Elder Landon Welch

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!

Elder Welch

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.

Elder Welch

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. !

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.

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

Elder Welch

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

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

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

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

Elder Welch

First off, I apologize if this is short, I have to go do transfers with President this week and it'll take a lot of time up so we are starting today. No promises on a letter this week either, I'll try though. Mondays seem to come faster and faster! This was a fantastic week, we have been blessed. On Tuesday we had a fantastic zone training, we have really fun zone leaders so we never know how material will be given to us but they always do a great job! I got to go on a trade-off with one of them, Elder Smellie afterwards too. Since Elder Foster left on Thursday he was also with us. It was weird seeing him going home, he birthed me into the mission and I killed him.
Wednesday we had some emergency transfers so we were traveling most of that day. We then got to go to Elder Fosters last supper as a missionary, we went to Longhorns, it was so good! Thursday we went to the airport to drop off Elder Foster. We also had to run a few errands for President, weekly planned, and then went to play tennis with a family in our ward and Celine. That was a lot of fun...and y'all thought I was good at basketball! just kidding, I wasn't that good at all.
Friday was CRAZY! We had a trade-off with the Tallahassee 1 zone leaders and I was in their area. It was crazy because their area includes FSU campus so there were tons of young people everywhere. Everybody was hyped up because of the game on Saturday, which I heard was quite a doozy! I enjoyed it for 24 hours but it would have driven me crazy if I had to be around that stuff all of the time, as a missionary at least, cool experience. Saturday was the coastal cleanup, we went out by St. George Island and cleaned up the coast with a lot of people, for about 2 hours. Since Elder Zwick came to our mission we have been trying to follow a lot of his counsel and simplify and intensify so a lot of things are changing. The rest of the day we were trying to rework the excel sheet to make it easier on everybody, it's nice!
On Sunday we got a text that morning asking us if we could teach priesthood which was fine, but during gospel principles no teacher showed up so we got volunteered to give that lesson too. I know that a principle of the gospel is to make sure that we are prepared but we got a lot of extra help on that lesson because there was no time to prepare, it was a really good lesson. In coordination we talked a lot about social media being used to share the gospel. As missionaries we don't get a lot of opportunities to do that but everyone should start, its how the Lord is hastening his work #alliswell #loveyall #sharegoodness

Elder Welch

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