The Final Email and P-Day

Hey All!!

Well, 105 weekly emails later the time has finally come for me to send my last one home before I return from my mission.

It's crazy that I am actually at the point of coming home. When I first stepped into the MTC it felt like eternity away. When I entered the mission field August 2017 people would ask when I went home and I would reply "August 2019" and their reaction would say it all, which was the fact that I had a looooong time until I returned home. Haha

But now here I am 2 whole years later, and I can truly say that it has been the fastest 2 years of my life. Some days and weeks were slow, but as I look back on it now it all feels like it was a dream. Time seriously slipped away.

These last 2 years have been the greatest years of my life. As I have looked back and reflected on my mission these last few weeks I have been able to see how much I gave truly learned while serving. I am not returning home with the same testimony that I walked into those Provo MTC doors with. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity Christ has given me to serve Him. These years have been the greatest, most refining, most challenging, most joyful, and most fulfilling years of my life. There isn't anything in this world that I would trade these experiences for that I have received from The Savior and His guidance.

My mission has been a little bit of everything! I started in Western Maryland, moved to West Virginia, then to the corn fields of Pennsylvania, and then down to the hills of Virginia! And finally after 18 months of serving I was sent to BALTIMORE! So many different areas and experiences. I have loved it all so much.

After many struggles and many hardships that always follow serving a mission, Christ taught me something that I will never forget. One of the greatest lesson I have learned these last 2 years came to me not when life was smooth sailing and easy going, but when I was going through some of the hardest times of my life.

I learned that it is in our struggles, pains, and sorrows that we truly come to understand that Jesus Christ suffered every pain, sickness, and sorrow that we have ever experienced in our lives.

I have come to know Jesus Christ personally through the struggles, pains, and sorrows that I have experienced in my life. It was in these moments that I realized that my Savior was standing by me the entire time.

Serving a mission was the best decision I have ever made. It has changed my heart and truly shown me that living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to true happiness in this life and the life to come. The mission is not what has changed me, it is Jesus Christ who has changed me and I Love Him for it.

I love with my whole heart the people and Members of The Maryland Baltimore Mission. They gave blessed my life in more ways than I can count. I am so grateful for every individual that has changed my life and come across my path in these two years. I love these people and I'll never forget them!

I will forever be grateful for the time I have been given to wear the Saviors name on my heart for 2 years. It will be sad to take off my name tag. There is going to be so many emotions rolling through my head. But I will always be grateful for Christ and the name tag I was able to wear for 2 years while serving Him.

Thank you for the love and support I have received these last 2 years from you all! I cannot tell you how many times I felt the sustaining power of your prayers. I love you and I cannot wait to see you all in just 3 days! Get the airport party ready causeeee Elder Welling is Soooo freaking excited to come down the escalator! ;) I love you and I'll see you all pretty dang soon. Buckle up. ;)

Love, Elder Welling!

Milk Expiration

Hey All!!

So.. The milk that I bought today expires AFTER I go home.. This is crazy stuff. Haha so I guess any milk that I have left over will be Elder Brooksby's when I go home. Haha

As my mission comes to a quick end, I've been having millions and millions of thoughts shooting through my head all day every day. And I'm not quite sure how to put it all into words. There are so many mixed emotions and it's all just coming so fast. But I am excited to see you all and be back home!

We have a lady we are teaching named Sharon and she is sooo elect. Haha we sat down with her in the commons area of her apartment building and we started talking to her about The Restoration. And after we started talking about Joseph Smith, she stopped us in the middle of the lesson and said: "This is amazing. Yall didn't know this, but I've been on a search. I've been searching for the true Church." We were like.. HEY!! Here it is! Haha stop the search! Haha she is super sweet and she is going to be coming to Church with us this week!

I've loved my time with Elder Brooksby and we have been doing so good together. The ward here is sweet and they support us like noooo other!!! They are so sweet.

Well next week will be my last email home to everyone. It's so crazy! Only 10 days from now I will be with you all again. Haha hopefully you are all ready causeeee I'm coming whether you are or not ;) I hope you have a great week! I love and miss ya!

Love, Elder Welling! 

My Departing Interview

Hey All!!

When I first started emailing on my mission it felt like I was never going to get to this point. I never thought I would be at the point where I could say I only have two more of these emails to send home. Haha but here we are with only 2 weeks until I am home. CRAZY.

I'm looking forward to the next 2 weeks and everything that will come with it. It has been a little stressful trying to send everything home though... I have accumulated lots and lots of stuff over the last 2 years, and trying to get it all home is going be interesting. Haha so pray for me. Hahaha

This week has been another good one in Maryland. My area is called Savage Mill and it's an out skirt town and area of Columbia Maryland which is where our mission Head Quarters are located. So we are super close to everything! This area is actually super close to the Baltimore Airport.. So while I'm walking around day after day trying to finish strong I see about 15 Airplanes a day flying in and out of the BWI Airport.. It's awful. Haha especially when you only have 2 weeks left until it will be you flying out of that same airport!

My departing interview was this last week with President Mutombo. He gave me soooooooo much advice!! Holy cow. I was trying to write everything he was saying to me so fast but I couldn't keep up with all the good advice and spiritual direction he was spouting off! Haha I think I filled up 5 pages of my journal just with things he gave me for my future. President Mutumbo is an inspired man. The advice and spiritual direction that he gave me as I leave this transfer will stick with me the rest of my life, and I will always remember the things he said. It made me excited to go home and continue to grow and progress just as I have while serving as a missionary. I'm definitely going to miss President Mutombo! I can't even begin to explain how big of an impact he has had on my life. I know without a doubt that he was called by God and brought all the way over to The Maryland Baltimore Mission from Africa to bless hundreds and hundreds of American missionaries. He has definitely blessed mine forever.

This last Tuesday I was sitting in the Columbia MD stake Center, and to my surprise my long lost companion Elder Kolton Munden comes walking through the door! I hadn't seen him since January 2019, and now 8 months after I got to see him one last time before I head home. We had a good time catching up. And I'm looking forward to all the good times we will have when we are both back home in the west. Haha

The ward here in Savage Mill is pretty dang sweet. They are super supportive of everything we do, and they feed us a TON. Haha I have had a dinner every single night in this area with a member. It's been crazy. But I love it. Haha you get to know the members so much more when you are in their homes eating dinner with them!

Well, only 2 weeks left and I'm home. I love and miss you, and I can't explain how excited I am to see you again! Haha it's been a long wait, but it's worth it. I love you!

Love, Elder Welling

My Final Fast and Testimony

Hey All!!

This week has been a wild one. Not because of the city if Baltimore or crazy bus people either.

Here are the reasons this week was crazy! This week I had my last and final zone conference on the mission. Which was super super weird. I gave my departing testimony along with all the other missionaries in our zone that are going home with me this transfer! For 17 transfers I watched all the missionaries I knew go one by one giving their departing missionaries, and then here I am 2 years later giving mine. Crazy.  Yesterday I also gave my last Testimony at my last fast Sunday, before I come home.

This week I received a phone call at 5:15am in the morning from the Assistants to the President in our mission. And when you receive a phone call from the assistants randomly in the middle of the transfer it is never ever good. Especially because we are in a trio.. Which means if some missionary in the mission goes home, they pull from the trio's in the mission and fill in the missing places.. So anyways I get this phone call from the assistants and they ask how the trio companionship was going?? I answered and told them I loved it! They then told me to not get used to it because I am being emergency transferred to a place called Savage Mill Maryland because an elder went home early.. So I had a day to pack my bags and just like that I was out of inner city Baltimore and put into a place called Savage Mill.. It was super shocking and very unexpected. I am not going to lie.. I was not happy at all that I was getting taken out of Baltimore with only 4 weeks left. I was pretty mad. Haha but I decided to humble myself and trust that God knows what He is doing. ;) I was super super sad to be leaving the trio and I'm going to miss Elder Shepherd and Griffin. But I'm here in Savage Mill now and I'm going to finish these next 3 weeks strong.

My new companion is named Elder Garrison Brooksby. He is from Bentonville Arkansas and he has only been out 6 months! He is a pretty quiet guy and doesn't talk much. But he is slowly opening up and having some fun. Haha he is awesome.

Well I'm entering the last 20 days of my mission.. I can't believe how fast time has gone. Here pretty soon my mission will be just a memory instead of a reality. I'm definitely going to miss wearing a name tag every day. But I am also looking forward to wearing something else other than a tie every day. Haha

I have my departing interview with my President Mutombo this week and that's I going to be crazy. Haha I'm going to be asking that man for advice on every aspect of my life. And I'm going to write it all down. It's going to be great! Haha

Anyways I will have more details on the area and all that next week. I haven't seen too much yet. I have only been here a few days now. Thanks for everything you do. I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling!

The Baltimore Leaners

Hey All!

No worries, I am still alive and well here in the City. Haha I'm loving it here and I am definitely having a good time ;)

This week has been another good one here on the West side of Baltimore! The city life just makes time feel so much faster. I love it here! You always see something new, and you are always being surprised by the things you see on the streets. Haha it's great.

This area is super sweet because it's the first area I've had on my mission where I can actually use ASL! This week we had 3 lessons with 3 deaf people and it was so cool! In church we are also asked to translate and interpret for the deaf members in sacrament and Sunday school! So I will be getting lots and lots of practice with ASL this transfer! Elder Shepherd is also an ASL elder so we get to do language study every day, and we are also teaching Elder Griffin ASL. We are hoping that President will assign him to be ASL after this transfer, because here pretty soon the 6 ASL elders in our mission will all be home! So we will be needing some new ones!

With this being my last transfer I have been thinking a lot about everything that has happened on my mission. The trials, the life lessons, the miracles, the experiences, and the accomplishments. There really are so many things that The Lord Blesses you with as you serve Him. He gives you these life lessons and experiences so that we can appreciate what He has done for us, and become more like Him.

There are so many miracles that happen daily and each one is orchestrated so perfectly that it is impossible to deny the intervention of Divinity. God is in every detail of our lives and He knows each one of us perfectly. One of the greatest miracles of my mission has been the opportunity to watch as God directs these happenings and miracles. God promises that if we follow His Spirit it "will show unto [us] all things what [we] should do." All we have to do is say and follow the thoughts He will put into our hearts, (Even if it sounds crazy at the time.. Haha) and miracles will happen every time. Large and small. God will use you as an instrument in His hands to be an answer to someone else's prayer. There is no greater feeling than knowing that God used you to be His miracle in that moment.

So something I don't think I have mentioned in any of my emails is The Baltimore Leaners! I first experienced this when on a bus. A Baltimore Leaner is a person that is so high on drugs that they are completely out of it, but they somehow stay standing. The kicker though is that while they are standing, their entire upper half of their body is bent completely over towards the ground. Almost as if they are bending over to pick something up. Some learners fall eventually. But for the most part they stay standing up and it amazes me.. Haha I have no idea how they stay standing up and not fall all bent over like that.. But they do it! Haha that's why they are called Baltimore Leaners!

Throughout my entire my entire life I grew up a Pittsburgh Steelers fan thanks to my dad. Haha when I received my mission call to Baltimore one of my first thoughts was the fact that The Baltimore Ravens are rivals to the Pittsburgh Steelers! The two teams hate each other. Well this past week we were walking around the streets of Baltimore talking to people about Jesus Christ. We see this guy on the street and we were trying to teach him about the gospel. While doing so I told him that I liked his Baltimore Ravens Jersey.. But then afterwards I made the mistake of saying: "I am actually a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.." and this guy seriously stopped talking to us on spot and walked away.. Haha mid conversation he just walks away without another word. I've learned to not open my mouth about The Steelers right in the middle of Baltimore. Haha

Anyways I am loving my time here and I love my mission. The people and members are great and I love them! Thanks for the email and the updates. I can't wait to see you all in 4 weeks! I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling 

The West Side of Baltimore

Hey All!! 

I have officially started my last and final transfer and it has been a wild ride so far.

I am so grateful for every transfer on my mission. All of my companions and all of my areas have blessed my life in ways that I never knew they could. I'm going to miss the relationships that I have had with all of the missionaries and members here on the East Coast! 

On Wednesday morning a member of The Chesapeake Ward came and picked us up and drove us all the way to Columbia Maryland to the Stake Center there. When we got there all of the missionaries that I have served with for 2 years were all getting ready to go home that next day! So we said good bye to all of them and that was pretty sad. Elder Jex, Elder Coombs, Elder Zuniga, Elder Winn, Elder Brown, Elder Howell and lots of other ones. Haha there group had 30 missionaries go home!

After we talked to the departing missionaries for a little bit, Elder Shepherd and I went into the meeting where the Trainers and all the new missionaries were. All the trainers sat on one side of the room and all of the new missionaries sat on the other side of the room. President Mutombo called each missionary up one at a time and then announced who their trainers were going to be. President Mutombo called up Elder Shepherd and I and told everyone that we would be training in Inner Harbor Baltimore! President Mutombo then announced that we would be training a kid named Elder Nathanael Griffin from Colorado Springs! He is super tall, and he is quiet and reserved. Haha but he is awesome. I feel bad for him sometimes because only a week ago he was chilling in the nice Provo MTC where everything is nice and clean looking.. And then only a week later he is thrown into downtown Baltimore City for his first area.. Where the constant smell of weed makes him sick, and the ghetto gang talk scares him. Haha we keep telling him to not look down and act scared and shy or these guys will stab him.. Haha we tell him to look up and act confident like he knows what he is doing. He is getting used to the city.. But you can just tell that going from Provo UT to Inner city Baltimore has him a little freaked out. Haha

When you first come on a mission you get a trainer. And missionaries call their trainers their "Mission Dad" so of course Elder Shepherd and I joke around all the time that our new little trainee has 2 dads.. Haha training a new missionary in a trio is actually aloooooot more fun than I thought it would be! We have been having a good time and these last weeks of being a missionary are going to FLY.

Elder Shepherd is from Idaho Falls and he goes home with me in 5 weeks, so we are both trying to not get superrrrr trunky because if we get super trunky, then we would wreck our brand new trainee.. Especially because he has 24 months left to go! Haha so pray for this kid.. He is going to be watching us pack up to go home, he will watch us do my plan, he will watch us get our departing interviews with President Mutombo, and he will watch us both get on an airplane and head home here soon. Haha

The West side of Baltimore is CRAZY. Holy cow. I didn't think it got crazier than what I saw on the East side.. But the west side is insane. We get to ride the Metro and the light rail all throughout the city and that is actually pretty fun. The Metro goes underneath the city and I've never been able to ride anything like that, so I have enjoyed all of this new stuff! Even the advanced ghetto stuff that I am now seeing! ;) haha the West side of Baltimore is definitely a lot more wild than the east side. 

On Elder Griffins first day as a missionary, we got on the metro at 6:30pm and headed into downtown Baltimore to a Bible study. When we got on the metro the sky was mostly clear with some clouds. An hour later when we got off, we got up to the ground level again and it was DUMPING rain. Like this rain was harder than any other rain I've ever seen out here on the east coast and I've seen it rain a TON out here. Haha we all look at each other and no one has an umbrella.. So since our church building was pretty close we would ran there and got inside. So we booked it to the church and we got SOAKED. Like when I stepped into the church building it looked like I had just climbed out of a pool and was dripping wet everywhere. Haha so yes, on Elder Griffins first day in the mission field, he got drenched by the Baltimore rains and he was cold and wet for the rest of the night.. He will never ever forget his first day as a missionary now! Haha

We also have this sweet senior couple in our ward here in the Inner harbor named the Stubblefields! They feed us every Sunday evening and they help this ward out a ton! I was super excited to come here because I have never really served around a senior couple on my mission, so this transfer will be sweet! 

My week has been so good, and I am so excited for everything that will be happening these next 5 weeks! Thank you for everything and for the love and support. I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling!

Last and Final Transfer

Hey All!!

Another week has come and gone.. Time is a weird thing sometimes. Haha it's seriously going so fast.

My prayers have been answered and my mother's nightmares have come true.. Haha my entire mission I served in rural areas and as people say "the BOONIES".. In 18 months I served in the Maryland Baltimore Mission, but never touched Baltimore!! My prayers were answered 5 months ago when I was sent to Chesapeake area which sits right on the Chesapeake Bay and covers the entire east side of the city.. Then in the recent weeks I knew I would be getting transferred and I was super sad that I would be leaving the city of Baltimore. My mom and dad were probably pretty excited that I was getting transferred because of how sketch the city life is.. Butttttt this week I found out that I am being transferred out of The Chesapeake area (Which I'm super sad about. I love the people and members here a ton.) and I am being transferred to The Baltimore Inner Harbor Area!! Which covers the entire West Side of the city!!! Hahaha I'm staying in the same stake, just opposite side of the city. I thought that was pretty funny. And on top of that I am going to be training a Brand New missionary in a trio!! So Elder Shepard (who came out with me) will also be training this new missionary with me in the Inner harbor area! So I will be in a trio for my last 6 weeks of being a missionary as well! Crazy stuff.. Haha it's going be a wild ride. I am super excited to be training a brand new missionary again though! It's so much fun and I can't think of a better way to end my mission.

We have had some serious miracles this week here in the Bay!! We have met with our friend Herman a few times this week and his progress is amazing. He called us before Sunday and told us that he knows that this is the right church for him because every time we come we bring a different kind of feeling with us and he notices that the feeling comes and goes when we come and go in and out of his house. He said that he feels this is right! So we invited him to be baptized on August 3, 2019 and he without hesitation said: "Yes!" I am Soooo excited for him! He then came to church yesterday and we over heard him talking to a member, and the member asked him who he was, Herman said: "My name is Herman and I am preparing to become a member of the church and be baptized." The member was a little shocked at the answer but congratulated him. Haha it's been so cool to see Herman progress over the last few weeks, he wants a fresh start on his life so bad and he knows that baptism is the way to do it! So August 3rd is the day!!

Then on Saturday of this last week Latif Sedefoglu got baptized into the Elizabethtown ward in PA my old area! Latif is the husband of Sarah and the Father of Ayla who I had the chance to teach and baptize while I was there, and Latif the dad just got Baptized this last week!! So the whole family in the space of 7 months have been baptized! It made me so happy to see that a family that I worked so much with ALL joined the church and were baptized. That family has changed my life and I love each one of them as if they were my family. The Sedefoglu Family is without a doubt one of the reasons God sent me to this mission. He knew they would change my life!

So this week I have another Baltimore bus story! Haha it was 8:50pm and we were bussing home after a long day of walking and talking to people in the hot heat. And while we were sitting there, a man in a wheel chair sat across from us and was like very upset at something or someone. He kept cussing and swearing, and then he would stop talking and he would start crying. Then he would start cussing again and swearing, and then cry some more! I had no idea what he was mad about, but while I was watching this whole process he reaches in his back pack and pulls out a little red straw. When I saw it I didn't think much of it. But then he reaches in his back pack again and pulls out a little bag of powder.. He then dumps the bag of powder out on a flat price of paper and straightens the powder out on the paper with a credit card and makes a straight line out of the powder. Then he gets the red straw into position and yep... He snorted all this powder up his nose... I about fell off my chair. Haha I was like what the freak?! So now this man had my undivided attention. Haha then five minutes later this man bent over forwards in his wheel chair and was OUT. like he wasn't moving, and for a time it didn't look like he was breathing.. So I legit thought that he was dead and I was gonna have to be the one to tell the bus driver to call 911.. Then to my relief I saw him breathing again. Haha but whatever the drug was, it knocked him OUT cold! Crazy stuff. Haha

Anyways, thanks for the love and support! I love and miss you, and I can't believe that I'll see you in only 6 weeks.. Hopefully you are ready for that. Haha love ya!

Love, Elder Welling!