I find it a great blessing that exactly 11 months ago I gave my mom and dad their last hug for 2 years and yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to them over skype, what a blessing technology is! This week was very busy for us as zone leaders. On Tuesday we had zone conference with the Mobile stake (50 missionaries) with the assistants and President and Sister Smith. It is always great to see them and hear what president expects of us. One thing that was different from the rest of the zone conferences I have been to is that we usually get training on how we can teach and work in different ways but this one was almost all about basically "cleansing the inner vessel and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also." Elder Hadden and I talked about Ether 12:6 and how we need to have faith tried before we can obtain miracles. The next day we had our tradeoff with Elder McPherson, one of the APs. That kid is so cool, I couldn't say enough good about him. We had our interviews and service that same day so we didn't really get to proselyte much with him, still a blast though, I learned a lot from him. There has been a really really big push for family history in the mission for the past 6 months or so and since mine had been done pretty well there was a wall at my German lines and this week I was able to break that down and go back farther, it was so nice, a stress reliever for sure! Investigators are all about the same, progression has been a huge problem for us recently. Rock however did bare his testimony to us about the prophet joseph smith and the Book of Mormon, he cant get baptized but he is definitely on the road to conversion!

     As far as a spiritual thought goes I've been studying about knowledge/light and how important it is. I know that "we cannot be saved in ignorance"(DC 131:6) but as i studied more i found that in the bible dictionary under knowledge it says that "we only progress as fast as we obtain knowledge"...that's here and after this life!  Christ always refers to Himself as the light of the world and the truth(DC 88:6), He also gives us that title in a few places in the scriptures(matt. 5:14 for example). The more knowledge we obtain the more we will radiate with light. All of this put together I have realized how important study is. As i sat and did the math for how much study we do on just our mission it ends up being 1460 hours...a doctorate degree is 1440...we can become "doctors of the scriptures" in the worlds eyes by the end of our mission if we use the time effectively. An important part of the church is "remembering" and a great deal of power as His servants is remembering the knowledge that we've already received. knowledge is power. Love and miss y'all

All is well

Elder Welch

  What a hectic week, it definitely has thrown everyone off of their game. We knew a huge storm was coming in last Monday but didn’t know the magnitude of it...nothing happened Monday but Monday night it was CRAZY!  It rained 26” in 24 hours. The thunder and lightning literally sounded and looked like a constant war zone, the sky was always lit up. The next day Elder Hadden and I were getting ready to leave for MLC (mission leadership counsel) in Tallahassee when we received a text from the assistants. MLC had been cancelled for that day and that there was going to be an emergency conference call in an hour. As we conferenced in we had to report to President Smith on how everyone handled the storm.  He told us that that was just mother natures "warm up." He asked us to stay inside for the day, that evening we had a terrible storm. Then on Wednesday we thought that we would be free to work but because there were sink holes that swallowed trucks and one in Pensacola that was 40' deep, we had to stay in that day as well.  Tornados were around us but none hit us.   I guess the worst storm in this part of the nation for years, we were on lockdown for 2 days straight...so boring! As a missionary all you really have to do is just sit there and read what you want but you can only read so much in one sitting. Luckily Elder Hadden and I had 2 other sets of Elders come over so we wouldn’t go completely insane.....all in all we were able to remain safe. “The Lord has always testified through the elements"-President Smith. With two full days of not being able to work I was a little worried about our goals and actuals but they were actually really good! We got to teach a lot of people and things look like we have great things coming for us in the future. While I was on a tradeoff with Elder Clayton up in Saraland (which was a blast) Elder Hadden had an awesome lesson with a family.  I haven’t met them yet so I can’t really elaborate much on that but more will be coming soon! 

      I wanted to talk to y'all about the impressions I had yesterday while sitting in Elders Quorum. We were talking about the women in our lives and what influences they had on us. Of course my Ma came into my mind and the role she played in my life. I thought of the great women in the scriptures and the like attributes they had with my mom. I have talked previously of the great examples my parents were to me a few months ago with the example of the Stripling warriors. Fathers are great and all but we get to call on mother’s day for a reason. Sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, missionaries, and even the great prophets wouldn’t be who they are without a great influence of their mom. I honestly couldn’t stop myself from tearing up a bit in church yesterday and it’s been a long time since I have done that on my mission. I love you Ma! I’m thankful for all you’ve done, and for all you will continue to do.

Love and Miss Y’all

Elder Welch

 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!

  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