This week has been one of those where my testimony has been strengthened immensely not by just the experiences that I have had but those that others have had around the zone. My favorite things about being a leader in the mission has been not only getting closer to the missionaries I serve but being able to see what miracles happen in their work, especially when it happens to be something I have been prompted to focus on in the district or zone and how the Lord has worked through me. A lot of times as missionaries we don't get to see the "fruit" from the seed that we planted but I feel like I get to see that a lot more in the position i am in and I am so thankful for it.

Why I am saying this is because of the street contacting goal Elder Hadden and I set for the zone last week. We honestly didn't know what was going to happen but knew it would make our work hasten immensely. We received text after text, call after call of these tender mercies that the Lord is putting into our hands in just the first week of striving to talk to everyone, I cant even imagine what will be given to us in 6 weeks time.

    We had a tradeoff this Tuesday with the Atmore elders and I was able to go up to their area with Elder Pearson, a missionary that has been out for about 2 months. We had so much fun and their area is the best for going around and just talking to people, a lot of the south, especially now that it is getting hot are never outside to talk to but that's not the case in their area. Another tradeoff with had was with the Semmes elders. I stayed in Mobile north with elder Lovell (blind missionary) and we had a great day, one miracle. Like I said we don't have many people out in our area to talk to and we had about 30 minutes until our dinner appointment and needed at least 8 more people to talk to to hit our goal. We went back to the car, said a prayer, and I picked a street on the GPS. Once we arrived we turned the corner and there were SO MANY people outside. We not only hit our goal but had a lot of great conversations. We hit our goal and got a new investigator.  Elder Hadden had one amazing lesson with a kind named Darius. He is a 18 year old kid who just had a kid so he was stressing out right at the time we met him. We went over on Thursday and not only was he there but his sister and 2 older brothers. As we taught the Plan of Salvation they loved it and when the girl, autumn prayed she asked if was true and said it would make her happy if it was, i have high expectations for those kids.

   All in all this was a great week for not only me but also the area/zone. i love my mission, i know all us missionaries needs to be inspired, i know that there are angels round about us, and i know that we have greater potential than i think we can even realize. I love y'all, hope all is well.

 What a great week! I would say it is safe to say that this is one of the weeks where i have grown spiritually the most not only on my mission but in my whole life. At the beginning of the week we had our last district meeting of the transfer and although it was a super good district meeting and Elder Miller did an amazing job one of the missionaries that went home last transfer was back down here for his mission trip and came and saw us, I got SO homesick seeing him just 6 weeks later chillin with his parents haha, it only lasted about 30 minutes. On Thursday we had a transfers to take care of which is one of my favorite things to do as a zone leader. We get up early in the morning and pack up all of the people that are getting transferred and go to Pensacola (Fox Run) to drop them off and pick up the new people coming into mobile. Its always so nice to see the people that you've served around but don't get to see all that much.

   This week for some reason we had no tradeoffs so we had a lot more time to work. This week has led to a lot of miracles. My companion, Elder Hadden fasted to find more people because he felt like there were people that he needed to find before he goes home in about a month and the blessings from that were amazing, we had 3 new pretty solid investigators. I also felt prompted to go off of a promise given by Elder Ballard to us that if we street contact at least 10 people everyday we will see miracles in the mission. I set a goal for 5000 contacts by the end of this transfer(6weeks), i have already seen immense miracles come from that. The OYMing goal given by elder Ballard to us has been on my mind a lot the past few days and as i figured out what i needed to do about it was that if we need to see miracles in the mission then we must follow the commitment, elder Ballard has the sealing power just as Nephi (Helaman 10) did and Nephi asked for a famine and a famine came, elder Ballard promised us more teaching /baptisms, it'll happen. I felt a goal for 5000 contacts by the end of this transfer is what we needed to do. Elder Hadden and I OYM'd 14 people on Saturday and it was awesome.   Easter Sunday was one of the best I've ever had. There were great talks, great musical numbers, and a lot of investigators at church...7 between all of us 8 missionaries.

   A I've thought about what I wanted to talked about I reflect on the studies I've hard this past week and a lot of them have to do with the desires we have and how the Lord can and will bless us. There are different levels of faith which I'm not going to go into here but we show our faith by our actions. We know that the Lord blesses us according to our desires and he also will judge us according to them. (alma 41:3) With that being said he will give us things if want for one of two reasons. 1) it will benefit you and others or 2)to teach you a lesson(been there done that!) We get what we go for is a phrase I've been going by a lot lately. Even though I may be showing my faith by my works(James 2:17) the faith is in vain if I don't want to be out and don't want to share the gospel. If you are simply just wasting time then you will not merit the blessings from what you are "going for." much love! all is well

Elder Welch

   Well 10 months gone and boy have they gone fast! I not only finished up my 10th month this week but I also will be finishing my 7^th transfer this next week. I will be staying in Mobile as a zone leader with Elder Hadden for another 6 weeks; it's nice to get another transfer under my belt before he is done with his mission. This week was pretty good. Elder Hadden and I were able to teach zone training and it was a great experience, not only for the elders in the zone but also for Elder Hadden and I. I went back to Monroeville to do a tradeoff with the other elders. I got to go with Elder Peterson who has only been out for 2 transfers and is from Colorado. He was such a funny kid, one of the best tradeoffs of the transfer. The morning before we traded back off we went to do service at the library and when we walked in, and me being the guy that nobody knew, I went and introduced myself to the lady at the desk, her response was a little surprising to me. She said "Hello Eldorado." I just played it off and then when I went around the corner and asked Elder Peterson if he had heard what I just heard, he just told me she was crazy and that she always called us that. From then on out she would always say "oh hello Eldorado"...crazy lady. But I loved her. This week was just another regular week in the area, we tracted a ton because the work has been going pretty slow and we have no one to teach. The ones we are teaching are dropping like flies. Friday I got to go on another tradeoff with Elder Spencer just to show him how to make the work, not just hard and long, but also fun. I made some biscuits and gravy for lunch and we had an awesome tradeoff. We weren’t able to meet with Rock this week but we have been able to see Cheryl. I honestly haven’t really taught her yet because I have constantly been on tradeoffs.  We were to teach her the day I was out of town for tradeoffs. We found her through family history and she has been reading and praying about it.

      At the beginning of this past week I had a really hard time. I always have a purpose in my studies and for this past week I chose the atonement. I know I can’t study that in a lifetime let alone a week! I really, really needed it this week though. Testimonies don’t come at once, single testimonies do. I realized this week that I needed a stronger testimony to increase my desires to not only do missionary work but to be doing the right things. By small in simple means are great things brought to past, line upon line. Testimony is like different strands of a muscle that make something powerful.

Much love, all is well.

Elder Welch

  During MLC we just talked about the main struggles in the mission and talked about it for 3 hours, kind of like a ward council setting. Not so much like a zone conference. We also talked about some of the rules President wanted advice on for changing.  I just felt "in the loop" and that was really nice. My second tradeoff of the week was with the Elders in Atmore Alabama. I got to go up with Elder Payne, he is one of the hardest working Elders I’ve met on my mission.  I feel like I have come closer to death this past week than I have my entire life! The last few hours of the Atmore tradeoff it rained pretty bad, which is normal.  As we were traveling back we were on a dirt road for about a mile and as I mentioned earlier...it was wet! I didn’t think anything of it really because we weren’t going too fast. As we come around a corner at about 25-30mph I hear Elder Payne say, "I’ve lost it, it's got me." I didn’t quite internalize what that meant until we started skidding off of the road down into a ditch, inches away from a huge wall on my side! Somehow, someway Elder Payne was able to pull us out of the ditch.  We then started fishtailing it and the car was bouncing everywhere! I thought for sure that we were going to roll it! I’m so thankful I’m a missionary and have safety and even if I didn’t I am living better than I ever have before so I wouldn’t have too much to worry about. He was able to put the car to a stop and we made it to Mobile safely.  I haven’t prayed that hard since the San Diego plane ride back home! The other time I almost died was that night! We were going to see an investigator and as we went up the road we saw police lights by his house...first clue right? We pull up to his house and the cop comes up to us and asks us for our soliciting permits (we don’t even solicit). I gave him my ecclesiastical card anyway...that part was fun, he let us go. We then go to the investigators house and ask him what is going on and he explains that there were gun shots about 10 minutes earlier and that they LET THEM GO! I don’t understand what the police were thinking but whatever. About 10 minutes pass and I feel one of the strongest promptings I’ve ever gotten to get out of there. As I try to get Elder Hadden's attention we see this truck come hauling around the corner and stop in front of the house. At this point I was so scared! The truck sees us and then puts it in reverse and then screeches around the same corner. We got out of there and don’t know what happened the rest of that night but I don’t think it was very good! Rock our investigator is still doing well. We watched conference at his house, other than that it’s been hard just trying to find people to teach. I don’t have much of a spiritual thought this week other than to reflect on yourself and conference. It’s the last days and it’s getting serious.

All is well...and I’m safe!