to be with you there would be a problem. But that doesn't mean that I want to go home right now! I don't want to leave Guatemala .....are you kidding me?! I love it here and I love these people. Don't worry, I'm not homesick. I just love you. And don't worry abbot the card...if it is dead I can just buy a new one, I am just going to be SUPER sad because that card had all my pictures on it since Dolores! I will cry, not even kidding!


I gotta go. Oh and tell Taylor that I am TOTALLY jacking that element hat from him when I get home!!!!!!!!! Thathat is SO sick!!!!


Gotta go, love you! Bye

Con amor,

Elder Welch

Painting, Packages and Parasites!?!

Hey whats up? I am doing great ... What about you guys? I love you too Mom! I'm doing good! Oh yeah! Mom did you try to send the other pictures to E''s mom? I gave her the ones that you sent but I told her that you were gonna send her the others but she told me yesterday that she still hadn't recieved an email.

Here are some photos of me opening my "Easter" package! Ha ha ha! 

That music box thing is SO sick! and Mom, I think you are a fortune teller. My frisby broke last week when we went to the park. I didn't even go one week without one! Ha ha ha!

Reading a letter from his brother Taylor.

So, I guess I'll give a little report on this week.This was a really good week! Im writing a little about it but just about one family so I will give a quick review. We have two families that one of the spouses is getting baptized. Both of the other spouses of each family is already baptized. And one of the families is getting married that same day!!! It is super awesome! I love these families a ton! And we have another family that is in the same situation that the husband already said he is going to get baptized we just don't have a date with him yet because he and his wife are going to talk and pray about it and decide but we hope that it is going to be within this month also! So on Tuesday morning we went to E's house to do a service project for his mom. We painted for her. It took forever! But it was fun. And we have to go back one of these days to finish cuz there is still another part that we have to paint. But that lady is so awesome! She fed us lunch that was super good and she taught me how to make this gravy that is like good old American gravy with this soup mix that they have here! It was good! and then that night our Elders Quorum President came out with us to do some visits. He and his wife are like our best friends in the ward. It used to be them and E., but now E. is gone. I miss that kid!!! Ha ha! But anyway, we went and had a lesson with this family that we have been teaching for a while. The husband got baptized like a year ago when Elder Williams was here. His name is H. And his wife A. goes to an Evangelical Church and they have two kids, G. is seven and P. is six. But they are super awesome and when I first got here H. was inactive, but one day he just showed up to church and we got to know him and started visiting him and now he is active and bringing a friend to church that we are going to start teaching and we are teaching H. wife too!  But anyway, so we got there with B. (our E.Q. pres) and we taught A. B. is SUCH a good teacher! He amazes me! I have learned so much from him about teaching and how to work with people! But anyway, we taught her a ton of stuff and she really loved it and before that, she was interested to hear what we said, but she didn't really want to accept it or anything. So that lesson went super well, we put another appointment for Friday and we got there and H. hadn't come back from work yet so we couldnt go in and teach A. so we put another appointment for Saturday. And I must tell you that to get to this house is insane! It is seriously at the bank of the river at the bottom of the ravine! There arent any stairs to go down that way though, it is just a sheer incline of sort-of switch-backs but my compaion counted "as if he were walking up stairs" Ha ha ha! However reliable that is...and he counted that there would be 174  stairs! But I actually think there would be more. But anyway, so we went back down and their door was closed and all their windows and everything and it was raining like crazy and they didn't answer. We were SO bummed! So we went back up and visited some other people. Yesterday though, H. showed up to church with his friend. A. couldn't come because her sister went to her house to visit but we put an appointment to go visit her in the afternoon and when we went we had a SUPER good lesson! She ended up telling us SO much about what was keeping her from getting baptized and what her doubts were and everything! And it was so incredible! With the scriptures, she was able to answer all of her questions and doubts and she ended up feeling so relieved and happy! It was so cool! And she accepted to be baptized this month! I sure hope everything works out! But she is truely gaining a testimony. The only thing that is keeping her back now are her friends and stuff from her other church. They are going to reject her! But she has a ton of faith. I really think shes going to do it!

I did get sick though this week. I have no idea what happened but on Wednesday I woke up and my stomach hurt super bad and I was fighting super hard the whole day to keep going. That night I could literally barely walk because my knees were so weak and my head and stomach ached! But with help I made it. But we had some super good lessons! And I woke up quite a bit better the next day but I haven't been the same since. My stomach is still not too happy! But I'm doing just fine. I think I'm alright. If it goes another couple days I think it is a paracite. I'll just take "the bomb" Ha ha! Prescribed by the nurses of course... Ha ha! The pains were just on Wednesday and part of Thursday and if I am in a lesson for a super long time and forced to seal the "bomb shelter"! Ha ha ha ha! But I am doing really well.

Holy cow! Mom! Take it easy! Sounds like you are doing to much....your going to kill yourself! and yes I only got one package still not the other. I only got the one package the one with the Easter/4th of July basket Ha ha ha! and I got it on Friday. That means they picked it up from the post office on Thursday. I didn't check to see when it got there. But was that Nutella really only three dollars? 

K— gotta go! Love you! Bye!

Elder Welch

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!!!!!!