What a joy board week is. We knew that this next week was going to be super hectic for President and Sister Smith and us assistants. Monday we had to get together and discuss some of the new logistics that Elder Zwick wanted us to implement for doing transfers so we got all of that nailed down. On Tuesday we actually started on the board and moving people around...we only have 4 missionaries leaving and 15 coming in so we had a hard time figuring out where exactly to put them, we only had a portion of it done that day. On Wednesday we didn't have anytime to actually work on the transfer board but we did go to MLC and have to relay a lot of the information onto the zone leaders about all of the changes because they will be taking head in a lot of the things that are changing. We discussed the new transfer which by the way they wont know where they will be transferred until Wednesday this week. All we did was call them last night and tell them to pack it up, it was kind of fun to do. The other thing changing is how we record the key indicators and miles travelled. Previously we would have to get all the numbers and input them, it was vary tedious, we now have a google drive page that they can do themselves. It was fun to make them on excel. 

  As far as our investigators go Celine has been doing fantastic! She wasn't having the best week until we met with her on Tuesday and watched "safety for the soul." you can always count on good ole Jeffy to give you a pick me up! We met with her once more on Thursday and talked about temples. It was inspired that she picked that topic to learn about because she went to the general women meeting and that is what it  was all about! She previously hadn't told her parents about being baptized and she finally told them this week. They were first accepting, then they showed some back lash on it a few days later. We get to go teach them on Wednesday to give the more of an understanding of what is going on. The baptism will be this Saturday and Ill be confirming her, I'm really excited. 

   What a blessing it will be to be able to listen to conference this week. With the technology that we have we will be basically sitting at the feet of prophets and apostles. My invitation would be to come to conference with a question in mind, apostles speak on what we need, if you're prepared you'll get the answer. Love y'all. All is well

  Elder Welch

    The weeks seem like days. What a true statement. Tuesday we had a lesson with Celine about the commandments and she is ready for baptism. We haven't even taught her the word of wisdom yet and she looked it up and started living it already. Her baptismal date has changed to general conference weekend though because she wanted to have a few people there for her baptism that are out of town as of right now. I think the highlight of my day that day was our dinner appointment. A member had signed up that has been a member for about 10 months now. Missionaries in the past have worked with him for over two years. He was really against joining the church for some reason. Shortly after he began meeting with the missionaries he was diagnosed with a bad heart problem and throughout meeting with the missionaries it got worse and worse. Finally last November he went in to have a heart transplant. When he woke up from that surgery he wanted to be baptized. I don't know about visions or anything but he had a literal change of heart. He received the Melchezidek priesthood yesterday, it is such a great story! 

   We had tradeoffs in the Dothan and Panama City zones this week and boy was it hot and humid for some reason! All in all we had a good week, not too many out of the ordinary events. Hope all is well back home, praying that things start cooling down here. love and miss y'all!

Elder Welch

  What a fantastic week it has been here in the good ole FTM! This week has been full of adventures. Because we were going to be gone all week on tradeoffs we had to pack all of our appointments into the time we had on Tuesday. A recent convert we met last Sunday invited us to come by and start teaching her the new member lessons. She has a fantastic conversion story of how her daughter was an atheist and found the church and so she was interested too but a few weeks before both of them were suppose to be baptized her 17 year old daughter passed away, she is such a strong member. We met with Celine that day as well. we taught her half of lesson 4 and then addressed concerns with her, a lot of them were brought up at church too. She came to the singles ward with us and lucky for us there was a baptism happening after church there so she was able to come. She has been a little worried about telling her parents but she is so set on joining that she doesn't care what they say, she's so solid, i love it. She also has been getting a bad rap for even considering this church from her friends, growing up in the south would be tough. Wednesday we set off for Mobile to do some tradeoffs with them on the next day, I went with Elder Miller and elder Frederiksen. Friday I went with Elder Riddle in Pensacola, and Saturday I went with Elder Palau in Fort Walton. All in all it was a super busy week. 

    This week have been one of reflection and looking forward a bit too and with that I wanted to share a few things. First off make sure that you know where your testimony is centered and check if it is anchored, the world is getting nasty out there and things will get worse. On the subject of The Church. With being on a mission all missionaries get a bit of anti Mormon literature thrown at them but i have seen a lot of it with being in the south and this ties back to where the testimony lies. Peter denied Christ, Paul watched people kill Steven, and Judas sold Christ and yet they were still fantastic men called of god to do His work. Likewise Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Thomas S Monson have had their mess ups in life and are mortal, so what? If you know the Book of Mormon to be true then you know none of that matters and that this church is of God. Any of you that have been baptized, received the priesthood, been married in the temple, and especially gone on a mission I want you to ask yourselves a few questions. #1-Why was I baptized? #2-Have I ever received a witness from the Holy ghost that either the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, or that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints is true? To those that are reading this that may have gone inactive, been offended, or are just anti Mormon in general; if you said yes to any of those questions...do you think God lied to you? I think a lot of us have problems in this life with a number of things because we ourselves don't agree even if it may be the truth. There is a phrase that I would like to change and then have everyone apply...many may say to swallow our pride and move on, to that I say it is time to SPIT the pride out of ourselves and our society. The church is true. Everything in this life is a restoration of sorts whether it be the gospel to the earth in 1820, us trying to restore our wills to god, us trying to restore our perfect state we had, restoring our body to a perfect frame, and restoring ourselves once again with our families in heaven never to be separated again. In closing I want to remind us of something that will never lead us astray, and that is about the Holy ghost. I believe that we are always being prompted to act, what we need to do is be spiritually prepared to recognize and act according to those promptings. I love and miss y'all. All is well.

        Elder Welch

    What a crazy week it has been, it went by so fast but Monday seems like it was so long ago! On Monday we went out to a huge park here in Tallahassee to play a huge football and sand volleyball game, it was so fun! We went out at about 1PM and left there at about 5PM so as you could imagine in August we were all super fried! I don't burn that bad at all but I even got a good little torching. Good thing was that I listened to good ole Grandma Nae and put some apple cider vinegar on there and the burn was gone! Tuesday we woke up at 6 and had to all drive to the middle of the mission before 9. We went for the mission leadership council with Elder Zwick of the first quorum of the seventy. That meeting was really powerful! I had to take minutes for the meeting and it felt like I was getting a drink from a fire hydrant and that my fingers couldn't type fast enough for all of the good stuff he was telling us, it was fantastic! After that meeting we had to bolt back to Tallahassee to watch a broadcast that night for the members that was at every meeting house, we didn't even get back to our apartments until like 10:15(approved)! 

   On Thursday we had an even better meeting for half mission. Every single talk had personal relevance to me at that time, I don't think I have ever had that happen before. I have had one or two hit me pretty hard but not a whole meetings worth. We taught Celine the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week as well as gave her a church tour. We still have a baptismal date with her on the twentieth and the only thing she said she was scared of is not being able to live up to the commitment, that is always a good fear when we hear some like those. Saturday we were going to have a tradeoff with the Tallahassee two zone leaders but we got a call that there was going to be an emergency transfer going on so we had to travel all the way out to Mobile and back that day. A wonderful week full of adventures and driving. We actually went over 3,000 miles this month, that is a lot for those missionaries out there that know the miles limitation rule. I love my mission and loved this week. Love and miss y'all. All is well

Elder Welch