Fish Fry with the Catholics

Hello all,

          I'm glad everything is going well at home. Everyone at home has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm not sure why. But I'm glad all is going great with you all!

         This past week we were invited by quite a few Catholics to go to a thing they call a "Fish Fry" they do it every Friday and this is the 3rd time we have went! I always get the steamed peel and eat shrimp they are fresh from the bay.  We get some pretty weird looks when we walk in to the church.. Haha they act like they have never seen a Mormon before! ;) They all try to convert us.. Some of them ask us weird questions too!

Every Thursday morning we go to the United Methodist church here in Romney and we do service at the food pantry! It's so much fun. Haha we have the best group. They are all above the age of 75 and they are soo funny! I will get a picture of them all and send it next week! I love them all! Haha
This last week, a guy that we have been teaching through Facebook expressed his interest in the Book of Mormon to us and said he would love a free copy! He is from the Philippines.. So we asked him for an address and we sent the referral to the sister missionaries over in the Philippines in that area!! It was awesome to see. The Gospel is spreading so much faster now through this new technology. Not only do we help those in the Maryland Baltimore Mission receive the Gospel.. But we are helping missionaries find those people in other parts of the world to share the gospel with. The gospel is being shared so much faster and more effectively now! It's amazing to see the Lord Hasten His work as he continues to provide us with tools such as technology to help us bless his children that are looking for the gospel. I never realized how powerful of a tool technology could be in sharing the Gospel. But with just one click of a button, we are reaching people far beyond our mission boundaries. It's awesome!
We have stayed pretty busy this past week with everything we have been doing! The weather here was awful for the first few days of the week but now it is getting pretty warm again and the snow is melting!

       Well I honestly am starting to love the people here in Romney.. Haha I never thought I would. But I have been praying for it to happen every night. And yesterday during church it finally happened. I love the people in the branch. There are a few I would like to punch square in the nose.. But the faith these people have, to keep going even with a failing branch amazes me sometimes. The Lord has made it very clear to Elder Brown and I, that he is working wonders among the people here in Romney. We just have to exercise the Faith.

   

Anyways I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that General Conference is in 5 days! I remember back in September and October at the last general conference and I was thinking I can't believe I have to wait another 6 months for another one.. But this one coming up is going to be pretty amazing. I feel like this new presidency and leadership is going to take the church to higher levels of growth, expansion and obedience. President Nelson knew long before President Monson died that his time would come. He hit the ground running. I loved what he said in his first announcement has President of the Church.. "We are going to begin with the End in mind." I just thought that was a really good statement.
This past week we haven't had a lot of progression with investigators this week.. We did teach a lot of lessons though. One of our progressing investigators named Diana is reading the BOM and loving it. She is awesome. We also found a new potential investigator last week named David. Hopefully he really takes it in and gets baptized! Haha

        Yesterday in church one of the members in the branch pulled us aside and rebuked us for a solid 5 minutes on something completely stupid. I will probably end up hitting the man before I am transferred.. Lol
Well.. Thanks for the emails!! I always love to hear from you and to hear how the family is doing! Couldn't do it without you!! Have a great week and love ya!! 

Love, Elder Welling! 

The Ups and Downs in Romney

Hey All!!

    Everything over here has been going pretty good! Romney is getting better and better and we are having better weeks here. We have had an alright week with the work here in Romney.

     A lot of stuff has happened to us while being together in Romney.. We have had a tree fall on our trailer.. Cockroaches and spiders all over the place in the trailer, and now our smart phones don't have service clear out here in Romney!! We have to go to the church to get Wi-Fi when we want to do something!! So pretty much everything that could go wrong has been going wrong.. Haha so this last week Elder Brown and I have been pretty discouraged about it. We haven't taught one lesson this whole last week and we have been knocking doors like crazy trying to teach someone. We are trying everything to get someone to hear our message and nothing was happening. So we were pretty upset about it all. We have been praying every day for a new investigator! Well after much work and patience.. The Lord finally showed us that this area is not dead. So this past week we walk into a person’s house named Diana. And we get talking and one of the first things she says to us is "Hey, I have been looking online for a Book of Mormon and I was wondering if you could give me one? I have been looking for one."... Our jaws about hit the floor. We couldn't believe it!! Haha a couple days later we are walking around the hills and mountains of Romney on the dirt roads, and on the end of the road we see a HUGE mansion! So we go and we knock on the door and a tall, older man answers the door and we begin our door approach "Hey we are the missionaries.." and he cuts us off right there and immediately says "Come in."  I was thinking "oh crap, oh crap" because no one lets us in that easily. I thought he was going to bash us!! Haha but it turns out he is the nicest guy ever!! He says he would love to hear our message. He said he had ran into missionaries from our church in Germany and was interested in them!! We are going back to teach him and his wife!! We then were online proselyting on Facebook last week and we found 4 potential investigators that all said they would be interested in learning through messenger about the restored Gospel!! The Lord has blessed us with a fresh pool of investigators this week!! This area is not dead!! #MiraclesInRomney!!! Haha

        This last week I have killed more cockroaches then I have fingers.. We come home at night, flip on the lights, and you just see a bunch of them scatter to all areas of the trailer..  Haha I didn't need to be sent foreign on my mission to experience these kinds of things.. I've got a West Virginia Trailer haha! I never thought this would be a problem on my mission!

        Not a lot of details to send you all this week.. We have been walking and knocking all day every day!! With how small Romney is, we may run out of doors to knock!! Haha 

        We were teaching a restoration Lesson this week and we are in a house with this lady who has at least 20 cats.. We are in middle of the lesson and then all of the sudden, one of the cats digs its claws in to the back of my ankle.. Of course right in the middle of the spiritual part, I kick my leg up in the air and give out a little scream of pain.. Haha my leg flew up and smacked her table and almost knocked it over!! Haha that's the first time on my mission I have wanted to murder a cat too.. Haha

       I got on Facebook this last week on Saturday.. And the first thing that pops up on the news feed is BABY WELLING coming in SEPTEMBER 2018!! Haha Elder Brown and I were blown away. I remember you telling me the news.. But it wasn't a reality until Saturday! Haha I thought it was sooooo crazy!! I'm excited for them though!!

        We were in Sunday school yesterday at church and the Stake leaders were all here from Winchester. Well the Stake President was up in the front of the class speaking about temples and how important they are.. The stake President said "let's just imagine that the Saviors executive secretary calls you up and says.. Hey! Dave come to the temple. The Savior wants to meet with you." he said this jokingly.. His point in saying this was the Savior wants us to come to the temple.. I kid you not a man who sits in the back every week, stands up and yells! "Blaspheme!! That's Blaspheme!!" no joke!! I just couldn't believe it.. This man who yelled that, always comes and argues with everyone.. He is one of those nuts that shows up to church thinking his priesthood is better than the rest.. Haha I just couldn't believe he yelled that at the Stake President. Haha it was wildddddd. It embarrassed the Stake President and then they stepped out and had a chit chat.. Haha the funny thing is this guy doesn't even know what the word blaspheme meant or was! Haha

       Tonight at our stake General priesthood session I was standing in the Foyer and a man came up to me and said "Elder where are ya from?" I said that I was from Evanston Wyoming and he said "No way!! Do you know the Lester's??" and I said yes I do!! Which ones!? And he says Nate Lester! And I say yes I know him and I graduated with his son Sam Lester! This guy is Sam Lester's Uncle! Haha it's a small world! It's been a weird day.. 3 different people have talked to me today about people they know from Evanston.. Another one knew all of the Grolls! My stake president over here is President Groll and he is related to all of them! It is a small world! Haha

        Well not much else has happened this week. The Book of Mormon March Madness Challenge is going great! I am right on track and ready to finish it all up again.  Thanks for the emails! I love and miss ya! Have a great week!! 

Love, Elder Welling! 

New Phones and Slamming Doors

Hello all, I hope all is well back home. This area is an interesting one.. . It cracks me up hahaha I'm getting the full taste of West Virginia... I have no idea what my accent will sound like after I get out of here!! Hahaha 

      Well we finally got our Samsung phones. We woke up Thursday morning and drive to Winchester and had to be there by 7:30 to set up our phones. We walk in to the church and there my phone is... Just sitting right there on the table with my name on it!! Haha not gonna lie.. it's kind of weird having a phone back in my hands like this again. It's been 7 months since I have held a phone like this!! Haha anyways the meeting was about 8 hours and it was all about online proselyting and finding people to teach on Facebook. It's was quite the meeting!! Elder Bednar was the guy who has been instructing missionaries across the United States on how to use these tools righteously. He said that these tools can be used for almost everything we do in missionary work. He also said that the general authorities wanted to get smart phones in the missionaries hands for another reason.. He said that if we can get the missionaries to learn how to use these phones righteously and to use them for good then we will immunize a generation from pornography. One of their main goals is to make it so the missionaries learn how to use these phones effectively so that when they return home they won't have to worry about pornography. I just thought that was pretty cool. 

       So with the Facebook thingy.. so I cannot only see what you guys tag me in, what you share with me, what you message me and all of that stuff. But I can also answer your messages and comments on Mondays! So I can communicate with anyone on Mondays!! But I can see everything throughout the week!

       This past week has been super crazy and busy. This new app the church has made for planning is keeping us running everywhere. We are busy from Sun up to Sun down. Which is how I like it! We are allowed to look at our Facebook's at lunch and dinner if we choose! So I have already stalked all of your Facebook's;) haha

       My companion said that you can send packages right to our trailer and it will come to our P.O box. The post office is right next to our trailer so I will be able to get it. And it will be safe to send it here. Everyone in our trailer park knows us. We have taught some of them. They refer to us as the "church people" haha. And all the little kids love us! They are always out on the dirt road playing!! Haha when the tree fell on our trailer.. We get back and all we see is a huge group of people standing around our trailer just saying that a tree fell on the "church peoples" trailer... Haha it was funny. People have knocked on our trailer door asking for money too.. Haha little do they know missionaries are just about as poor as they are! Haha we just look rich but it's an act. Lol

       Not a ton of success this week. A lot of doors slammed in our faces. But we are praying and looking for another investigator to teach. We have been doing A lot of LA work as well here. Not A lot of success in that aspect either. We haven't been able to get them to church.. It's a desire thing here. They don't have the desire to come. But it will get better!! This branch will be a ward when Elder brown and I are done with it!! ;)  it's not pride... It's just confidence. Confidence is key ;)

      Well thanks for the emails!! Thanks for all you do!! It is much appreciated!! I love and miss you all. I pray for you daily! Keep being awesome! Love ya!!

Love, Elder Welling!!

Almost Heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains..... Country Roads

Hello All,

I am officially in Romney West Virginia! This place reminds me a lot of Randolph Utah. It’s not as small as I thought!  My new companions name is Elder Zach Brown! He is from Black foot Idaho and he has been out on his mission 16 months! I continue to remind him that he only has 8 months left.. Anyways Romney!.. The branch here is very small and it has about 20 active members. When I got here I found out that the members here do not feed us, they don’t come to lessons and they reject callings. So after lots of conversation on what to do, Elder Brown and I had a 20 minute come to Jesus meeting after church on Sunday with the branch.. For the most part they all took it pretty good and I think it will seriously change some things. But, there was one lady named sister ….. that rolled her eyes at us and stormed out of the room. The members here just don’t want to help and the last week has been frustrating! But Elder Brown and I are figuring it out and I think we will get people going here! I really like Elder Brown. He is a goober and loves to have fun which is what I needed! He has been in Romney for almost 6 months and he says it is draining him mentally because of how lonely it is here. So we are going to work hard and we are going to have fun! This past week we have walked so much! This is the most I have walked my entire mission! haha I love it though because we walk in the country on dirt roads and there are a lot of farms and ranches so we see all kinds of things! It reminds me a lot of the summers when I was working with Parker! The people here are really nice. No one slams the doors here! They all accept us and talk to us. There is this little old guy named Dick and he loves us so much. He always tries to convert us to catholic because he thinks we would make great Catholics! lol

      Oh.. Did I mention that I live in a trailer?? I LIVE IN A TRAILER IN ROMNEY WEST VIRGINIA.. I could not believe it!!!! Im getting used to it though. This trailer used to be infested with cockroaches! There are alot of spiders in it and I dont do spiders!!

      This past week we were walking around knocking on doors and we get a call and it is our Land Lord.. She tells us to hurry and get back to the trailer.. She then tells us that because of how strong the wind was, a treee fell over and landed on our trailer!! I was secretly hoping that the tree would destroy this trailer so that Our mission would get us a new place to live. But since the Lord has a sense of humor he decided to let us get excited and then we find out that this freaking huge tree just dented the thing.. I was kind of mad this tree didn’t mash the thing! I was hoping for a new place.. haha

      Well this Thursday is the day!! We get our smart phones this week!! In 3 days! So watch for me on Facebook! I will be there! haha Me and Elder Brown are super excited and we cannot wait to be connected with technology again! haha

       Well I really do think I will end up loving it here. The branch is a little upsetting. They don’t like missionaries for some reason.. But we will work on it. Lots of Less active work to be done here! But I think I will be fine! It reminds me a lot of home and I love how pretty it is walking on the dirt roads with all the cows and trees around me! 

       Elder Brown is about 2 inches taller than me and he is really funny! I think I am going to really learn how to cook in this area.. haha we never go out to eat! Which I love going out to eat. This Thursday The missionary work will open up to a whole new world! I’m pretty lucky to be on a mission at this point in time. This is the first generation of missionaries with smart phones and it is going to be awesome! Im sooooo excited! The Lord continues to hasten his work with the tools he is blessing us with. Imagine the people every missionary can find and teach with one click of a button. It will be incredible! We will be able to teach people all over the United States and we will reach people that have never been reached before! It’s been cool to see how the Lord continues to hasten his work. I’m starting to love being here and it dawned on me that my mission is only a limited time and it’s pretty short. I want to go to other areas of the mission and continue to meet people! 

       Well thanks for all you do. I can’t wait for what is to come! I’m glad everything at home is going fine and you are all doing great! Thanks for everything! Love ya!!

                                       Love, Elder Welling!