This week we have had a lot of miles traveled!
P-day we emailed then went and did some shopping. Bought a lot of gifts for Christmas for y'all! We watched the Restoration video with Celine and had a really good talk about Joseph Smith. Tuesday was the 1/2 mission conference for this side of the mission! It was at our chapel! So we got everything set up and it was nice to see all the mission buddies! We had a program where missionaries got up and sang Christmas songs, played the piano and guitar and it went really good!! We had lunch, then did a stocking exchange with a missionary we had been assigned to get gifts for! Each district put on a little skit to introduce everyone and that was a lot of fun! Then we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" as a Christmas present! SO good!! Every time I watch the last segment it tugs on my heart a wee bit. After the meeting I went with Elder Hintze ( Tally 1 ZL). We didn't even get done with the conference until 5 so we didn't have much of a tradeoff that day.
The next day we went and tried to do some finding. Then we traded Back and Elder Sorenson and I packed our bags to drive to Fox Run and stay the night for the other 1/2 mission conference! We stayed with Elder Clayton and MaClaws! It was so weird to be back in the area I was "born" in. I was able to see the Porter family after 14 months and it was so nice to be able to catch up with them, I miss that area and that family.
Thursday was 1/2 mission conference for the Pensacola side of the mission! It went really well! The performances were good! But the district intros weren't as good as the other half's but it was still a fun meeting! We cleaned up and hit the road! Stopped and got some food and got home around 10:20 pm. Long day!!
Friday we did our weekly planning. As well we went and taught Derrick! We taught him about Sabbath day attendance and the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy! He has been working on Sunday and it has kept him from coming to church so we committed him to ask for that day off! Hopefully his boss understands! We had the Ward Christmas Party that night! It went really well, most organized ward party I've ever seen in my life! The food was great! A woman who was trying to start a rehab type church was there and had been invited by a member of our ward. She was nice and we were able to give her a short church tour and left her with a Book of Mormon and an invite to meet with missionaries and come to church! That evening we went to see a member and he was jamming out on his guitar! He is really good! So he offered to play for us! He has like 15 different guitars! Huge collection! He has a whole big speaker system hooked up in a room in his house and he jams out!
Saturday we helped the Sister missionaries with some service at Derrick and Sister Sanchez's home! We raked leaves! We left from there and had lunch with President and Sister Smith! Then we finished up transfers! We were working on it till about 5! But we all felt pretty good about everything! :) This transfers going to be wild! We usually have the incoming missionaries come in on Tuesday and do a welcoming devotional and then train there trainers the next morning and send them off to their new areas, then go to Crestview and do the Transfer changes. Then all the departing missionaries come back to Tally with us! We have dinner with them and they leave the following day! But... this transfer we are having the departing dinner and welcoming dinner the same day and the morning we are training the Trainers we are dropping off the Departing missionaries! So we are having some Zone Leaders do the training for us so we can drop off the Departing missionaries! Then we are going to Crestview and doing the changes! So Wednesday is going to be a wild, wild day! But a fun day! I love being busy!! Sunday we had church! It went really well! Riley our investigator doesn't really know what the Spirit feels like so last lesson we taught him about it and he felt the Spirit in the meeting! He's coming around! We had a lesson with him right after church and watched the Restoration Dvd with him! He has been reading, coming to church and is learning how to Pray! He is solid!! We had to organize all the transfer stuff so we did some stuff in the office and then got to call the Zone Leaders and tell them who in their zone needs to pack there bags and be in Crestview! Like i said its crazy organizing all of this! We had to tell everyone exactly where they need to be at what time like 2 or 3 times! But we get it worked out! :) Sometimes its like herding cats but it teaches us communication skills! love and miss y'all, all is well.
Elder Welch
Monday, we went and played basketball and dodgeball at the stake center with all the other Elders! We then had dinner with The Ladle family! They are super cool! Lauren (Senior in High school) is sorta dating this kid named Riley ( I may have already told you about him) He has been coming to church with her for like 4 or 5 weeks! We have been trying to set something up with them so we could start teaching him and we finally did. So we had dinner then a lesson! We taught him the Plan of Salvation! Went really good! We don't know how much of it he was really able to grasp! But he seemed to accept it! He has been reading from the Book of Mormon so thats a good sign! But it was a really good lesson! Hopefully he's not just doing this for Lauren! We will make sure he isn't!
Tuesday we had District meeting. It went really good! Basically he talked about how we all will go through hard times in our lives! But by showing gratitude and having a good attitude we can look at those hard times as blessings and learning experiences! This is what he had to say,
"Everyone’s situation is different, and the details of each life are unique. Nevertheless, I have learned that there is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives. There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious
We can be grateful!
That night we taught mission prep and that was fun!
Wednesday we had MLC! We had it in Crestview! So we had to drive the transfer van and haul the Tally 1 and 2 zone leaders and the Dothan zone leaders down with us, the Campus and Tally 1 sister training leaders and Dothan drove our car! We had a really good meeting! A lot of really good things discussed!
Thursday was mostly just travel!
Friday we had a good day! We started board week! We wont be able to do it much next week cause we have the 1/2 mission Christmas conferences! We get to go to both! So we started looking at everything! It seems to not be a very big transfer! We ate with the Wahlqusts for the 2nd day in a row! They are super good to us! We met with Celine and taught her a Christmas lesson! It was really good! We have done our last 2 lessons in her home so hopefully us being around will soften her parents hearts! I think we are slowly breaking down that wall between us and them! Hopefully one day it will all pay off! Celine is so solid though! She's doing great!
Saturday we worked on the Transfer Board! We had lunch with President and Sister Smith! I love spending time with them! We met with Sister Hughes and had a good lesson with her!!
We had a good fast Sunday! :) Sacrament meeting was great! We taught Riley at the Ladles after church! We taught him the Restoration! It went really good! HE IS ALREADY FINISHED WITH THE FIRST BOOK OF NEPHI!! He's cruising!! We watched the Christmas Devotional! I really enjoyed it!
Well that was our week! Like I said it will be another wild week! We will have our 1/2 mission conference here in Tally Tuesday and Thursday we will be in Pensacola for their 1/2!
Elder Welch
We had a great week!! What a humbling week and what a learning week for me! This week the Lord taught me so many lessons! I'm so thankful for each one of them! Its amazing how he works through others to teach us!! I love it!
Monday we were in the office from 7:30 am till 5:45 pm helping President Smith with things! It was wild! We were talking about the next few transfers and what our plans are and what things we feel would benefit the mission! A Lot of it was just raw ideas we were throwing out there so President said he was going to think about it and we would talk about when he got back from Destin. We were given time to make up for our lost p-day on another day of the week, but we didn't find any open time to do it! I guess thats a good problem! November flew by! Its crazy how fast time is moving, We traveled over 3000 miles this month!(get it??? time moving...3000 miles, man i crack myself up)
Tuesday we had district meeting! It went really good! We did our conference call with the whole mission, helped move the Christmas tree into the Mission Home, and then headed to Cottondale and meet up with the Dothan Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Crook back to Tally! Im so privileged to be able to go on exchanges with missionaries that are of a high caliber! Its very humbling and exciting to be able to learn from them! I love it! I learned a lot from the day that i spent with Elder Crook! He's a great missionary!
Wednesday we worked for a bit then headed back to Cottondale to exchange back! We didn't have much going on!
THANKSGIVING!!!!!
What a great day! We went and played turkey bowl with some members from our ward and the missionaries from 2nd ward and 3rd ward! It was a lot of fun! Half of us didn't have cleats so we were slipping and sliding all over the place, but worth it! We lost on a touchdown pass that the guy dropped but said he caught! Clearly he dropped it! But oh well! I guess he will have to answer to Heavenly Father for lying to a bunch of missionaries! After football, we went out to the Patton's in-laws! (By the way Ben and Kasey Patton; AKA: the coolest members in the mission are having a kid! We going to get them to name him {if its a boy} Nicholas Landon Patton! [Coolest name ever} ) There was a lot of people there! The food was great, but they keep bringing us more and more! I was going to blow!! I had people coming and checking to see if i had eaten all of my "Greens". Then we went to President Austin's house and fellowshipped the people there! Some of President and Sister Smith's kids came to visit so we went over there and taught them a Thanksgiving lesson! Super fun to be able to get to meet them! Then we went and taught Sister Hughes! Man i can even tell you how amazing her lesson was! It was so powerful! Probably the strongest lesson on my mission! We had been teaching a lesson to all the members about trials and relating trials to baking a pumpkin pie! But for some reason we taught it a different way, but Elder Sorenson and I were on the same page! We were clicking!! The spirit was amazing in that room! We said stuff that i needed to hear myself personally! It was amazing! I may have needed that lesson more then Sister Hughes did! It was amazing the spirit and the guidance we were given in that lesson! When i stood up to leave i felt the words,"Ask her if she would like a blessing!" but before I could get the words out of my mouth Elder Sorenson asked her, its nice to have companions that can hear and follow prompting. So amazing that when you and your companion are unified with each other and the Spirit how powerfully you can teach and testify!
Friday we went on exchanges with Panama City Zone Leaders!I went with Elder Truman to the PCB. We just contacted all day but one fun thing that happened was when we were out tracting we were walking down the street and some lady pulled her car over. When that happens it usually isn't a good thing so I was getting ready to go on defense mode. She rolled her window down and said "do you like key lime pie?" My first thought was, great this lady is going to throw a pie in our faces. However she just gave us a free one, nice lady!
So on Saturday we headed for Mexico Beach where we were meeting up to exchange back! Once we traded off we went back to Tally and went and taught Celine! She has been going through some trials with school and work and her parents so we were able to share some really good talks with her through out the week and we talked about them and she sorta just vented to us! You could tell she needed to just talk! So we just talked about life and how our Father in Heaven lets things happen to us so we can grow! I felt prompted to refer her to a mormon message titled "Mountains to climb" so I did and then a little after i thought that Elder Sorenson said he was going to do it Wow! Lightening strikes again, the power of being unified and both recognizing the spirit and following it! We talked a lot about the talk from Jeffery R. Holland, "Cast Not Away Therefor Thy Confidence" (Powerful talk y'all should go read if you never have) but she is staying strong and fighting back against Satan! She's amazing!
Sunday was great! Church was good! Riley (Lauren Ladles boyfriend) came again! Like his 4th or 5th time! We haven't been able to teach him but have a FHE set up tomorrow with him in the Ladles home! We are pumped! He's a great kid! Super strong faith in Christ! We actually gave Celine a blessing for what i already talked about too. She's staying strong!
Thats all for this week, know I love and miss everybody and that All is well. Oh also go watch the video on christmas.mormon.org ! Super good! About the true meaning of Christmas! Then share it! #sharethegift! We are doing it as missionaries and trying to spread the true meaning of Christmas! It's a powerful video!! You'll love it! :) Hope you enjoy!!
Elder Welch
I honestly don't even remember what happened this week, it seems like a very long blur. Last week we had a cold front come in and I think I caught a cold from that this week. One plus side to this all was that I got to take cold medicine which made me sleep like a baby...no I'm not addicted, I just like good a good night rest.
Tuesday was a fun day, we had our zone training and then after that all we did was go and doing the departing devotional stuff with President and Sister Smith. We only had 2 missionaries leaving but we still got to go to a really good restaurant..Genghis Grill. On Wednesday we sent them off on the airplane and then had a lesson with a recent convert that moved here from California. This lady is a saint, I only wish that I can be as dedicated as her one day. She has a disease and had to go to California for three weeks and she has studied so much. When she left she was just going through the Book of Mormon and was in 3 Nephi somewhere. On Wednesday she told us that she had finished the Book of Mormon and is now in the 88 section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Everyday she reads the Book of Mormon, DC, and something from the Latter day prophets. This is the same lady that had a daughter die right before she was baptized.
I went on a tradeoff with the Pensacola zone leaders this week and I love that zone, my old stomping grounds. I heard about the FSU shooting that day and I was hoping all of the campus missionaries were ok. Other than that we have been in our area trying to find more people to teach, it has been really hard the past two weeks for some reason, we have some good potentials but we really need to broaden our teaching pool. No sermon on the mount today for y'all...mostly because there are no mounts here to teach on but I just hope everyone reflects on the blessings they've received this week. Love and miss y'all, all is well!
What a busy week! I feel like Elder McPherson left about a month ago but in reality it was only 9 days ago. The major events of this week seem almost like a blur to me. We are changing the way we do our tradeoffs with the zone leaders and so this week was our trial run with that. Normally Elder Sorenson and I would have driven all the way to Mobile and do 2 tradeoffs at once, blitzing their area and then moved to Pensacola and Fort Walton after that. Now we have to meet in the middle and go back to our respective areas, boy does it give us more time to work in our area. With us making a goal to be at the missionary standard for lessons taught in a week, we have been working our hinny's off! We were well on our way to the goal we set for the week but a ton of lessons dropped, more than the usual. You could say that was discouraging, which at first it was but I think we can keep our spirits high. To try and kick start our area we have been doing this lesson with members about examples and relating it to a pumpkin...I won't go into detail about that but I promise its good! We talk about being an example to others by setting our pumpkins on the porch and not in the back room (Matthew 5:15). We then talk to them about referrals and how in all reality missionaries ask for referrals to keep it on the members minds. We understand that if members already had a referral, they wouldn't wait until we asked to give it to us..therefore. We commit them to pray as a family that night for a less active family or area we can go and contact and then we would follow up with them, we've seen great results from this!
Not too many events happened this week. President and sister Smith had their mission president seminar up in Atlanta so he was out of the mission for half of the week, it made our schedule a little busier but he's back now! There are a couple of missionaries leaving this week and so one of them have been staying with us this past week, I love trio life! I was invited to sing a duet for the stake priesthood preview yesterday and that went really well! All of our investigators are a work in progress right now, we really need to find more, please pray for us! We have been super busy all week, one thing Ive learned as I've thought about it is this. Idleness is always not talked to highly of in the scriptures and so I've always tried to stay busy on my mission; however, not having a purpose in your life is no better than being idle. You can work as hard as you want but you'll be going in circles. I love the holiday season, it never feels like it here because it is warm but the spirit of Christmas is still here. I don't know about other missionaries but I love to milk the season! All is well and I love yah!
Another crazy week in the books! Im happy, healthy, loving my mission but boy am I tired!! I feel like we have been all over the place this last week! This email is probably going to be all over the place and hard to understand so I'm just going to apologize in advance.
Last week was Family History week! We kept track of appointments set up using family history. All of the missionaries in the tally zones met up at the stake center and we played dodge ball! We split up into districts and got matched up against the other districts! My team did a black out!! We killed everyone! My team won and all of our games were super fast! It wasn't even close! The trophy was a big FSU flag and we wrote our District name on it, the dates. We get to keep it till next dodge ball tournament! We will have one every transfer and who ever wins get the flag and takes it to district meetings. Tuesday we had district meeting and after the meeting we played volleyball as a district. We then went and picked up all of the new missionaries! They always look so young and innocent! Im sure thats how i looked when i came in! That night all of the missionaries who will be training this transfer came into Tallahassee and will stay the night with missionaries here in tally! All of the new Elders stayed in the mission home and we dropped all the new Sisters off at a hotel!
Wednesday morning we got up and went and trained all the trainers how to be good trainers! I always feel a little bit awkward there because I've never really trained, Im pumped to when Im done being an assistant though. The meeting went really well! After that was all done, those missionaries loaded up and headed to their areas! As for us it was just the start of a long long day!! We loaded up our mini van, the transfer van and its trailer, and the pickup and trailer! We headed over to Crestview, Florida. We got there and everyone who was getting transferred met up and we got everyone into the chapel and started announcing where they will be serving and who they will be with! It was a lot of fun being up on the stand and getting to see everyones faces when you announce where they will be going. I got to see Elder Clayton for the first time since I left Mobile so it was a nice reunion. It was fun! Then we loaded up and headed back to Tally! We brought all of the departing missionaries back in our cars and it was fun! There was 25 missionaries going home this transfer, they were all really good missionaries!
We got a call from President the next morning and he said that we need to make some changes to the transfer already, that has to be a record or something! He had some missionaries saying that they were going to go home so we had to make some changes! Elder Sorenson and I went to work and taught a few lessons and Elder McPherson and Elder Condie ( he stayed with us, he's going home with Elder McPherson) worked with President in the office! It was a wild and stressful day!! That night we met up and President Smiths house and had the departing Devotional!
Friday we had another missionary stay with us! So we had Elder McPherson, Kray and Condie all staying with us! Friday morning we woke up, had breakfast at the mission home and loaded everyone's luggage up and headed to the airport! It was a sad day! We had to send them off! It was hard saying goodbye to Elder McPherson! A lot of weight just dropped on Elder Sorenson and my shoulders! But we got this! We then had to set up for Elder Soares coming into town so we did that for the rest of the day!
Saturday morning President Smith met the Jacksonville mission president half way to pick up Elder Soares! He had a meeting with The Stake Presidents, Bishops, and Ward Mission Leaders in our area and we were able to be present for the training because we were the tech support! We originally had planned to do the training in the chapel and about an hour before Elder Soares asked us to change it to the gym...but there was one problem. There was a baptism going on so we only got 1/3rd of the gym. we smashed 40 missionaries plus President and Sister Smith, Elder Soares and our mission president Councilors all in that little tiny area(free throw line down)! Oh and a piano, projector and screen! Elder Soares and President instructed us and it was great! I learned a lot of really powerful things! They talked a lot about goals, and desires! It was really neat! Elder Soares had Elder Sorenson and I walk with him to the car after the meeting and he challenged us to be baptizing a convert once a month and be teaching 25 Investigator/less active/recent convert lessons a week to set the example to the mission! Wow! We are teaching on average about 6-9 lessons a week! So we are going to have to step our game up! But Elder Soares had complete confidence in us! So i know we can do it! Please pray for us! He also wants up to be bringing all of the zone leaders to our area when we do exchanges! Instead of us both going to their areas! We will now meet halfway and one set will come back and work our area and one will go work theirs! This is going to make our transfers so much busier! But i think its going to be great! Im excited for this new challenge! I love and miss y'all...just a heads up because it'll come super fast..start thinking about goals for next year.
We had a good week! We had a lot of work to do with transfers!
Tuesday we had district meeting, then went up to Presidents house and did the conference call for the mission, then had lunch, we had cafe rio burritos, she's such a great cook! We had a super good talk about how they got called and the trials they have had to overcome as they have been out here! It's amazing how strong of faith they both have! I have learned so much from their examples! It's a great privilege to be able to be around them so much! We then all gathered in a room and had a projector set up on the wall! We pulled up all the missionaries in our mission and where they are right now and who they are with! Then we talk about concerns we had with certain missionaries and struggles they are having! President has some people already moved around so we look at that and tell him how we feel about the moves! Then we jump into it! We start dragging and dropping them in different areas with different companions and talk about everything! How the work is, if they are obedient, how they will get along, who is going to be zone leaders, sister training leaders, district leaders, who's going to be training! We take everything into account! Its fun, but also sorta stressful! Know this missionaries out in the field....if you are obedient you can be placed anywhere and with anyone in the mission, if you are disobedient you can't go just anywhere. Its so amazing how it works! That night we had homemade Pizza! So good! Then we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" It was really good! The church sent President a copy and we are going to be watching it at our Christmas devotional! But we got a sneak peak cause it was Elder McPherson's birthday present! All of it was so good, the last section tugged on my heart a bit but all in all it was great.
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While we were working on Transfers on Wednesday President got a call from Salt Lake informing him that Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy will be coming to our mission on the 8th! So we got that thrown on us with short notice!! But it will be great, We will be having a MLC with him! After we worked on the transfer board we broke out our bikes and rode to some members houses! I haven't rode for a long time and the road we were riding on was hilly, I was worn out! We came back showered and went over the The Pattons and had dinner and a lesson with Celine! We talked about the who, what, why and how of Patriarchal blessings!
Thursday we taught Derrick! We have been teaching him for awhile and he's making some progress, slow but steady. We then went to the Merkisons! We carved pumpkins there with their little kids! It was actually really fun! Then we taught a lesson using the pumpkin as the lesson! We related it to us and how Heavenly Father is the Master Carver! We had to let him into our lives to be cleaned out and changed! Then we need to let our light shine through our example!
Halloween was good! We all switched tags so i dressed up as Elder McPherson and Elder McPherson was Elder Sorenson and Elder Sorenson was me! Super funny! Not very many people noticed! In the morning we had some stuff at the office and got a text from a potential investigator that lives in our apartment complex and he said he wanted to meet with us and that he had a friend with him as well! So we dropped what we were doing and went and taught them out on a bench at our apartment complex! It was a really good lesson; Michael and Reed are their names! We taught about how our church was different and about the Book of Mormon and praying to know! As we were talking about the Holy Ghost and how he works, Reed said "Wow, thats exactly how i feel right now!" SO cool!! I hope we can get somewhere with these 2! They really need the Gospel! We got invited to a Halloween party but some members so we went there! It was fun! Then we had to come in so we didn't get into trouble! We set up our little portable dvd player and watched a movie!
The whole weekend was filled with transfers and logistics from that, talk about stressful! Elder McPherson leaves this week so i will be taking the lead. I need prayers!
Love and miss y'all. All is well.
Is it seriously the end of October already?! I feel like I want to start digging my heels into the ground because of how fast the time is going. Tuesday and Wednesday we had our mission leadership council in Tallahassee. Tuesday we met at the mission home and had a sports night and a fire, those that are going to be leaving this next week bore there testimonies that night as well. Wednesday was the day of the meeting and I felt it went really well, a lot of good Ideas came in from the leaders, I, excited to start doing some of them. On Wednesday night we travelled to Panama City beach and had a tradeoff with the zone leaders there. Elder Sorenson and I went with Elder Condie who will be going home next week. It's hard to do an exchange with a purpose when they won't be there for very long. That night we travelled to Dothan to have a tradeoff there and that went really well. I went with Elder Urquiaga and we talked to a lot of people, we even did service at the old persons home and I got to play some bingo, I even won a game, it was nice. Sorry for the short letter but I have a meeting with president in 5 minutes. I love and miss y'all and hope that everyone is. Safe on Friday night.
Elder Welch
What a week it has been! We have had a really busy schedule with this only being a 5 week transfer. On Tuesday we had our zone training, we learned a lot about unity and the things that we as missionaries can control, Elder Smellie and Elder Garn did a great job. We had an unexpected lockdown in the church during it too because of how bad the weather was and the conditions for tornados, it didn't last long and we are all safe. This last transfer we had a few new missionaries stay in the MTC for some extra time because of illness and after zone training we picked one of them up and he spent the next day and a half with us.
One Wednesday we only had about half of the day in Tallahassee because of having to travel to Fort Walton for tradeoffs, This week we scheduled the biggest chunk of our tradeoffs. The Fort Walton zone leaders are the only spanish set of zone leaders so it is kind of hard but we still make it work. I went with Elder Lovell and Elder Sorenson that day and we were actually in a lot of spanish lessons. I knew enough spanish and the lessons well enough to know where they were at but i didn't know the specifics of what they were saying or what the heck to say back..i just had an interpretor the whole day, it was kind of different but i really enjoyed it. We taught some dude from Peru and he was kind of bashy but Elder Lovell resolved whatever the concern was...talk about feeling useless in a lesson when your companion is getting bashed and you cant say a word haha.
The next day we travelled to Pensacola and this area was actually white washed (2 new missionaries) with the zone leaders. i went with Elder Fortin who is a brand new zone leader and has been out for 6 months, Im just going to say he has a pretty good short at taking my spot when i am no longer an assistant. He is super smart and really humble. We got to their apartment about an hour early and they werent home yet so we tried to break into their apartment, luckily they hadn't locked the window that day. We scared them so bad when the finally came in, it was super funny! The final leg of our tour of the mission was in good ole mobile! Elder Sorenson and I went up to Mobile North and I went with Elder Riddle. I was able to see a few people that i knew and spend my birthday in my old stomping grounds. It was nice to be back.
I have thought a lot about faith this past week. It is said that fear cannot reside in the same place as faith at the same time. Let's be honest with ourselves here, we're human...we are scared to do some things and that fear or anxiety will always be there. I will always be apprehensive to talk to random people or scared of heights..thats a fact. needless to say this fear without faith aspect has given me some grief. The more I have thought about it, I feel I know what is being said. In the equation of faith..if there is such a thing; I think all that really matters is if our faith exceeds our fear. If we have a sum total of faith then there is no fear that stops us doing things that we need to. The world isn't a good place. Without faith strong enough to "stay in the boat" it'll be a scary thing. I just want everyone to think of their personal equation of faith and fear. What is the difference? All is well. Love and miss y'all
We have had such a great week! With this transfer being
a week shorter we are a lot busier because we have to get everything done that
we would have in a five week transfer. This was the only full proselyting week
we had in our area so we enjoyed it while we had it. The first highlight of the
week was definitely the district meeting we had on Tuesday. Since we
now have our old district leader as our companion we got a new one.
He is one of the missionaries that came in from Sierra Leone when they shut that mission down for Ebola. I don't think I have ever
been to a better put together district meeting than that of Elder Rogers this
week. On Wednesday we had our tradeoff with the Tallahassee 1 zone leaders.
Elder Sorenson and I stayed in the area and Elder Peterson (that was in Mobile with me) came to our area. He's as solid of a missionary as ever. We even were able to find a bunch of kids playing basketball on the street and we
played some 3 on 3 with them. They even came to the church on Saturday and we
played basketball with them there too, next week when we do it we will give
them a church tour beforehand. .
On Saturday we had another tradeoff with
the Tallahassee 2 zone leader, Elder McPherson and I stayed in the area and Elder Garn (who was my district leader in mobile) came with us. As far as
investigators go we are just trying to find more. Celine is doing fantastic, she bore her testimony yesterday and is as happy as ever. Derrick has started to look up
lately so hopefully he continues to progress. I've been able to ponder a lot
this week during this time of the year for me and the only thing I wanted to
share was how I believe we all have testimonies. Those come when we feel the spirit bearing testimony of a specific
truth. Conversion comes from acting on those experiences. I hope we
can all recognize when the spirit is telling us something. Our progression is stopped if we cant. Love and miss yall. All is well.
Elder Welch
What a great week it has been! I will try and account for the
blessings we've received this week in this email as well as I can. This week was really busy for us so it
could have been easy for us to overlook many of the blessings we received. On Monday we played basketball for the last time with a few of those elders
because of transfers. All that they knew
was that they were leaving, not where they were going. On Tuesday we had a good
district meeting by our district leader, Elder Sorenson. With the rest of the
week being really busy we had to fit all of the lessons
we had planned earlier into the time we had on Tuesday. The one of significance
was Celine. Since she was getting baptized on Saturday we had to have Elder
Sorenson give her an interview...she passed with flying colors! Wednesday we
had transfers and it was a little different than it usually is. We trained all of the
missionaries that would be trainers, announced their companions, and then
headed to the middle of the mission to announce everyone else companions. We
got a new companion, his name is Elder
Sorenson. Our previous district leader! He is an awesome
missionary and we are stoked to have him with us. That night we had an
appointment with Celine's parents to discuss the decision she was making to be
baptized and explain a lot of the doctrines. They aren't getting baptized but I
feel like not only her parents are more comfortable with it but her sister has
been asking a lot more questions about points of doctrine so it was a
success.
As far as
Celine's baptism goes....it went FANTASTIC! Elder McPherson baptized her and I
confirmed her. We were anticipating about 40 people to show up which I a ton of
people in the first place, there ended up being 80 people at this baptism. It
was a strong meeting. We have a return appointment with one of her friends
because of it. General conference was as uplifting as I hoped it was going to
be. I had four specific questions going into it and I was blessed to have
direction on each one of them. I'm not going to give any spiritual thought
today, Id rather give a commitment. Set goals and live conference. A meeting
does nothing for us(even if we felt the spirit) unless we get something out of
it and set goals to improve. Love and miss y'all
All is well.
Elder Welch