This week was hard but I grew and learned a lot in it. We taught Eileen (British) about the gospel of Jesus Christ (3rd lesson) Monday and it was only my second time ever teaching that lesson. I didn’t know it well enough and I could tell. Eileen is still golden and is planning on getting baptized next Saturday (10th) still, I’m so excited! Back to me not knowing that lesson well enough. I promised myself and Heavenly Father that the Lessons were all I was going to study until I feel comfortable with them. My study sessions are amazing, they are always my favorite part of my day and I have gotten those lessons under control. That hour of study I have is so precious and I always want to make it as productive as possible. I am now studying the Christlike attributes in chapter six and I know those attributes will bring myself closer to Christ and will make me love my mission even more. It was the one thing that I was missing in my service/work. I wasn’t enjoying it that much and I realized that I didn’t have that attribute of charity, I pray all who read this will pick up a preach my gospel and read chapter six and become more like Christ. 

 Yesterday I gave my first talk in church and it was on how I prepared for my mission, I broke it up into 4 categories. 1) Prayer 2) scripture/preach my gospel study 3) seminary and 4) family/friends. I know if y’all strengthen those four topics of your life you will have a happier life, come closer to Christ, and your problems will be made easier. I will send the talk home to you in a letter and you can show others who want to see more specifics. So I’ve quickly realized that this mission is one of the hardest in the nation and I’m in the hardest zone in the mission, so it’s hard out here, the black people in poverty stricken areas are always the nicest though, always. I didn’t get mail this week until Thursday and it was a rough first part of the week but then I got 5 on Thursday! It made my day a lot better, thank you to all who have sent me letters, they help me out, give me motivation, and it’s nice to hear from people in the middle of the week, not just on Mondays. I went on a tradeoff with Elder Lane this Thursday and he is from Page, Arizona and has been out for 18 months. He is a great missionary and reminds me a lot of Uncle Jason, the way he acts and looks. He is Indian and gave me an Indian name, leaping frog. I don’t even know what that means but I’ll keep it! I have a tradeoff tomorrow with the zone leaders in Navarre and can’t wait!

This week I wanted to share Heavenly Father’s and Christ’s love for us. I find myself always kneeling when I have free time here on my mission because those two are the only ones that will be with me 24/7 for the next two years. Companions change, wards change, family is back home, and the mission president is probably going to be in a different city. I can always feel when I kneel down Christ’s arms wrapped around my shoulder comforting me. I love that I know my Savior personally now. I pray that all of you learn to pray sincerely like he was the only one there. He loves you, He knows you, and He will always answer you. I know this church is true and that Christ is at the head of it. Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and Thomas S. Monson is today. Missions are awesome. I love y'all

Elder Welch

 As far as what I’ve been eating; we only make breakfast and lunch, dinner is always given to us, the members here are amazing! For breakfast I get some of this bagged Maltomeal stuff that is healthy and really good or raisin bran, always fruit with breakfast. For lunch I have those frozen chicken tenders or hamburger and grill them on a George Foreman grill with either BBQ or some other sauce, its good, plus an apple with honey on it (new invention that’s delicious!) That’s pretty much what I always eat, I have bagels and trail mix and apples and oranges I have for snacks so I’m never going hungry. Laundry has been going well, no stains that ever give me a problem, I had to get a Resolve laundry stick for my collars because of the sweat and dirt that get on the back of the collar and that does the trick, I don’t have to iron my shirts ever(except for my first week when I unpacked).  I’m really jealous of those first ward elders, always cut missionaries hair, it is the hardest thing for me to find here, a good haircut, plus its service that won’t go unnoticed. I remember a guy told me that this mission was the highest baptizing mission in the nation, he’s wrong. People here are receptive but I’m right in the "buckle" of the "bible belt". The missionaries that are sent here are top of the notch and I’ve got to meet that level and expectation.

I did the NASTIEST service project this week but the sister missionaries were champs. We had to go to an older lady’s (80) home and clean up food that she dropped behind the fridge A MONTH AGO and had been sitting there since because she couldn’t reach it. Mold, smelly, and just bad. I have never smelled anything so nasty. We got it all cleaned up but I don’t think that smell will ever go out of her house. Super nice lady that couldn’t help herself so we did it, it was fun because we had both sets of missionaries there. That’s my fun story of the week.

So this week was kind of rough to start but got busier and better as the week came to a close! On Tuesday we went to an investigators house and his name is Curtis but wants us to call him "Stone Cold" Funniest guy in the world and he does have some drinking and smoking problems, there's probably a reason that's his nickname. Anyway we were talking to him and he doesn’t seem like he is super interested but he shined mine and Elder Fosters shoes with Armourall! I’ll have to get a pictures with him sometime and send it home, I love the guy! He loves to make people happy. The kid we met at basketball; Nate, hasn’t found a good time for us to teach him and his mom so not much of an update on him, we'll get him! He was at basketball at least and got to hear the spiritual message there, plus we got 3 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts! I love myself some Krispy Kreme! Bridget's dad had surgery last week and she will be out of town for 6-8 weeks, so I don’t know what will happen there, she will get baptized eventually! Eileen the British lady is so awesome! She has been working night and day shifts as a nurse so I don’t know how she sleeps but she still comes to church, we are meeting with her tonight, just a matter of time as well! We ran into a guy that seemed really nice and like he knew a little about the bible, as the conversation went on we found out he knew a LOT about the bible. It wasn’t a bash session and he does want to know more and asked us to come back, his name is Eric. Marcus is probably one of our tougher lessons but Elder Foster and I have seen him change in the past two weeks and we think he knows it’s true, its super hard for us to read him though. He asked us to pray to know what we think he thinks about our message, so we took him up on it, we are entitled to get revelation for our investigators so we will be praying more intently than ever before. Just to make things clear, we are not and he did not ask for us to get his answer for him, I think he just wants to see how inspired we are. We have faith and we know the Lord will answer our prayers. Elder Foster and I have realized how inspired our leaders have been in the new changes, we can’t really tract here because every door says no soliciting and no one is willing to let people come into their homes, when iPads come out the work will BOOM! The members here are amazing! Since anyone that wants to be a pilot in the army or navy and air force has to come through Pensacola to be trained there are a lot of people from everywhere around the nation and we get all different types of food, I still haven’t had grits or any real southern cooking other than their beautiful BBQ, I’ll get some eventually. This week I wanted to talk about our potential in the Lord's eyes. In Matthew Christ tells the people "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect" and in 3 Nephi he says the same thing except he adds "be ye therefore perfect, even as I and your Father which is in Heaven is perfect"(he'd been resurrected) Simply put, that is the standard. Look in your patriarchal blessings and all the things in there as well, are the standard. I know that the Lord doesn’t give us ANYTHING that we can’t handle. He is our Father and we have traits from Him. We can and will be like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ if we do the things they ask. I know that this is true. I love and miss you all. The church is true and the heavens are not closed. All is Well!
 

 Elder Welch

  This week has been really good! So these past few weeks I’ve been reading through the Book of Mormon in my personal studies and some of the things that have really stuck out to me was the influence of the spirit in my life as a missionary and his role in all of our lives. He is a comforter, that is one thing that I have really utilized as a new missionary and he has played roll as my mom when she is so far away, still no comparison to mom though, I miss that a lot. Along with that as I've read I’ve come across the story of the stripling warriors. I, just like them have been born of goodly parents, just like Nephi too. I come out here where the economy is bad and not a lot of LDS families and realize how impacting your own family has to be. I was raised in the gospel and you two have tried your hardest to make sure all of us kids are on the right path, your job have always been fulfilled when it comes to that. I can’t thank you enough for the lives you have offered me and the chances and opportunities you have given me as you've raised me in righteousness. It’s harder to be stripling parents in this day and time and you two have done it. Tuesday was our first district meeting and we have them every week, I've already got a nickname for myself too, they think I look like Tom Cruise so they call me tommy. I’ve never been told that but I'll take it! I also showed the sister missionaries our family and they all think I look like mom, that was kind of new too but I'll take it!  This whole week it has rained, the whole time. It is kind of annoying and makes me tired and it’s all gloomy but I like it when it pours, we are still riding bikes every other day rain or no rain.(depending on lightening) I had a few crazy experiences with my investigators this week:

Sharon is a newer one that has been to a lot of different churches, she is about 45 and has 2 kids, I swear all people are grandparents by the time they are 40 though since they all get married at 18. Anyway we taught her the restoration and at the end of it I invited her to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of god and she accepted! It was the scariest thing I’ve done so far and did get a few pointers from elder foster on how to do better, I'll talk about that later!

Eileen- A 50 year old British lady who son is in the navy. She is a nurse and will be baptized either Saturday or next week, I’ve guessing next week because we still have a lot to teach her plus her interview, she just has a crazy work schedule.

TJ- super cool 18 year old black kid that just graduated from high school, fastest running back in the state. He is basically a dry Mormon (just add baptism) super golden investigator!

  Now I want to talk about the coolest tracting experience ever! I guess the week previous there was a stabbing at a church by 2 teenagers that we had no clue about, anyways; we just got out of an appointment and saw this guy just by his fence smoking so we went over and talked to him. The guy that got stabbed was this guy and he was about to tell us the story of the stabbing but then all of a sudden these two young girls come out of another house and tell him that it was their brothers that stabbed him and kind of apologized in their behalf. He forgave them on the spot! At this point my jaw was on the ground, this guy was amazing. Next thing we know he turns to us and tells us it isn’t a coincidence that we showed up and talked to him about the gospel and that he wanted to take the lessons. Unfortunately he is homeless right now and we don’t have any way of getting back in contact with him so we are praying the lord will put us in his path. It’s hard to explain and I probably didn’t do the experience justice.

     On the Fourth of July we went over to a members house with a nonmember to talk to him a bit and we started the discussion out pretty simply but then the members took over and it went into a trying to prove the other person wrong session and I couldn’t feel the spirit at all, it was actually a scary situation. Elder Foster and I just kind of sat there and then bore our testimonies at the end. It shows that we really need to use the spirit, we teach, the spirit converts. Just to let mom know; since I’ve been on my mission I’ve been a clean freak, it’s actually kind of nice. Elder foster usually is pretty clean anyway so it’s easy on me. He is still a great companion and is teaching me a lot! One thing that has been really, really, really hard for me is coming out of my shell and talking to people because I am still shy so I fasted for that yesterday along with other things for my investigators. Last night we had a lesson with one of our more stubborn guys and I was just talking like there was not tomorrow! It was awesome, I still need to work on it though. I know this church is true and that we have a true living prophet on the earth today. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ and for the atonement. I know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers, I’ve felt all of yours strengthen me. I love you all and until next time. All is well! 

   I love Florida! The people are nice and actually pretty receptive so far. The day I got transferred up to Pensacola fox run ward I was super sick. I don't know what it was from, nervousness or actual sickness. The car we road up in was rented and it smelt like smoke so that didn't help at all. Once I got to the transfer site in Pensacola I met Elder Brendon Foster who is absolutely amazing, he is the district leader! He is from Midvale, UT. He is so cool and nice. He loves the work, has been out 10 months, is the most obedient guy I've ever met(which will carry onto me), he is a great teacher, very service oriented, and works his butt off! We always have a packed schedule. Anyway, we got back to the apartment which is really nice, I have my own bathroom, we share a bedroom, it has a study room in it, living room, and kitchen, plus a laundry room out back. He gave me a blessing there to make me feel better about the mission and about my sickness. I threw up shortly after that which helped and off to work we went! I feel like Satan was tempting me with being sick to not go an work on my first day but I did. Our first lesson was with a less active family and it went really well, I haven't seen them since Wednesday though. Then we went to Bishop Smith's house to have dinner and we had spaghetti, if you love missionaries never feed them spaghetti, we always get it. Other than that that was my first day in the field. We are in a car share with the sisters in our ward so I do use my bike every other day. It isn't as hot as you'd think it is, the humidity just makes it so the shade doesn't work at all! The humidity carries all of the heat into the shade. Humidity is like walking into an building with an indoor pool but its 85 degrees so it's terrible. Back in Nevada all of the sweat would evaporate off of me before there would be enough to see since the air is so dry there, here I am constantly soaked from sweat. I'm being 100% honest, I've never sweated so much in my whole life, thank goodness for those handkerchiefs you gave me!  I am getting my haircut pretty short today too so the sweat doesn't mess up my hair so badly like it does right now, I look like a mess, my companion has a buzz, I will probably do something a little longer than it, it'll be fun.  I love what I'm doing, the work is great here in the Fox run area. The ward is made up of mostly converts so every member a missionary isn't a problem at all, they all help us out a ton! I pray that you too will find the joy and happiness in being member missionaries, your job is just as important as mine in this work, invite someone over and give missionaries referrals. The spirit is so strong and I know that this gospel is so true. We have a lot of investigators but only 2 are progressing, we have baptismal dates set for them in 2 weeks! We are killing it out here in fox run, two best missionaries they've seen! Some fun stories....

We missed moms letter so had to go pick it up from the post office and some bible baptist starting yelling at us and telling us we are going to hell, I guess it happens a lot. Most baptists are OK but bible baptist are the worst! if you aren't them, they hate you. I find it funny that they do it. It doesn't bother me. I'll talk to them on the other side of the veil.

We don't really tract much because of how many referrals we get but I have knocked a few doors and have only got one slammed in our faces, of course it was my door ha. On the other side of things I have gotten an investigator from tracting, Elder Foster was proud.

I'm not use to people avoiding to talk to me, ha-ha. If anyone sees us they find the furthest route away. The people here are still nice once you get talking though, this one random dude stopped us and gave us water right as we ran out, tender mercy! He wasn't even a member. I love me some BBQ down here and the produce is amazing! I just love food. I'm not use to living in a forest though, it literally is just thick forest everywhere you look, for the whole mission too, its clean air though! I was super tired at the beginning of the week but I've coped, I'm constantly sore from the bike though. I think I have gained a little weight because of the water I have retained and of my swollen sore muscles, we work out really hard in the mornings and on the bikes so getting fat shouldn't be a problem.

It's really cool here that all of the leaders are converts, the church here is all from converts, literally, no family line Mormons. the stake president is even a convert. I know that this gospel is true with all of my heart. I love the Savior and the atonement that He suffered for you and me. I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. I know I was sent to Florida to serve here. I absolutely love it here, nice people, good food, there are a lot of poor people down here though, I still love them. I know that Joseph Smith restored this gospel and that we have a true living prophet today. Heed to his counsel. I'm doing great over here on the east coast. I love where I'm at and I love what I'm doing. All is well. Love Y'all(haven't gotten use to saying y'all yet but the accent is going to get to me)

Elder Welch