Weeks are starting to turn into days and days into weeks, the saying is true! This week just seemed to fly by! We had our district meeting on Tuesday and I taught on how to get our investigators to church and ways we can "combat" the normal excuse people give. We then played ultimate frisbee for our district activity. Wednesday(transfers) came and there were only 3 people in the entire zone that left, sometimes with being the outskirts of the mission we fee like we get forgotten sometimes haha. 

  Anyway...we had one of the Elders come with us all day until his new companion came in and that was pretty fun to have a trio for a day. We did a lot of tracting that day because of appointments that fell through. On Thursday we were so busy! We were in the middle of our personal study when one of our members called us and asked if we could help him with service so we did. We raked leaves and Elder Clayton and I decided he got the cheapest labor in town, he picked up two bums and us! He did give them some money so it was a good way for them to get it rather than begging. Right after we were done with that we got a phone call from the zone leaders say we were moving into an apartment in 3 hours and needed to pack and deep clean our apartment so that was a crazy time but it was pretty fun too. our new apartment is nice but a little bit smaller. if anyone needs the new address ask my ma!

 Oh just a fun fact for you. Remember how we were banned from a certain area in our area because of the guy threatening us? yah we live in his same apartment complex, right across from him, I guess that didn't last too long! He hasn't given us any problems. We were able to get 3 new investigators this week because of the sisters referrals. One of them is a couple, the Chester's. they were mainly interested in seeing what this missionary work is all about and thought it was weird/cool that young men took out so much time to do this, so we explained missionary work which lead to a lot of gospel related conversations, we ended up teaching the restoration and she is very excited about it, he will take a little more work! Our other investigators name is Jerry Vandyke, he is 38 and has been through a lot in his life. When we walked into his house there was like a smog of cigarette smoke. We taught him the restoration and set a baptismal date for March 1. On Saturday we had a district meeting counsel for our zone and there they gave us some information and told us we had to call each companionship in the district twice a week, I have SO many calls I have to do but just do it one step at a time and it'll be all good!

   This week I wanted to share something that hit me pretty dang hard! We were reading it with a less active, it is 1 Nephi 20:9-11

"Nevertheless, for my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not off.

10 For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

11 For mine own sake, yea, for mine own sake will I do this, for I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another."  The context of the chapter doesn't really matter. I really liked how Christ says that because the name that he has he wont do something to make him look bad. We have taken upon us our fathers name, our own name, and Christ's name when we were baptized. He then continues to say that those who are going through hard times are chosen and that we should be thankful. i remember when my dad would tell me in sports when the coach is picking on you its a good thing and he knows you can improve, Christ is the coach here! Love and miss y'all and hope all is well!

Elder Welch

 Well as you know it has been another transfer that has come and gone. I am moving into my 6th transfer and I cant even believe it, time has just flown not only on my mission but especially here in Mobile! 

 This will be my third transfer with Elder Clayton, he will be hitting 6 months here in mobile, that is a long time to be in one area but he is handling it like a champ. This week has been one where it looked like it was going to be really good but things just fell through! Appointments falling through is a normal thing but all of them in one week is pretty crazy. We did have one lesson with our use to be investigator, the same one that said he liked one of the sisters serving in the area (both of them got transferred out by the way). We talked to him about the importance of the Book of Mormon and then I felt we needed to leave so I hurried up and wrapped the lesson up. That same night we got a texted from him cussing us out and threatening to kill us because he wanted to take Sister Onkst out to dinner before she left and she asked me and I said no, somehow he found out that I was the DL which should have never happened. Anyway we told the zone leaders and they told president so we aren't allowed to go into that part of our area anymore so we had to drop him...crazy stuff goes down in Mobile y'all! 

There are Elders that are replacing the sisters so we now have an all elder district and zone, last one in the mission! We had another lesson with an investigators we usually don't get to see that often which was really nice, he is on probation so we cant baptize him until 2016 but we still like to keep in touch. We are starting to focus a lot of less actives in the zone because the new zone goal for 2014 is to have 40% of the less actives reactivated by the end of the year, we have done pretty well with that here in Mobile recently so we are excited about that goal. Something crazy that happened this Friday happened at basketball. We have it weekly and less actives and nonmembers come to it but this particular week it was one less active and all the rest nonmembers. One of the nonmembers and the less active started getting into it and we were about 2 seconds away from a fight until Elder clayton and I pulled the plug and told everyone to go home, we had to talk to them about it and if it happens again basketball will be done for good.

 What a crazy week, not crazy because it was so busy but because it was so slow, I never thought it was possible for so many people not to answer the door. Opposition in all things and we have those times to enjoy the good and to learn. Heavenly Father makes our situations uncomfortable to get out attention and he needed Elder Clayton's and my attention this week for some reason. Learn what we can and go on with faith! With this week being slow there is not much to write about but I do have a few things.

    On Tuesday we went out to Semmes and I taught district meeting which I felt went well and then I had a tradeoff with Elder Lovell, he is missionary that came out with my trainer; Elder Foster; and is night blind and has 20/200 vision, so what we see from 200 feet away he can see from 20. It was really cool to see how he runs his life and how much of a blessing it is just simply to have sight. He is walking faith though, he trusts anything you say because he depends on you to know where to go. This week I hit my 7 month mark and along with that a lot of missionaries hit a "wall" where it is hard to press on but it is gone and it honestly wasn't even that bad, time is just flying and I am loving it!

    We didn't see any of our investigators this week but we did meet with our recent convert Patrick! He broke his arm last week and I was able to give him a blessing with that, he looked like he was in a lot of pain but he is still doing awesome! On Saturday he went to get his priesthood interview and then went to a YSA dance, he said he enjoyed it! On Sunday he received the priesthood and is now a priest. I am so proud of him and honestly i just miss teaching him, not many people don't get to teach someone like him in their mission. Elder Clayton and I went to the CES devotional last night and it was just amazing! If those of you reading this haven't watched it, watch it, make time! 

I love the gospel, I love my mission, I love the Savior, and I love this work. I was reading in 2 Nephi 28:25 the other day and my heart dropped but it doesn't apply to this so I will still say it. All is Well! Love and miss y'all

Elder Welch

 I cannot believe 2013 is already over, half of 2013 spent here in the mission field has just flown by! I have a lot of my thoughts that I want to explain in this letter from this past week so the information on what has actually happened will be slim. This past week we went out with Pat once and then he left out of town, we got a text from him Thursday that said "are medicated drugs against the word of wisdom?" A little confused but figured he was just asking it because he is studying pharmacy I said no. The very next text we receive from him he explains that he was in Tampa and his cousins were teaching him to play hockey and he broke his wrist, he was on some pretty heavy drugs but is back in town today and is doing well!  

  A problem that the area we are in right now has is getting investigators to progress, we have a ton of them but none of them seem to want to do what we ask them to, we've tried everything. Elder Clayton and I have fasted about it and have seen the Lord strengthen our investigators just over the past 24 hours, its been a district problem too but I will explain that a little later in the letter.  A few funny stories from the week is we were filling up with gas and Elder Clayton and I were just coming out to the gas station and this guy stops us out of the door and says "do y'all have something you want to tell me" We were caught off guard but that it was awesome. We tell him a little something and then he tells us his friends need to hear it so at this point Elder Clayton and I are pumped but then this happens...he all of a sudden goes quiet and then looks to us and says "do you hear that?" we say no then he said "that's a cry." By this time Elder Clayton and I are kind of weirded out but decide to go to his apartment anyway. Right as we are pulling out of the driveway I look at him and he slaps himself! I was so confused...we teach him about the Book of Mormon and as you can tell he was super high on who knows what...not going back there! Another thing that happened is we were tracting and oyming (street contacting) and stopped to talk to a random guy, he invited us in which never happens so once again we were stoked! We found out that he had read the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and basically held us captive and bashed us for who knows how long...probably 30 minutes...he said he was going to convert us.

        Like I said this week has been really really hard for me. Not really as far as the work goes but more of spiritually and emotionally for me. I have been overwhelmed with being a district leader for a few reasons. I have exactly 1/2 of the zone in my district and I think its the biggest district in the mission but I'm not sure of that part but anyways I'm super super busy with that. Like I said progressing investigators have been a problem in not only our area but in the whole district so I have been trying to know what to teach for district meeting, I don't have the answers for progressing investigators! I have had such a strong testimonies of leaders and how the Lord qualifies them, even a simple little young district leader. I have fasted and prayed on it and I pray district meeting will go great tomorrow! I have found a lot of peace in a few things I've studies on this week. One scripture that came to mind as I was teaching an investigator was in James where it says "draw near unto me, and I will draw near unto you" We know god is a just god and will keep his side of the promise so all we have to do is draw near unto him, how do we do that? john 14:15. i love what my mom sent me that said "because I am grateful, I will be good." Another one is about the golden rule "One should treat others as one would like others to treat them." I believe that is divine as well. If you do well to god, keep his commandments, and "treat him well", he will treat you well. In thinking of the investigators we have and them not progressing and really just the southern state of mind that all churches are of god I want to share what I have thought about. A lot of Mormons get a bad wrap for saying we know our church is true, I don't understand why it is so foreign to other churches, why would anyone go to a church that they don't think is the only true church? I know my church is true and I'm going to give everyone some advice that is searching for truth, Mormon or non-Mormon. Its fine if you don't believe the Mormon church to be true, but if you don't think yours is either you might want to start looking, seriously. Christ not only set up a gospel but he also set up a church. James 1:5 Love and miss y'all. all is well!

Elder Welch