Last Week in Romney....

Hello!!

Well what a week!! We have had a great week and I loved finishing off on a great week for my last week in Romney. I can't tell ya how much I will miss Romney, the Branch and the people I was here with. I love it all so much and it hurts to leave. I was hoping I would stay another one so I could be here for 6 months. But I didn't get lucky enough I guess.

     I will now be serving in a city called Shrewsbury Pennsylvania. It's directly above Baltimore and is on the same highway. From what I have heard the ward is awesome and loves missionaries. I guess we will see! I'm excited for the new area. But I don't want to leave Romney. I will leave Romney this Wednesday.

President Christiansen leaves on June 30th and President Mutumbo will be doing a mission tour after that so I will meet him the first part of July! That should be exciting.

   This week we were knocking doors and we knocked on a bigger white house.. We wait for a little while and a lady dressed like a nurse comes to the door.. She says "Uhhhh this is A nursing home.".. Yes we knocked on a nursing home door. How we missed the sign... I do not know.. But that was awkward! Haha

Anyways I'm sorry this is a shorter email.  We have been busy.  It will be much longer next week! I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling! 

Sad Week, Infestation and Great Blessings

Hey All!!

Well... Quite a sad week. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday June 13th and it was President and Sister Christiansen’s last Zone Conference before they go home. It was also the last time I will get to see them before they go home... So it was actually really sad. When returned missionaries say how much they loved their mission presidents, I know why. I love President and Sister Christiansen sooo much.
And was so blessed to be able to serve with them. They have blessed my life and taught me a ton! They were pretty emotional as they gave their departing testimonies... President said he would serve with us another 3 years if he could. He loves us and you can just tell by the way he looks at you. I'm not going to lie.. I almost cried after saying goodbye haha I felt like I was saying my good byes at the MTC all over again! I just didn't want to say goodbye. But they will be leaving July 1st. The new mission president flies in at 4:00pm June 30th!
I also had to say goodbye to my favorite elder in our mission! Elder Palmer.. He is our assistant and he has been an assistant for 9 months. When I got to the mission he was only a Zone leader.. But he was the first missionary I talked to when I came into the mission 10 months ago! He is from Lyman Wyoming and he and I have grown close ever since. He lives in Arizona now.. But I love the guy! He calls me his Wyoming Brother. I sent a picture home of me and him! I looked up to him a ton. And will miss him as well.
West Virginia Never ceases to amaze me.. Haha while working one evening we were in the wayyyy back hills of West Virginia. Like there was no signs of life anywhere. Well we pull up to this house and begin talking with these people. I quickly recognize that these people don't use electricity, power or anything like that. No cell phones, phones or anything. (They were not Amish) haha anyways we sat down on the wooden chairs on the front porch looking out at the West Virginia trees and hills..and I really did feel like I was back in the old days.. As we were talking I asked the older gentlemen to use his restroom. He answers yes.. And says "It's in the back" and he points behind the house. Now.. If you can imagine my face when he said this then you would see my jaw drop and sit there in shock. Haha I looked at my Companion and just gave a little sly smile of shock.. Haha I walk around the back of the house and sure enough.. There is a little wooden OUTHOUSE just back in the trees!! And yes.. I used it! Hahaha I can officially say I used a West Virginia Outhouse!! Hahaha while using it I just couldn't stop laughing.. I mean, you only see this stuff in the movies! We then walked back around to the front and washed our hands in a plastic tub because they didn't have running water.. Crazyyyy. And to make it all better.. These people have never in their lives seen an actual CD disc.. Haha Anyways it was quite the experience and I will never forget it.
This week was awesome though. We have been working with an investigator named Bob and he is awesome. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week and the lesson was sooo powerful. At the end of the lesson I looked at Elder Munden and mouthed "Baptism" at him. He gave me a wink back so I knew we were going for the biggg commitment. So at the end of the lesson we invited Bob to be baptized and Confirmed by someone holding the Priesthood Authority of God. He said Yes!!! We said the goal of July 14th. So we will see what happens! Pray for him!

We also had another Infestation of Cock Roaches this week... They are now everywhere and it makes me sick to think about. They are getting into the food and it makes me not want to eat! We even found one in the fridge!! Anyways we cleaned all our cupboards out and trashed 80% of the food. So we are broke now.. Haha it's been pretty disgusting. Not only do we have roaches.. But we have spiders EVERYWHERE. And we also have ants EVERYWHERE. I'm going to lose my mind. Everything and everywhere has at least 1 bug on it at all times. Gross..

While driving in the back hills of West Virginia, we noticed a little white beater car following us for quite some time. Every turn we made, the white cat made. This car was trashhhh haha anyways it kept following and following. And then started honking at us as if they wanted us to pull over. But the only way I was going to stop was if the spirit told me to.. And it was for sure telling me not to. So we never did! Eventually it stopped following us. I'm surprised they didn't start shooting at us.. Haha

Also, there was a Methodist lady here in Romney that stopped us while we were walking down the street and asked if she could buy us dinner at the new BBQ place here in Romney. We didn't refuse of course ;) we get there and no joke.. She buys us $50 worth of smoked meats. Including 2 racks of ribs. It was legit. We took a lot of meat home! Haha as we were eating some of it with her she explained how impressed she was with our church. She said she loves and is so impressed by its structure and organization. She said we are wayyyy ahead of the game. She then went on to say "This food is the least I could do for you guys. You guys light up the streets and bring them to life.". She then says "we as Christians try to Evangelize and help others when we can.. But your church and your religion blows us wayyyy out of the water. You are way ahead of all other religions. Thanks for all you do for this community.". It made my week! Great people like that make very thing worth it! 
It's been pretty dang hot over here this week. This humidity is kicking my trash. I'm sweating through my suits and that is disgusting.. I instantly start sweating as soon as I walk outside.. Haha it's really weird. Yesterday I got a paperback book of Mormon out of the car so we could go knock doors, and the humidity was so thick that the Book of Mormon pages were starting to wither up and look like they were soaked and then dried hahaha it was crazy

Thanks for all the emails!! I love and miss you! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Welling! 

Service, Stray Cats and Cowboys

Hey All

This week has been much better!! The Lord definitely gives us sour experiences so that we may appreciate the sweet ones he gives us each day. I learned so much last week from it and I can't be more thankful. 

We haven't had any run in with anymore bashers luckily. I wouldn't be able to keep my cool. I told some members up here in Romney that I wanted to punch a wall I was so angry and I don't want to be that mad again. Haha

This week we had a killer week! We picked up 3 new investigators and it was awesome and even had one show up to Sacrament! So that's was super cool to see.  Some were on the very outskirts of our area wayyyyyyy back in the hills of West Virginia.. Haha it was wild. You see something new in the back hills of West Virginia every single day. Haha it's actually quite entertaining!

I can't begin to tell you how much this area has blessed my life. I have seriously learned so much here. It has taught me so much and it has been amazing. The love I have grown for the branch grows every week. Romney may be small, but it will have a big place in my heart the rest of my mission.

My finger still hurts.. Haha I drilled into the nail to release all the pressure. And all the blood can out! Haha it was quite nasty. But it felt amazing. Haha

I can officially make my own ties now! An elder in my district showed me how to make them and so I cut up an old shirt that was in our trailer and made a tie out of it and I think it actually looks pretty dang good! I will send a Pic of it.

This last week we actually had a dude legit walk pretty much into our trailer and ask us for money. I was cooking dinner and he knocked on the door. We open and he just walks in and asks if our church can pay his bills.. Haha we kindly said no. But then 4 different people asked throughout the week as well. 3 people asked In our trailer park and 2 others in a different trailer park.. Hahahahhahahaha it was so weird. We didn't have money to give them though. 

Well, a member of our branch we did service for this week gave us a Zucchini plant and some Green Bean plants.. So we took them home and planted them in front of our trailer.. Haha honestly wouldn't be surprised if our Zucchinis were stolen right off the plant here in the trailer park! Hahaha anyways I hope they grow good. I've never been good with this stuff.. So we will see!!

This last week Elder Munden and I saw 2 baby cats out in the rain. So we picked them up to get them out of the rain and took them into our trailer.. We fed them and let them dry off a bit. There was a little white one we named Robin.. And a little orange one we named Garfield! Unfortunately we are not allowed to have pets.. So we had to put them back that night. But it was fun while it lasted! Haha

Have a great week! Watch out for them tornados in Wyoming as well ;)

Love Elder Welling

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