Elder Landon Welch

This week is one of the two weeks that assistants look forward to and they just fly by...transfer week! So all of last week we were sitting in Presidents house actually moving around the transfer board but this week is when it all comes to life. Tuesday we had our district meeting and then went and picked up the new missionaries at the airport. There were 14 new ones and they are quite solid! We went back to the mission home and fed them, showed them who their new companion and new area is, and had a short little get to know you. Wednesday morning we go to the mission home for a breakfast and then we are down at the church by nine o'clock to start the real training. I conducted for the first time there and it wasn't too bad. Elder McPherson and I taught for a good portion of it. We did role plays, taught about the culture of the mission (discouragement), the mission theme for 2014 (missionaries of uncommon valor), and did a Q&A. We always go out to Chipotle for lunch that day and Elder McPherson and I always try and place a Book of Mormon when the new missionaries are around just so they can get a feel for it. The more and more you place them, the more comfortable and easy it is to do it. For some reason or another Elder McPherson and I were having such a hard time with it but we did it! Thursday is the actual transfer day for the rest of the mission so we are on the road by 9am on our way to each transfer spot loading and unloading these missionaries and being back in Tallahassee by 6pm, its a long time to be driving with a trailer behind each of our cars, from that day on it has been really really hot here too, the heat index has been a wet 115 degrees. Friday we shipped off the missionaries and that makes up the transfer week!

For P-day this last week we were able to go fishing. I had never had too many memories of fishing when I was a kid, I could just remember a few times doing it and I wondered why...I now know why. It was fun to relax and chill with the members and Celine (our investigator I'll talk about in a minute) but boy was it boring, its just not my thing. I caught a few fish but we didn't go at the right time of the day. Overall i enjoyed myself but the actually fishing part just doesn't connect with me. We taught Celine twice this week but I just want to talk about the first lesson. We met Celine through a member and it seems like every single time we go over there to teach there is someone new, it is fantastic! Celine and Jennifer were the ones over there this day and we had planned on teaching the plan of salvation. As we taught it was going pretty well but nothing spectacular, until the end. We asked if there was any questions and then Jennifer just started bawling. I guess she had taken lessons before and had prayed about it but never had received an answer until then. We committed them both to a baptismal date and are still working with them, opposition comes when frequent visits don't happen! Elder McPherson and I both thought it was one of the most powerful lessons we have ever been a part of. We will be going over to teach Celine again, hopefully Jennifer is there!

Shout out to my ma! Happy birthday, i hope it all goes well. I'll be there for the next one. All is well! Love and miss y'all!

Elder Welch

This has been a fantastic week! Our p-day last week wasn't even much of a p-day and we actually got approved to have another one because we were busy doing administrative stuff the whole day so you'll be getting hints of p-day activities throughout the week. Tuesday was a lot of our preparation day but the highlight of that day was definitely the lesson that we had that night. I don't remember how much i have talked about her before but we had a lesson with Celine. She was a member referral we had dinner with a few weeks ago and we finally got to teach her. All we did this time was set up expectations and do how to begin teaching and it was a really good one, Elder McPherson and I both have a feeling that it will just be a matter of time before she just blooms.

Wednesday there was no time for any proselyting. We got up early in the morning to go to mission leadership council over in Fort Walton. Many things were discussed there, i was able to take minutes for the meeting on the IPad and boy have i gotten good at typing on that thing, its so had on a touch screen. We travelled back and had chipotle for dinner(i miss good mexican food, that's the best we have here). We knew that it was going to be a long day that day because we got up early for MLC and then we had to make sure we stayed up late because there were going to be two new missionaries coming in from Sierra Leone at 10:20. As we were waiting we saw people come off the plane, then the stewards came off the plane and then the pilots came off the plane. We then realized that our missionaries had missed the flight and were somewhere in either Madrid or Miami, we found out they missed their flight in Miami. The next morning we were able to pick them up. One of them has been out for 10 months and the other 4.5 months and they had the coolest accents. We were able to spend time acclimating them and helping them shop for stuff over the next few days. That experience was definitely the highlight of my week, they are solid elders and the experiences they had gave me motivation. It was a great week! We have a good week set up and will be doing the transfer board this week so another busy couple of weeks are ahead! love and miss y'all! all is well

Elder Welch

This week has flown and from this point until the end of next transfer will fly too. Coming up with have transfers, Elder Zwick visiting, zone conferences, tradeoffs, and anything else that pops up. Its a time everyone is looking forward to, a fun few weeks. On Tuesday of this week we started our tradeoffs and I was able to take over the area, Elder Hintze came with me. Elder Hintze is one of the coolest elders I know, he came out with me and was my zone leader in the MTC. We went to Marvin Goldstein's (yes the famous pianist) and helped him with some things he needed moved around in his basement. Once we were done he sat down and played a few songs for us, he gave us free CD's and a folder that was signed. Some how word got out that I sang and he asked me to sing Joseph Smith's first prayer as he played. It was awesome! He told me to schedule a time to do that in church so that'll be coming up shortly. A funny thing about all of that is as I was singing his wife (who is a little out there) came up to me and started fixing my posture and all that good stuff, reminded me of the good ole days. I really enjoyed doing that though because he just was making it up and it was sweet!

Thursday came around and we had a really really busy day. I had to go to the doctor and I'm not going to give any specifics of names or what was wrong but what he told me to do was to meditate over what was wrong with me(yes it was physical, not mental) and then it would go away, most awkward doctors appointment ever, very entertaining though! We had interviews with President which are always great, a little different now that I'm always around him and we know a lot more about each other but it was still nice to get some one on one time with him. Right after that we were headed off to Mobile, my old stomping grounds! I had a tradeoff with Elder Wright and Elder Truman. It was so nice to be back. I got to go red cross and see my boy Patrick, such a nice surprise. We went to Navarre(the same place i saw a bear with Elder Judy at the beginning of my mission). We moved someone and went and saw a lot of less active members. All in all we had a fantastic week. Yesterday we had 2 potential Investigators from members. The only reason they aren't investigators yet is because we haven't taught them a lesson yet, they will be come tomorrow.

Nothing big to share. I know the church is true, its the way to happiness and eternal life!

All is well. Love and miss y'all

Elder Welch

What a great week it was! It seems like so much has happened since I have written y'all! Monday you heard about all the fun that we had and Tuesday was no less fun than Monday was. We were able to go to district meeting where Elder Browne (my district leader), one of the Elders from Mobile taught us and basically set up expectations. We then went on a "road trip." We recently have just gotten a van for our new mission car and so we were able to go pick up all of the missionaries that were going home early in there. We were able to go clear over to Destin, Florida, it was a lot of fun. One of the Elders going home was one of the ones in my district when I first came out, the only thing weirder than seeing that was seeing Elder Musgrave get on the plane Wednesday morning. I don't really know why but goodbyes and me have never really mixed but I was just fine.

We had lessons with two of our investigators this week. Joe, who has had problems with drinking in the past was sober for both of our lessons this week. I was only there for one of our lessons but we taught him the plan of salvation in two different parts focusing on how he needs to do the work not only for himself but also for his ancestors. I feel like it recommitted him from what I heard from Elder McPherson.

We basically lost another day of proselyting because we had to go do an interview over in Bonifay Florida. I was the initial one to give the interview but Elder McPherson had to go in after me to talk to her, weirdest interview or conversation i have ever had on my mission, good stories though. Our other lesson was with Derrick. He is one of them that doesn't meet with us all for the gospel aspects of it, his girlfriend is a member and that is where most of his motivation is coming from, we had a bit of a come to Jesus lesson with him and we feel it went really really well. I did have one tradeoff with My zone leaders and all we did all day was move them out of an apartment and help one of their members move, i was so exhausted by the end of the day! really fun tradeoff though.

Nothing really mind blowing this week other than you need to study the scriptures! You wont progress a single bit without it. Love and miss y'all! all is well!

Elder Welch

This week we actually got to do a lot of missionary work! That's nice when we are this busy. We have another good week of proselyting this next week but the sad part about it is that week will be a man down, Elder Musgrave is leaving on Wednesday. I sent some pictures that showed what we did last Monday. We went to Wakula springs and a boat tour...yes it was approved you missionaries who are now raising an eyebrow about me getting on a boat. There were a bunch of manatees, alligators, and turtles, the river was no deeper than 2-3 feet until you got to the deep springs. I really really enjoyed that.

Tuesday was zone conference and oddly enough, they do things a lot differently here in Tallahassee than they do in Mobile even though it is the same mission, good meeting though. A few highlights of the week. The first one was the lesson with Joe Suber. They have been teaching him long before I got here and he had been doing really really well in that time. He has had some issues with the Word of wisdom and the only times I've seen him is when he is under influence of those things. However, we had a lesson with him on Friday and we had planned to just got in there and read a chapter with him to set up for the next visit but topics were brought up that made us not even read and we just went crazy. Now I cannot tell you exactly what happened in there because #1 it was not my experience, it was my companions(Elder Musgrave) and #2 it is too sacred to share. Topics went to the spirit world and family history and all I will say is that he became more coherent for the end of the lesson and his whole attitude changed. The spirit was so strong in there! Wednesday's lesson with be amazing with him, we will be teaching him the plan of salvation. Finally, I don't know if you remember but I was having a hard time my last couple of weeks in mobile because of member involvement. The elders here have been doing service lessons here that are amazing so I have had a ton of opportunities to serve here. We teach Mosiah 2:17 and commit them to find something for us to do this week for a service opportunity, the bonds grow so much stronger between the members and missionaries, I love it!

Things we learn as missionaries and just people here on earth is that life at times can be hard. I have had some great studies that explain why. The Lord chastens us to try our faith and patience. We have to have faith and be ok with it at times. The Lord only chastens those He loves and if we endure the chastening that is only when we can be counted worthy(he's proud) as his Sons and daughters. Additional study that makes this make more sense.

Mosiah 23:21-22

Hebrews 12:6-7

Proverbs 3:12-13

All is well. Love and miss yall

Elder Welch

What a fun week it was! Tuesday we had a great district meeting and then had to prepare for the new missionaries coming in. This transfer was a little weird for everybody. It was weird for me because this was the transfer that I came into the mission field a year ago but now I was picking them up. It was weird for everyone else because with it being all of the new missionaries coming in after school is done so it was a pretty large transfer, I believe there was 15 that came in. That night we had a dinner at the mission home and a small orientation. The next day we had to get up at 6am to go and pick the sisters up at the hotel. All that day we did training with them, it was really cool to be able to help the new missionaries. Going back to Tuesday night; we gave the missionaries their trainers names and their new addresses for the next couple of weeks so they could let their parents know. There was one specific Elder that was having a super hard time on the phone with his parents. I remember specifically how hard it was for me to be away from home at the beginning of my mission I was able to help him, he should be doing fine now, he looked fine, it was just the call that killed him.

Thursday was the actual transfer date for the whole mission. President Smith does nothing with transfers other than the actual placing of the missionaries, all of the logistics are done by the assistants. We hooked up a 12 passenger van and a truck to a trailer and set off. With there being 3 assistants driving wasn't that bad because we had to drive from 9am to 6pm. There was a stretch when I was driving the van and the trailer that it was just down pouring for about 10 minutes, it was super scary but i did it, of course it would be the stretch that I was driving the most difficult vehicle! Once we got back that evening we had a dinner with all of the departing missionaries and had a departing testimony meeting. That was amazing but one of the saddest meetings i have been in on my entire mission. President Smith through down a mean sermon about home life, it was really nice to hear. The rest of the weekend we had some proselyting and good contacts but nothing too big yet, really really good potentials though. We have one investigator who had a baptismal date but he has had a problem with drinking, he was sober for a month and fell back into it this week so we are praying and focusing on him.

What hit me hard this week points directly to those of you who have served missions but can be applied to anyone. You had amazing faith to go on a mission and you learned and grew a lot because of that experience. You have now grown up and learned a lot more but i see a reoccurrence in a lot of returned missionaries that is sad. They may not go less active but they are "less active" than they really should be in the church. Be active! Work how you wanted members to work when you were on a mission. Just because you took a physical badge off doesn't mean you took the spiritual one off (baptism). You had the faith to enlist in the mission field. Make a choice now. Do you think you have the faith to reenlist as a representative? love and miss y'all. All is well!

Elder Welch

Boy oh boy what a week it has been! Monday after I was done emailing shaped all of it so I will start there. Since y'all heard about my wonderful accident two weeks ago with tearing a ligament in my foot we had arranged to get myself a boot last Monday. With how crazy it was with arranging that I was in contact with the mission office a lot that day so when President Smith's name popped up on my phone it didn't shock me all that much, I just figured it was about my foot. As I answered the phone he did exactly that, asked me about my foot, how I was doing, and if I was going to be coming to the mission leadership council that Wednesday. It is only my toe so I told him of course I would be coming to the council. Then he hit me with it....he said "will you have your bags packed for me when you come on Wednesday?" I was somewhat confused until he told me he was calling me to be the new assistant to the president and that he wanted me there to help him with figuring out transfers. The big thing was that he told me I couldn't tell anyone because transfers were for another week or so. I thought that the people in Mobile would catch on super quickly with all of the hints that were thrown out but I guess the Lord didn't want them knowing either. Once i actually left word went around pretty quickly.

I absolutely love my new companions; Elder McPherson and Elder Musgrave. They are some of the funniest people I have ever met. It will be sad when Elder Musgrave goes home in two weeks. We have only done 1 hour of proselyting since Wednesday because of all of the administrative work that was going on. I am thankful for the call, I am thankful for my companions, I love being around them, I love being around "the keys"(president) so much and to see how he works...brilliant man! Know that all situations we are put in are for us, our learning, our understanding, and people that we will need to help in the future. Learn everything now! love and miss y'all.

All is well. If you need my address...talk to my ma!

Elder Welch

Monday seems like it was so long ago thinking about the things that I want to write about. First off I wanted to talk about something that effected the rest of my week. On Monday we as a mobile ward group of missionaries always play basketball. We had been playing for about an hour and were about to start another game. Right before we started I was just shooting around and decided to shoot it from the other side of the gym. I missed. As it was bouncing back to me and with it being the world cup i thought that I should try being a little bit of soccer star. I threw my left foot up to kick with with the outside of that foot(just like I would if I was walking right next to someone and could kick them in the butt). I kicked the ball but it didn't go anywhere, it just stayed in that crevice of my foot. As I fell I tried to catch myself with my right foot but couldn't get my foot planted firmly on the ground(just the inside of my foot was). I heard a loud pop and then it didn't feel all that good right after that. My first thought was that I had just dislocated my big toe. I felt my foot as saw that everything was in line so I took my shoe off and it was already bruising and blowing up like balloon. For those of you that know me, I don't really bruise all that well. The worst of all of that bruising came Tuesday night and it was just really stiff and had a gnarly bruise on it the rest of the week. Once I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday and they X-rayed it they told me that i had torn a ligament. Fun stuff huh! It doesn't hurt all that much anymore, just annoying to walk and hurts my knees to walk all weird. I just need to count my blessings because I really should have dislocated my knee!

We had 3 tradeoffs this week. The first of all of them was our tradeoff with Elder McPherson, one of the assistants. I love that kid, he is super cool and such a good missionary. We were able to meet with the high counselor over missionary work with him there and we taught a really good lesson. I had another one with the Elder Pearson who serves in Atmore. That guy that talked to dad a few months ago in church saying that someone he knew was in the same mission as I was, the missionary he was talking about is Elder Pearson. He is from Panaca. Another cool thing that we found out that we were given our patriarchal blessings the exact same day as each other back in February of 2009. Who would have thought of that huh?! All in all this was a lot better week for us , I'm really pleased with how all of it turned out. Darius is still on our radar but we had to drop his baptismal date for now, he just hasn't seen the gospel as much of a priority right now, he'll come around!

My mission has been so good for me. It has been weird to be in the beginning of my second year in the mission thinking back to how far i have come from a year ago. I have a firm testimony now that people do not change, the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people. We have had our personalities since before we came to the earth and those will never leave us. I am the same "Landon" that left a year ago personality wise but my goals, values, and attributes have become more firm. I have been changed, conversion is a real thing. If you want to change for the better you can not doing it without it lasting unless it is done through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Love and miss y'all

All is well

Elder Welch

This week we got a lot accomplished but it felt like it took a lot longer than any other. On Monday last week we headed on up to Atmore Alabama for their district meeting on Tuesday morning. I love being able to be put into a position that I get to be really close to so many missionaries, it is half the fun of being a missionary when you get to be around such a strong friend group. After an awesome meeting that morning I got to go on a tradeoff with Elder Peterson from Colorado here in Mobile. We had a lot of dropped appointment this week but the contacting time we had was pretty good. The highlight of that tradeoff was definitely going to Chipotle for dinner, it's one of the only good Mexican restaurants in the south (Mobile has awesome restaurants). The investigators we have right now are still working on the problems they were last week. We got a headquarter referral last Saturday that I talked about in last weeks email, their names were Lisa and Israel Felix, from South Africa. On Wednesday we followed up with them and they have been doing so awesome! Israel was on mormon.org, reading the BOM, and just researching all he can. He was already pretty spiritual in the beginning so it wasn't very hard to fix that. Darius is experiencing some opposition but we are trying to help him through it. Thursday is probably where most of the frustration started. We set an appointment for our Chevy Cruze to go into a dealership 2 weeks ago just to get examined because of a recall that was sent out. Nothing ended up being wrong with the car but it took them 6 hours to figure that out. Luckily we did our weekly planning there so we stayed pretty effective the whole time waiting.

As for the spiritual thought this week I wanted to talk about analyzing ourselves. I want everyone to think of all of the covenants they have made with God and every single thing you promised that goes in line with that and become better. In all covenants we make we promise to do missionary work in some way shape or form. Missionary work will only move as fast as the members do. All is well, love and miss y'all.

Elder welch

I'm sad and grateful all at the same time to say that I have hit my year mark. Sad because half of my mission is gone and boy did it go fast! Grateful because of all that I have been able to experience in this year, it has been amazing! Ill explain more of how that day went down a little later in the email. This week was the last week of the super stressful transfer but boy was it fun the past three weeks! We started our week off by having our zone training! Elder Wright and I had so much to cover and not enough time...even though the meeting is 3 hours long! President and Sister Aukema of the mission presidency came to speak to us and they did a great job talking on unity. Over all it was a good meeting with a lot of insight from all of the Elders in the zone. We had a tradeoff scheduled that day to go to the clear top of our zone with the Toxey Elders. i have been in branches before but i have never seen so many small towns in my life! They literally just have like 10 towns with like 1,000 people or less in them. I praise those elders with all of the work they do with so little people. While we were up there we did some service for this couple(mowing a lawn)...I will reference that later in the letter. I also found out that the guy who came up with the energizer bunny commercials and the happy cows commercials is from that little town of all places too. The things you find out when you are in the south...it's amazing!

Thursday was my companion's and my year mark. First of all I don't feel any older, second of all it was just an ordinary proselyting day that we had. That evening however is when the party began! We are allowed to have an hour for dinner so at 8 o'clock we went home and invited the other elders in our complex to come eat with us(it was the missionary's 6 month mark that week too). A tradition in missionary life to burn a tie at 6 months, a shirt at a year, pants at 18, and a suit at 2 years. I had a shirt with a stain on it so i couldnt have thought of a better way to get rid of it! Look at the pictures I sent to see how all of that went down, it was really fun.

We traded off with mobile south that same night and Elder Truman from St. George came with me in north, he's a stud, I can definitely see him as a zone leader in the future. So kind of a tangent but it is needed to tell the next story correctly..It's been blazing hot down here and it has also been humid so mosquitoes have been munching me all up! When I woke up that next morning my leg itched and i thought it was a mosquito bite so i itched it but i felt what i thought was a scab hanging halfway off. As i looked closer I realized that I had a stinkin tick. I was so annoyed with it but I think it was from that service i talked about up in Toxey. I was working on that thing from 6:30 to 8! Its all good now though.

On Saturday for some reason was just not my day, i honestly don't remember anything but 1 big thing happening that day that just didn't sit well with me. We had to drop Rock because he has just lost too much steam from him not being able to be baptized. I was so upset, that was the last thing that i wanted to do here in mobile, he was progressing so well! Don't let discouraging things kill you forever!

All in all it was a great week with a lot of fun things that happened. I am grateful beyond belief for all that has happened in this short year and cannot wait for the next to come. All is well and I'm lovin every second of it!

Elder Welch

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