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!

  What a week!  It was a really successful week. On Monday night we had to travel way to the top of our zone; Grovehill, Alabama which is two hours away from Mobile. We went to the district meeting up there and then I was able to come down to Mobile with Elder Douglas to do a tradeoff. He has an Eloise Welch in his family somewhere but we can’t find out if we're related or not. I don’t know if that’s how it is spelled but I know it sounds a lot like a Welch name! I had to drive Elder Douglas back up the next day, in all...I did a ton of driving this week! 

My highlight of the week was definitely the trade off we had with the assistant to the president. Thursday morning we went down to Fairhope, Alabama to pick them up and we had the opportunity to go with Elder Musgrave, our new assistant. He is the man! I loved every minute of it, he was a great missionary obviously but he was so chill and cracked me up the whole time! With him we got to build a deck for a man we ran into a couple of weeks back. My first thought of it was that we weren’t going to get anything done because I remember how long it took us to get ours put up. We put that whole thing up in 3 hours, no joke (other than the cement that was done before). Other than that we went and saw a few people and then had to go back and drop Elder Musgrave back off.

 This whole week we did a LOT of finding, a lot of doors knocked and a lot of talking to random people. We were able to get one new investigator out of it too. Yes one out of 5 hours of tracting. I know the missionaries in South America might find that hilarious but I’m in the south baby ha-ha. I talked to this guy about basketball for about 10 minutes and then we got into a spiritual conversation. He is going to come play ball with us on Friday night and we are going to meet with him this weekend. I feel he has been really prepared. One investigator came to church this week too. ROCK! I love that guy, he doesn’t quite understand why we were sent down here. From going to a perfect state, coming down here to an imperfect state, to go back to a perfect state. We have to explain it all to him tonight.  We were perfect like a 5 year old is perfect.  In this world, He wants us to be perfect as an adult when we come back. 

 I’ve done my studies on D & C 121: 34-46 this week and my mind has been blown.  As we just sit down and take time to study, we learn so much. I also studied a lot on faith and how that really runs the heavens (heavens are run by the priesthood which is run by faith). People don’t understand how important faith is, its simple obedience. I think of a 3 year old when I think of faith.  They have so much faith that they believe everything they hear from their parents.  Then later on in life they learn to understand why that was important, but still obeyed in faith until they knew why they needed to do that. As the opposite of faith I think of the stereotype of a teenager.  Kids who are prideful and don’t listen to their parents because they think they know better. The commonality between these two types of people is that they will both learn eventually that their parents were right in the first place. I have been very frustrated with a lot of people that lack this blind faith of a 3 year old (all of us lack it in something at some time in their life). The commonality between all sin is pride, that’s why it’s the universal sin, it’s a selfish reason you commit it for. I invite everyone as we are going to be counseled by our leaders not only this weekend but all the time, to have the blind faith if you don’t understand it completely.  You’ll learn it the fun or not fun way.

All is well!

Love and miss ya’ll!

Elder Welch

 This week has gone by so fast! Mainly because we got to go on 3 tradeoffs as a said last week. My first tradeoff was with Elder Parsons, he is the District Leader in Monroeville, AL. The district meeting was really good and then we went to work up in his area. The coolest part about the tradeoff was the service that we did. Many of you know I was not a big reader back home, but one book I was able to read was "To Kill a Mockingbird". Monroeville is actually where that story is based off of. We went to the museum where the court case in the book took place and it was really cool, I enjoyed it. 

 The next tradeoff was with my boy Elder Clayton in Mobile North's area. It was kind of different being with each other again but we both loved it, he is growing a lot with the situation he has been put in. My last tradeoff was with Elder Miller. He is the Elder that replaced me in Mobile South and as a District Leader, he is the man! I would love to serve with him, plus he has the best voice I’ve ever heard, we will be singing sometime in zone training and in church. My spiritual experience with him was this: Elder Clayton and I had previously worked a certain portion of that area a lot when we served there but never found the person we needed to and I relayed this to Elder Miller so he came up with a game plan. We had 2 gps's so I took one and he took one and we each chose a street in this area to tract and my area was a little closer so we went to mine first. We knocked on the first door and no one answered, we went to the second door and when this man opened up, we didn’t say a single word and he just said "come in." Honestly I thought we were going to get bashed but it was a great lesson and contact! They had been taught by the missionaries 15 years ago and said they'd read and pray. It was cool to see how the Lord works.

 I don’t have many stories for my own area, it doesn’t feel like I was there at all. We had a crazy storm yesterday where there was tornado warnings and watches. We had to drive in the storm up to the church for safe shelter. Once we were at the church we saw that there was a cop there which was kind of weird. Come to find out someone broke into the church this past week, nothing was stolen but it was still inconvenient. We have stake conference this weekend and then general conference next weekend. I’m super excited! I have thought a lot about prayer this week. There are a lot of things that can go into prayer but I have realized that nothing is as important as the gratitude we show. We can see Heavenly Father’s hand more abundantly in our lives as we thank him in our daily prayers.

Love always,

All is well!

    The past couple of weeks I talked about how fast time was flying, and it really was. This week the brakes were slammed on! I think it is because of all of the new changes. Getting a new companion and serving in a new area is some of the hardest things you will do on missions. Elder Hadden and I knew each other pretty well before this transfer but it is always different when you have to spend 24/7 with someone. Elder Hadden and I get along really well we just have to get use to living with someone different and learning how to teach with one another. The new area I am in is a lot smaller than the last so learning it wont take too long, I am still working on the names of people though, it'll all come within the next week or two! As far as being a zone leader goes, this past week was pretty busy but I think it will be getting busier. We have 3 tradeoffs this week and are actually travelling up to the top of the stake (Atmore, Al) tonight to go to a district meeting up there tomorrow and then doing a tradeoff with the district leader, Elder Parsons, I will be staying up there with him. The next two tradeoffs this week will be awesome! Elder Clayton will be coming down and I will have a tradeoff with him and then the next day I will go to Mobile South again to have a district leader tradeoff then.

  We taught a few lessons this week but I don't have too much to say on it because I don't know these people yet. We had a really good one last night though. We went to Prichard to teach this lady the restoration and it was a really powerful lesson, Elder Hadden committed her to baptism on the 12 of April. The story about here and why she is searching for God is because her son got shot in the head a few months ago and it just all of a sudden hit her that she needed to find out why she is here on earth because we can be gone any day, anytime.

  This week I wanted to talk about trials. I felt like I have been thrown in the deep end this week but I'm finally learning how to swim. Certain trials only come and go once in a lifetime but what we learn from them should stay. Growing pains are painful but once we are done we can see from a higher level. I would not pray for trails if i were you, just pray that you will learn the things that God needs you to do and then pray for strength. Make sure you study a lot because once you are thrown in that deep end you'll need an oxygen tank that'll last you for a while. Love and miss you. All is getting better! All is Well!

Elder Welch

 What a week! The week right before we find out about transfers is always a really long week, just because I am kind of impatient and want to know what is in store! This transfer I got called to be a Zone Leader for the Mobile Stake with Elder Hadden. I love my new companion! Elder Clayton got transferred to Saraland, Alabama. We both are still in the same ward together and district, just different areas.  It’s a little weird but it’ll actually be really nice, I hate goodbyes! There will be two new Elders coming into Mobile South to replace Elder Clayton and me. I know both of them, they will be great for the area. We felt that it would be a good thing for a white wash, we didn’t know what to do with the area anymore.  

     This week we went on two tradeoffs. One with an Elder that is going home this week, Elder Shepherd. He is from Canada and he is the smartest man I have ever met in my life, as far as the gospel goes! I learned a lot and really enjoyed the tradeoff, it was in Semmes, Alabama.  My other tradeoff was with Elder Milne, this was one of the funniest days of missionary work I’ve ever had in my life!  I stayed in Mobile South but he was just one of those missionaries that makes everything fun! It has been a great week of tradeoffs.

   As far as investigators go, we weren’t able to find all that many of them this week. We have found two, Marchello (yes we found him in the ghetto) and Tori! We weren’t able to have a sit down lesson with them yet but have appointments set up for this next week. I have a great next week in store! Tomorrow I have my last district meeting, Wednesday I finish packing, and Thursday I will head over to the Mobile North apartment. I also get to go on the transfer van which means I get to go to Pensacola for the day!

    I feel like every time I get a new calling in the mission it is a great humbling experience for me. I’ve been able to learn and grown a lot from being a District Leader and I hope that I grow just as much from being a Zone Leader.  Elder Hadden has many qualities that I want and I hope that being with him rubs off on me!

I love ya’ll and hope all is well!

Elder Welch

    This transfer has been one of the fastest of my entire mission. I think it is because of the busier I get the faster it goes. I cant believe that I have already spent 4.5 months in Mobile, it seems like I spent 3 times that time in Fox Run. I had a really good district meeting this week, I feel like teaching has been my biggest struggle as a district leader but it has come around a lot! I'm getting comfortable with it.

    This week I feel like there wasn't a lot that went on. We had quite a few of our investigators drop, one that was really had to drop was Scott Chandler, he's the same one I sang to. All of our lessons with him went off topic and he started to become contentious so we had to make a decision to drop him, the teaching experience wasn't for nothing though. We strengthened his faith and got him to pray which he hasn't done in over 2 years. I also learned more how to love someone that tries to not like me or my beliefs haha. We taught a pastor that we OYM'd a couple weeks back and he fed us lunch. I honestly was a little nervous about it because I didn't want to get bashed but he didn't do any of that stuff. We taught the restoration and he asked us questions about the bible verses we used. I knew he would question us and i knew i might not know all of the answers to had to say a little prayer and that helped a bit, I was able to answer everything to his satisfaction. On Saturday I had an exchange with one of the areas in our ward that has always had a hard time and was able to help the missionary and the area a little bit, plus we made beignets (look it up). Having tradeoffs once a week makes time just fly! We did service for the Red Cross this week and played basketball with the doles. We have 2 weeks until Elder Ballard comes and next week we find out about transfers. It just blows my mind how its all going by so fast...

Sorry there isn't much to say about this week, its just been slow as far as things happening.

   As i was calling one of the areas in the district I was talking to a missionaries about members in our wards and he said something that I really liked. People view themselves "active" but don't understands what it means to be active. There is to be active in the church and to be active in the gospel. In order to count yourselves as active you must be active in both, going to church and living the teachings in your own lives. It reminds me of a scripture in DC 18:15-16. Your own soul counts as "saving one soul," to be active you must do the second part and bring others to the gospel as well, we cant do it without yah. Love and miss y'all! all is well.

Elder welch

 I cannot believe that it has been 8 months since I've left. I was thinking about the day that i entered the MTC which I don't like to do very often because I don't like to but it juts amazed me that it has been 8 months since that time, my year mark is just around the corner! This week was about normal speed so that is good but we had a lot of things happen! First off we had our zone conference on Tuesday with president Smith and the AP's, we get them about every 3 transfers. We talked about mission unity, church tours, and family history work, the same thing that we talked about in zone training but reemphasized. We also found out that our mission is having transfers on Thursdays now. After that I had a tradeoff with Lucedale but I stayed in mobile with Elder Garn this time. We got to teach a few people which Ill talk about later in the email. As we were trading back the next day I was driving to Wilmer, Alabama to meet in the middle and we cant have the phone while we drive so he was holding onto that, as we traded back and were just pulling into mobile we realize that Elder Garn still had the phone! We had to go over to the zone leaders apartment to make arrangements to get it back, that was eventful.

   As far as our investigators go we only really have one to really talk about and that is Scott Chandler. He is kind of hard to teach because he likes to oppose everything even though we can prove him the scriptures oppose what he says but that doesn't matter much because he has progressed so much. One lesson we had with him was a church tour, we thought we'd try it out since president is really pushing for us to do them. We went through the church and it all was going alright and as we were showing him a picture in the primary room I got a prompting to sing to him. I was really scared and honestly didn't really like that prompting so I shook it off. As we entered into the room that had the baptismal font I knew that this room would be the one that he needed the most. We were talking for about 2 minutes when I just stopped and got up and told elder clayton to follow me to get the primary hymn book, I flip to "I feel my saviors love" and  explained to him about the baptism by fire and that this is what my baptism reminds me of. I sang the song as I was shaking like a leaf(we had 3 members there too so I had an audience). The spirit was really strong and them we had a testimony meeting there for Scott.  Patrick Baldwin was one of the members present and said he really needed it just as much as Scott. Scott prayed twice and hasn't said a prayer for 2 years so that was HUGE progression for him.

   Mardi Gras is going on and will be going on for the next 2 weeks so that makes the work slow down a bit but its all good. We are half way through the transfer and this will probably be mine and elder Claytons last transfer together but who knows! I love the kid. As for a spiritual thought this week I want to talk about the power of a fast. I heard about everyone in Elko fasting for moisture and how that helped but I want to talk more on an individual basis. Fasting helps us overcome problems that we need added strength for or for extra forgiveness. As you weaken and overcome your carnal desires your spirit will grow. I have seen this happen so much in my life. I feel like I should talk a little on repentance too. Don't procrastinate it! The savior will forgive if we are willing to be forgiven. Love and miss y'all!

All is well

Elder Welch

 What a fast week! This is a scary time because the slow days of my mission are gone and it just keeps going faster and faster! I always thought that as I was out longer and longer on my mission that it would get easier.  This week has been so hard for me. I have felt the inadequacies that every missionary feels and needs to learn from. Like I’ve said in previous letters, He makes our situations uncomfortable to get our attention...and He has mine now! I did have an eventful week this week though! We started out on Tuesday when we had our zone training. We learned about being unified, setting firm appointments, and doctrine on family history.  It says that people that have already been converted in the Spirit world are prompting their loved ones down here to do their work for them. We had an opportunity to teach it to Scott Chandler too! We taught the plan of salvation with ordinances that we can give to others (his wife died two years ago). I have never felt the Spirit so strong in a lesson my whole mission. I actually started tearing up. The lesson made a huge difference in him. He has gone from not praying for two years to having faith again and he said he has prayed so it is only a matter of time with him!

   On Thursday I had to go to Lucedale, Mississippi.  I had to do a baptismal interview for a lady.  That was a lot of fun even though we didn’t get back until about 9:30. On Friday Elder Clayton and I had an hour of free time so we had time to go out and tract. Elder Clayton felt prompted to go to a certain street in the area we were in and we started going. The first door we went to we met a lady named Yolanda. Common name down here. We taught her about the book of Mormon and half the restoration, she cut us off because she said she had to pee really bad ha-ha, we got a return appointment with her. We then were walking back to our car after a few houses that we knocked and ran into a man named Kyle. He is active in his ministry and a really smart guy and he invited us back to eat lunch in 2 weeks and a lesson, hopefully that goes well. On Saturday I had my tradeoff with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Hadden and went to their area. I love that guy! He has been out about 20 months and is an awesome teacher.  I learned a LOT from that tradeoff. I am also feeling a lot better.

   This week as I have been having a hard one and have seen it in my studies I wanted to touch on Ether 12:27 and Alma 7:12. He listens if we just humble ourselves. Don’t wait like me until you get humbled by the Lord, do it on your own and it works out a lot better! He's there for us and always will be.

Love and miss ya’ll!

All is well

Elder Welch

 This week has been the most bipolar of my mission as far as the south goes. On Monday president emailed/texted everyone in the mission saying that there was some arctic freeze that was coming down from the north and to prepare for snow and that just blew everyone's minds because it hasn't snowed here in 15 years, lucky Elder Welch got the snow...it never leaves me! On Tuesday we made it out safety to district meeting in Semmes and most of us made it home safely. Lucedale did get trapped and had to spend the night at Semmes for 2 nights...lucky ducks! I had a tradeoff that day with the new missionary in the area from the MTC and I have felt bad for this missionary because he is white washing an area his first transfer out(2 new elders in one area). All they do is tract and don't have a lot of members in their area to work with. He loved being able to work(once we got ok'd to go out and drive) in an area that has been set up with a lot of members in it but he is a great missionary from Rexburg Idaho. He actually knows Lesly Hayes(the girl that i met at the Manti pageant a few years back). With it being so cold and wet I did get pretty sick this week, I'm still not over it. I never did stay inside because it would have driven me crazy but I have had a few sleepless nights from headaches and not being able to breathe, it is getting better i just cant speak very well.

   We got two new investigators this week. One of them was a referral we received from Idaho which president smith relayed to elder clayton and I. His name is Scott Chandler and he is a tough cookie to crack! He says he has lost all of his faith(which is false, we can never lose all of our faith or else we wouldn't get out of bed in the morning), he lost his job a few years ago, and his wife died a few years ago. We want to teach him the plan of salvation with family history but haven't been able to keep his lessons on track enough to do so. Our other investigator we received from HQ and his name is Earl. The cool story about this one is when we put his address into the GPS we realized that he lived at the same house as a former investigator that we tracted into, at first we thought that we were getting pranked but it turned out to be an awesome contact! It was his older brother, we taught him about the Book of Mormon and got a return appointment with him tonight.

   So as far as it being a bipolar week as far as mobile goes it was snowing at the beginning of the week, 70 on Friday, and raining yesterday, all seasons in one week. I got sick from the cold/wet weather and it started out with a sore throat, then I got stuffed up, and then my throat got a little swollen, and now i just cant talk very well. I am almost all better except for the whole not being able to talk thing. I woke up a lot in the middle of the night this week with a headache and stuffed up too. We had a leadership broadcast on Saturday with L. Tom Perry presiding with 4 other 70 being there, it was broadcast for the southeast and it was amazing. it talked about the roll of the ward counsel and how they can better work with missionaries. L. Tom Perry has so much energy, he will never die..I Love it!

    This week I had really good studies and I feel like i grew a lot and I want to share one thing I found. I was studying in Mosiah 17:2 This is right after Abinadi preaches against King Noah and his priests and this is what it says." But there was one among them whose name was Alma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he believed the words which Abinadi had spoken, for he knew concerning the iniquity which Abinadi had testified against them." We can apply this to ourselves especially as missionaries. We go out and teach hundreds of people juts like Abinadi was preaching to Noah and his many priests and as far as Abinadi knew he was just testifying against them but the only reason he was there and died was because one person had to be converted(who ended up being a prophet). We teach hundreds and at times we only convert 1 out of hundreds but we were sent to do one thing. It kind of reminds me of the song by Rascal Flatts "Bless the Broken Road"  I know that it is about a girl but we can apply that as well haha.  We can liken it to our callings, you are the only person on the face of the planet that has your calling in that designated area and you are called for one reason or another.  I love and miss y'all! All is well!

Elder Welch