Mission Life and Thanksgiving

How’s it going?

     Well, the mission life is an interesting one. One day you are seeing miracle after miracle, and the next you see nothing.. But this week we made contact with long lost investigator of ours! His name is Kevin and he is 21. He was homeless and disowned by his parents. He is mentally disabled, but is very accountable. Kevin was homeless for 4 years and then eventually found a very crummy house. He was on date to be baptized in August but that fell through. So, we thought we would go see him again. He doesn’t have a phone so it is pretty hard to track him down. So we prayed and prayed that we would find him. We went out that night and walked down his street and walked into his creepy apartment building. We get to his room and knock and he doesn’t answer. But then he came out of the room next door! haha So we walk over and start talking to him about how he has been! Well the thought came to me to ask him if we could meet his friend. He agrees and he takes us over and introduces us to this 46 year old black man. We walk into this room and my head is hitting the ceiling so you can imagine how small it is.  His name is Ray! We got talking and this guy is pretty poor. For Thanksgiving, he and Kevin had nothing. They told us that over behind the train tracks in the tall grass is a thing they call "Wild Bird", and for thanksgiving they went over there and caught a wild bird, which is no bigger than a chicken and ate it. They are living off wild birds.. So they point to the counter and there is a gooey, cooked up, torn apart bird.. Honestly I felt so bad for these 2 I wanted to cry. They had NOTHING. So we told them to get dressed and we walked down the street with them to get them pizza. We sat and ate and you could just see a light in their eyes has they ate actual food. We invited Ray to church and he came! He accepted the Book of Mormon and wants to come back to church next week! 

     The Lord leads and guides his work! From a thought to helping one of Gods precious children. We have been blessed this past week with charity and seeing how it works in people’s hearts. 

     Hopefully all is going well at home! Thanksgiving here was great. We went to the Buttermarks. They took us to Gettysburg back in October! I don’t think any Thanksgiving is better than Grandma Hatch’s or Grandma Welling’s! It just isn’t the same! haha For our preparation day today we are going on a hike with a ward member. I will take pictures and then send them next week! 

     Pray and rely on the Lord for strength. That’s why I have loved my mission so far. You never knew how much you needed to rely on the Lord until you have no one else. And I promise the Lords help is sufficient for us. Well not much else has happened lately.  Well are you excited to see me at Christmas or what? Less than 4 weeks away! haha, Everyone, can promise you more than I ever could at home, That this gospel is true. And that God loves his children. My testimony has slowly grown into something that will never leave me. In the 4 months I have been out, The Lord has shown time and time again that he loves me and the people I am teaching. Whenever anyone doubts, all they have to do, is READ the Book of Mormon!! I love that book so much. I am about to finish it for the first time on my mission! I started at 1 Nephi in the MTC and I’m close to being done now! By Christmas I will be done! I just finished Alma!

    Well I hope you have a great week! Tell Grandma I love and miss her and that I think about her often!

Love Elder Welling

Happy Thanksgiving and Being Patriotic

   It is amazing how the Lord works. When they say he is at the head of this great work, they are not kidding. I’m glad that you have received all the photos and videos of us! They like taking pictures of us! Her real name is Sister Spears! I’m looking forward to the package from you all though!! Missionaries live and die for packages!! haha 

    Nothing much has been happening this week. We wake up and we get to work and then we go to bed.. haha But it’s a fulfilling work! We found 5 new investigators to teach and we also had mission president interviews with President Christiansen! I love my mission president. It’s crazy how much that man has helped me. He is called of God, and he has blessed my life in so many ways. 

   This week has been good! Every Sunday we get asked to teach some kind of lesson. This week we taught the Young men’s, and the week before that we taught Gospel Principals! Not gonna lie, I love teaching classes for some reason! It brings me joy for some odd reason! The other thing a mission does for you is it makes you AWKWARD. I feel like I am so much more awkward now that I am a missionary! haha I accidentally called a ward member a man this week, and it turns out she is actually a masculine woman.. I felt sooo bad. But we say things like that all the time! haha 

    Not any outstanding miracles this week.. 3 investigators dropped us this week.. that was really sad. They all knew it was true also. It’s so sad to see someone change and then just throw it all away. People don’t understand the blessing from the gospel. Elder Bednar said: true Doctrine understood, changes behavior! It’s true. If they understand, then they change. If they aren’t changing then we change the way we teach! haha 

    Thanksgiving will be good this year! A lot of ward members have invited us to dinner so we will be doing a ward tour Thursday.. I’m probably going to get pretty fat.. lol It won’t be like Grandma’s that’s for sure.  Sorry there wasn’t much to say this week. But there will be more next week!  Happy Thanksgiving!

                                                                                                              Love, Elder Welling! 

Spaghetti and Service!

Hey! Its was good to hear from you! Elder Fitz most likely will get transfered.. so if you have things for him then send them early! haha This week was sooooo crazy!! The Lord has been placing people in our path that have been prepared by his hand! That is for sure! This week we have found 5 new investigators and they were miracles. I will include the details in the hand written letters.. I write faster then I type! 

       My week has been awesome!! Me and Elder Fitz found 5 new investigators this week and have already committed one to baptism!! The work is hastening!! haha. The burn on my comps hand was pretty bad!! I told him it was a third degree burn, but he didnt think it was! lol From the sounds of it, you have been quite the busy guy lately!! All that bishop stuff and work sounds tiring! haha I wish the bishop here worked has hard as you do. The bishop here doesn't really like missionaries and he never feeds us! haha Hes also very negative. We will tell him about our investigators and he judges them and acts like he is better then they are.. so I get really frustrated with him. But thats okay! Im glad Weston is doing good and all. Im sure he is crapping bricks right niow. I know I was when I was that close to leaving! haha Im sure he will do great at his farewell and Im sure his mother is a mess. It is her first missionary! haha  The members feed us most nights. We eat out alot and I think that is where some of the weight is coming from lol. My face is filling in.. But Im working out harder in the morning now! lol The worst meal so far has been spaghetti! Ive eaten so much spaghetti here it is ridiculous! I didnt have to be called to Italy to get pasta.. Im getting it all here! haha My favorite meal so far has been with Bro and Sis Beauchamps! They are from central America and they always make the besttttt food ever! So I love going to eat there! Tell Weston good luck for me! The first part of a mission is the worst. But as you put all the faith in the Lord, the burdens on our shoulders will be lifted and he will find joy in this life and also in the mission. Like Alma says, You will reap the rewards of your Faith. TRUTH. 

   Its sad to hear about joseph.. Hopefully he will find a way! The Lord will help him, especially after 2 years of service! This work would be impossible without the Lord!

This week I have been studying the New Testament alot. Ive been studying the last week of the Saviors life. And I would encourage you to do the same thing! Studying in Mathew, mark, Luke and John Helps me look into the Atonement. The Atonement stretches far beyond Gethsemane and the Cross! 

   Im so glad Aynslee hasnt forgotten who I am yet! lol And im glad she knows I am on a mission! The ward is feeding us well and I am for sure not going hungry! haha Sometimes I feel like I should stop eating..  I just dont work out has much as I used too! We never have the time to get a solid work out in! haha About the sweaters, I would prefer you buy them from Utah somewhere, but if that is to expensive then Send money and I can go get them! So I had to buy some new pants... The lady in my ward kinda messed up on them and they look kinda bad.. She wasnt has good has grandma Welling, but she tried! haha 

   Im so glad to hear that the Book of Mormon has been making a difference! Now that you are reading it and feeling the difference, Mark in red every time it references God and Jesus Christ! (Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, etc.) I promise that you will grow closer and closer to the Savior has you do so! It has changed my life for the better and it just keeps reminding me how true the Book of Mormon is!

   Im glad the little boys have been keeping up on the grades! haha Im really glad I no longer have to worry about it! I honestly do miss high school though! I never thought I would say that! 

   I was on exchanges this week with our zone leader named Elder Bowcutt and I was driving him around Cumberland, and we saw this part member family on our rolls so we decided to stop by. We walk in and we have a 64 year old woman who is a member, married to a 40 year old man named William. There daughter isnt a member! So we started sharing a message and all went well! After the lesson, the older woman turns to me and asks if her and her husband get sealed in the temple, will they go to heaven? So I proceed to answer the question and after I answered she asks "Arent we all from mars?!" And I was like no!! She looks at her 40 year old husband and she says "I told you we werent from Mars!" I was really weirded out by the question.. so later that night I call Elder Fitzgerald and ask if he knows the Orbans? (That was the name of the family) and he says urgently "Wait did you go over there?!" and I said uhhhh yes..? and he says "Bishop said to never go back there because William looks up anti and the temple videos and shows the missionaries!" So Then it all hit.. William thought we came from mars?! haha thats some weird doctrine we dont teach.. then I thought, william kind of just sat there and acted like he knew something we didn't. He always had a weird smile on his face and whenever we said something he would smile and act like he knew something more!  So that was quite the experience this week! Other than that nothing huge is happening! We still meet regularly with Hunter and Barb.. We found out this week that at the beginning of January Hunter is getting deployed to South Korea.. They are taking all the national guard over here! Hunter will be in South Korea for 24 months.. So that was pretty sad to hear. Hes pretty worried about it and I would be too! 

   Im glad to hear from you!! Thanks for the emails and thanks for everything you do for me! Thanks for the quotes also! I love to read them! I pray for you all daily! 

Love Elder Welling

Halloween and Miracles

How’s it going?! I’m glad Halloween went well and that the boys had a good time scaring the crap out of the kids!! I’m kind of jealous you have snow over there. We don’t have snow but it still gets pretty chilly. It is humid at nights and it gets really foggy! I’m glad that dad official hiring day is coming up! I’m very excited for him and this new journey!! 

   So Sister Short is the other sister in the Cumberland area. And yes! We have talked about how she is related to Evanston people!! She lives in Ogden Utah and she is related to Devin! 

   I’m glad that you saw the pictures on the Facebook page. We are in the Martinsburg zone and Sister Christiansen always takes pictures of all of us! So always look! I remember thinking to myself.. "I wonder if my fam will see these?" haha And sure enough they did.

  This week has been pretty good! We had a lot of the day off on Halloween! Me and Elder Fitzgerald and Ben and the Sisters all went to the church and just played games and had fun! Then on Wednesday we had an 8 hour zone conference. But it was so good! They talked about the importance of the sacrament and it was awesome!! I’m pretty dang sure President Christiansen will be a general authority! haha After that on Friday I got to go to Martinsburg and go with Elder Percy and Elder Parkinson for the day. They both have only been out for about 2 weeks! So I was kind of the head honcho for a day! We knocked on some doors and found 2 Jehovah witnesses! Too our surprise we found that they were quite open to our message and they accepted the Book of Mormon! They also invited us back later this week! Too bad I won’t be there.. haha it was really fun. And I got to drive a mission van around all day! You will see it in the pictures! 

  Don’t worry!! We get food all the time! We either eat out or we eat at a member’s home or the member takes us out! We never go hungry I promise! There are a lot of great people in the ward I am in. We have been working with the kid named Ben. He was  jewish. and he was converted to our church like 3 years ago. His family disowned him and he’s had a rough life. He now has a girl friend that is a member of our church but now hates the church. She has been showing him anti stuff and he is struggling. He is 23 and has already been in the military. He lives in his girl friends basement too! But yesterday he came up to us and told us that he has been prompted to serve a mission.. I can’t tell you how happy I was. This kid has decided to throw his past away and serve the Lord. He won’t have anyone to email him though.. If he goes, he won’t have anyone. Which is sad! So I am going to email him every week! But I was So happy to hear!  This past week or so I have really focused on becoming a consecrated missionary. It’s frustrating sometimes!! It’s taking a lot of hard work, prayer and scripture study! I still have quite the long way to go!! haha But I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to obtain the word for more than 2 hours a day. In order to preach the word you must obtain it first! This past week we had quite the experience! Every week we are required to find 2 new investigators.. it is the standard of excellence. Well me and elder fitz have been busy with meetings and we just haven’t had time to go out find! So last night before going out in the world, we prayed together and asked the Lord To put 2 new people in our path.. I will go in to detail in my hand written letter, but The Lord gave us 4 new people last night. It’s the tiny miracles that make it all worth it. I love the Lord and I know he is at the head of this great and marvelous work. Well that’s all that has been happening this week!

                                                           Love, Elder Welling!