ASL and Upcoming Baptism

Hey All!!

My week has been great! We have been super busy and I feel like we haven't even had time to sit down and rest. It is always a lot better when it is like that. Haha but this week too has flown!

The ASL learning has been going great. This week we have been expanding our vocabulary and been learning a bit of everything. We have been focusing on the first vision and gospel terms. But we have been learning how to hold a conversation as well. It has been going great! Its coming along! I am loving it and can't wait till I can actually talk fluently in Sign language. Haha   I'm also trying not to get frustrated with it. Sometimes it's hard to learn each sign for each word and remember it all. But it's coming along and I am remembering it as it comes. Line upon line, precept upon Precept ;) but I have loved learning. What scares me is that I won't be proficient enough by the time I come home In 10 months. But we will see. Haha pray for E. Welling to get it haha

My week has been great and I have loved being a District Leader and learn ASL at the same time. It keeps me busy and the time just keeps ticking down and down. My companion informed me this week that I only have 43 more weeks on my mission.. That's not a lot! Like Holy cow! TIME IS FLYING.

It has been getting pretty cold out here on the East Coast. I'm not too excited about the coming months because of the cold weather.. But the work goes forward whether it's cold, hot or blizzard. Haha

We went over to Sarah's house this last week and watched the Joseph Smith movie with her and her family and it was sooo cool! My testimony of Jesus Christ and His call to the Prophet Joseph Smith grow every time I learn about The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so real and so true! 

I myself am super excited for this coming Saturday. I love the opportunity that I have every time someone asks me to Baptize them! The feeling of standing in a font with someone you have been working with is like no other. Sarah is still on track to be baptized this coming Saturday and she still wants me to be the one to do it I guess so it's still on! Haha I am so excited and I can't wait to experience it all again! I love seeing people be baptized! There is no feeling like it in the world. It is peculiar and special in its own way. I love it. To see some repent and change their entire life just to follow Jesus Christ is the biggest miracle I have seen on my mission. The love the Savior has for each of them is apparent as they change and become better and enter into the waters of Baptism to make their first Covenant with our Heavenly Father. This Church is true. There is no doubt in my mind. Times like these make everything that is hard about a mission worth it. I love Sarah and am so excited for her.

Our ward had a trunk or treat this week and that was fun to just see everyone dressed up! We also had the baptism Interview with Sarah that day and everything went great with that! 

Well my week has been great and fast and I look forward to the coming week. I have loved being here in E-Town and we will find out if I leave or stay this coming Sunday. I have learned so much here and my testimony has grown leaps and bounds. I am hoping to stay one more transfer here. But we will see. It's hard sometimes but that's when we learn! If it was easy we wouldn't learn to much would we? But thank goodness the Lord expects us to grow Thanks for all you do! I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling! 

Great Week in Teaching and Learning ASL

Well it sounds like you all had quite the week while all the guys were hunting! A busy week that is for sure. I miss the hunting week, it was always my favorite time of the year. But I will be there next year and it will all be good!

My week has been a really fast and good one. It seriously feels like Mondays come every other day. The week has flown again. But my week has been good!!

Sarah has been doing amazing. She has made so many improvements and she wants to be baptized so bad! She has her interview this week and she already has a white jump suit that fits her ready to go! We sat her down this week and asked her who she wanted to do the different parts of her program for her baptism. Such as the prayers, talks, who will Baptize her and who will confirm her. She decided that she would like me to Baptize her and have Brother McBride confirm her! I was so excited and happy when she asked me to Baptize her. I am so excited to be able to Baptize Sarah! She is so ready for this next step. The joy that comes from this work and the blessings and miracles that come are amazing to see. These experiences have changed my life and will continue to do so.

We have had a lot of opportunities to learn ASL this week! We have 30 minute Skype lessons every other day with the sisters, and then we have two 1 hour sessions throughout the week face to face to learn ASL! It has been going very well. My companion and I already know a lot and if we do come in contact with a deaf person we would be able to talk about the basics. Haha we are for sure not proficient yet.. But we know our names, how to introduce ourselves as missionaries, we know how to sign the churches name and we know the gospel terms. It's been so cool to learn. Elder Moleni and I are having a good Ole Time throughout the day because we can randomly sign things to each other and not have to say anything at all. Hahaha it's pretty sneaky.

We started off the week by going out this week and trying to find some new people to teach! This week we found 3 new investigators. We found Ethan, Jazmine, and Alyssa! They are all awesome and we look forward to helping them come closer to Jesus Christ!

Elizabethtown has been great my Fam! I'm hoping I stay another so that I can keep working with the people we have found. But elder Moleni is awesome, the ward is awesome and I love the members here! So I'm hoping to stay another!

Thanks for all you do! I love and miss you and hope everything continues to go well at home. Have a great week! Love ya!

Love, Elder Welling!

Missing Hunting Camp and Some Big News

Well dang.. Hello from Freaking Elizabethtown Pennsylvania! I know.. It's not Bondurant.. But it's the best I got. Hahaha man do I miss that place! It's for sure my favorite on earth. Gods love for mankind is manifest there where we go each year. We get to observe and see His creations. We can obviously tell that He loves his children. On October 13th, all I could think about was all you guys waking up early, getting your hunting clothes on, and heading up to camp. I was trunky! Hahaha anyways send me some pics if you can! . And if you can't do Google hangouts today I understand! I'm sure you are all enjoying yourselves. Tell everyone hi for me! And tell them sorry Im not there to give them all a back rub.. Hahahaha

Anyways..!! . It's been a wild week. And when I say that I am not joking. Haha what happened this week will not only change my mission, but my life! This last week we had Zone Conference in York Pennsylvania. It was super good. We talked all about the Gathering of Israel and the important piece that we play in it...... BIG CHANGES: ..... Afterwards Elder Moleni and I were pulled aside and told that President Mutumbo had been praying alot about this and he had decided to change our assignments from English Elders to American Sign Language Elders! Now.. There have never ever been ASL elders in our mission. Usually only sisters are ASL in our mission. But President felt strongly that we needed ASL elders and so he chose 6 elders in our mission, one of which is Elder Munden one of my last companions! I hope we end up together again. Now I know the entire alphabet and this Tuesday is my first official lesson of ASL. There is a sister Missionary here in Etown named Sister York and she will be teaching us ASL. What a change!!! I wasn't expecting this. Haha so I am excited for the change and will look forward to what I am able to learn. But now Elder Welling is an ASL Elder! No worries.. I will still be teaching English people as well.. Haha but we now have opened our options up to American Sign Language. What a skill it will be to have for the rest of my life. I will not be praying for the Gift of to tongues.. No, I will be praying for the Gift of Hands! Haha I'm still in shock of the news myself. The cool thing is I get a new name tags so I will have to send you pics when they get here!

We have been working with Sarah alot lately and this week she decided that she is going to be baptized on November 3rd, 2018!! That will be the last Saturday of this transfer so thankfully I will be here for it. I am so excited for her to be baptized. She is so ready and she has been so prepared by The Lord to recieve His Gospel. It has been amazing to watch. We are going over there Tuesday to her house and her Husband Latif is going to be making us Turkish food! That is where he is from. So I'm sure it's gonna be awesome!
I know hunting camp is a lot different without Brad and Grandpa Welling. But if we could only see the work they were doing on the other side we would just cry and cry. Grandpa Welling is probably pretty dang busy over there but I bet they both took some time off to come and chill with all you guys around that camp fire ;)
Love, Elder Welling!

Fear not.. For we fixed Elder Moleni bike tire and we are on bikes again Instead of foot. My legs have been taking a beating with the walking we had to do when we did t have the car last week. But it builds character ;)

Earlier this week we helped our bishop here in the Etown Ward, Bishop Bushey, recreate his little river/waterfall behind his house. It was destroyed by all the flooding that has taken place this last year. But we remade it and it was honesty one of the funnest service projects I have had on my mission! Haha we directed water every which way. The cool thing about the East coast is anywhere you go that there is a hill, you can guarantee that there will be a little waterfall and creek flowing from it. The east coast is beautiful. 

Well my week has been great and very eventful. The leaves are falling off the trees and it is getting colder as we speak. This is My last fall on the east coast which is weird.. But my week has been really good and I am doing really good! Thanks for the email!  Have a great time up there! I miss and love it! Take some pics! Have a great week up there!  I'm sure all the Welling women will have a good time as well while all the men are gone for a week! Haha I love and miss you all!

Love, Elder Welling

Grateful to be a Missionary!!!

Hey All!!

This week I am especially grateful for the amazing opportunity I have to go to all the world and declare the good news as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! The good news is that The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in its fullness and that there is a Prophet of God walking the earth today. And he truly is a Prophet. In just 9 months and 21 days of President Russell M. Nelson being the president of The Church, he has announced 19 new Temples, traveled the world, had 2 world wide broadcasts and has moved The Church of Jesus Christ in the direction that The Lord wants. What a Prophet! This past weekend of general conference has truly been something that I have needed. As you. May have noticed, they focused alot of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, And how to strengthen our testimonies and conversion to the Redeemer. They taught small and simple restored Truths, and if we live these small and simple Truths, great things shall come to pass. This weekend proved to me and to the World that Jesus Christ stands at the head of this church in Glory. What a blessing it is to be a part of the Lord's true Church in the Earth today.

This week has been quite busy and successful! We had an amazing lesson with Sarah and Latif this last week and the spirit was radiating throughout the room. As we talked about obedience to the Lord and how that encompasses following his Gospel, the spirit taught us all that Baptism is essential to qualify for eternal life in the world to come. We read 2 Nephi 31 and talked about Faith, Repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. As we did so, the spirit confirmed to them that they needed to be baptized into the True Church of Christ. It was a miracle to see and truly strengthened my testimony of the Restored Gospel.

Instead of me popping my bike tire this week.. It was Elder Moleni who popped his! Haha so we are in the process of trying to fix his bike.

This week while finding new places within our area to work and tract, we decided to go to a place called Bainbridge Pennsylvania. This little town of Bainbridge sits right on the banks of the Susquehanna River. The very river where Joseph Smith the Prophet was baptized. It's a beautiful river!
(I sent pics of me by it)
But as we were walking the streets of Bainbridge next to the river, a man and a woman got out of a little yellow car and approached us asking if we were "Mormons" we said no we are not "Mormon" and then stated the name of The Church. The man then proceeds to say that he has studied our religion alot and knows also about us, (He must not have studied us that hard because of what he is about to do..) and he asks if we would be willing to take part in an experiment of his. We agree. He the says: "Well just so you know, I'm a born again Christian, so that tells you where I am at." He then in a voice of sarcasm and warning says: "I am going to perform a miracle on you in the name of Jesus, not Mormon. Is that okay with you?" We completely agreed and explained that we worship Jesus Christ and not Mormon. He seemed quite shocked.. Anyways we takes us over to a bench that was overlooking the river. He asks:" Do either of you 2 have lower back pain?" both Elder Moleni and I shook our heads with a No.. He then chooses Elder Moleni to sit down. He grabs Elder Molenis legs and stretched them out straight in front of him and compares elder Molenis 2 legs in length. He then tries to convince us that one of Elder Molenis legs is longer than the other. Neither I or Elder Moleni could see it.. Haha anyways we played along and the man said "Well put your hand on your right knee.." Elder Moleni did so and then the man said "I'm the name of Jesus Be healed..". Elder Moleni stands up and notices no difference in his leg.. The man then sarcastically says "Now that happened because the Jesus I worship can perform miracles. The name of Mormon can do no such thing." he then beckons me to come and sit. I say "Nahhhhhhh I'm good man." and I try to tell him that we worship Jesus Christ not Mormon. He just laughs and says "Well do you want a miracle to be done on you?" I once again say No and say: "Your miracle didn't even work on him. There is no difference in his leg length. And there was nothing wrong with his legs to begin with." the man turns to Elder Moleni and asks him if he felt a difference, and Elder Moleni says: "Well to be honest I really don't feel a difference at all." it was actually super funny to see the man's face when we told him this. He was being pretty snobby about his miracle so we put him in his place with it. Haha but Elder Moleni was Healed! ;) lol

This week as we found new places in our areas to go we found 3 new people to teach and all of them are solid! Each claiming to need help in their life for something! It was so cool to see.

As I sat and watched conference and saw the Prophet and Apostles speak to the world, one thing that stuck out to me was how important and vital our families are and how important it is to keep them safe. Yes as the church grows and grows in strength, the adversary does the same. And we have a Prophet and apostles who has foreseen that and have told us how we can overcome that and keep our families safe from the stain on the world. This conference actually put into perspective for me how I want and should raise my family to help my family be safe and successful in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Families are truly ordained of God and he is working at 24 hours a day to keep them safe from the adversary.

Well thank you for the email and for letting me know what's going on in your lives. Thanks for the package also! I will tell Katie thank you as well! But I loved it! Elder Moleni eyes when I opened it got huggeeeeeeee. Haha anyways have a great week! I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling! 

Great Week.... I am an Uncle

Hey All!!

I was so shocked when I got the pictures of the baby that day.. I didn't know what quite to think. I got home that night from doing all the missionary stuff and I opened up Facebook and boom.. There is Colton Holding a baby! Hahaha for a sec I was like what the heck?! But then I realized that it was his baby and that he is a dad now. Haha But the little guy is cute and I can't wait to meet him! I'm sure it's quite the feeling holding a grandchild. It's a special one for sure. But I'm an uncle now and that is WILD. I look forward to meeting the lil guy in 10 months! I'm so glad he is finally here. Haha I thought he was going to try and stay in for another month..

Anyways!! Update! This last Wednesday we headed to Columbia Maryland and Brother McBride drove 6 of us missionaries in this van and it was so cool. We dropped Elder Dixon off and he headed to the YSA. I picked up Elder Tane Moleni from Hamilton New Zealand!!! Yes.. He is taller than me. Yes he is stronger than me. Yes he played rugby. And yes he is a big dude. Haha his accent is so cool though! He loves to play sports and is just a good guy. I'm glad he and I are here in Elizabethtown together. We will have a legit transfer!! We will get along very well! 

We had a really good week! We have a person we are teaching here in Elizabethtown named Sarah and she is so solid. She wants to be baptized and she loves the church. We are planning on putting her on date for Baptism this week. So hopefully we have a baptism around Oct. 20th! She came to church yesterday and the ward did a great job fellowshipping her and loving her. The McBrides invited her to their house to watch General Conference so that was legit!!! Haha

General Conference is coming in 5 days and I am soooooo oooo oooo excited!!!! It's like a missionary superbowl!! Everyone has been saying how big it's going to be and how there’s a huge change coming.. One rumor I heard going around is that they are changing the mission times.. Now all missionaries male and female will serve for 18 months..? It's just a rumor. But I thought that was interesting. I guess we will see! 

The rain and storms have stopped here and now we are in a mix of weather.. Some days are hot. Some days I have to wear a sweater. Some days I need an umbrella. Some days I need a short sleeve shirt. It's different every day! Haha but you can tell fall is coming and I am so excited. Some of the leaves are already changing.

We also got to go and play basketball at the church this week with a bunch of Nonmembers that a member brings. And that was a lot of fun. We are going back this week and they have started asking little questions here and there about why we wear what we do and why we do what we do. So it's good!

Elizabethtown is going well.. I fixed my bike tire. I spent like an hour and a half trying to figure it out. Then when I thought I did, I began riding it down the street. Then when we are about a mile and a half away I look down and I see that it's sooooo flat again.. So I didn't even care. I just kept riding it flat. Haha I'm sure it wasn't good for the bike.. But I had had enough with it. Haha

I'm excited for all the holidays coming up this next 2 months! I can't believe it's already October! It feels like this year truly just started. Time has been flying so fast lately. In about two months I will be skyping you all again! Haha it feels like I just did that!

Well my week has been great and I have loved being a missionary this far on my mission. It has been the greatest opportunity and blessing in my life. This Church is so true and I am so glad that I get to be the one to tell the world out here in PA and Maryland!!

I hope everything continues to go well with the new baby and all. He's a cute lil guy! Can't wait to meet him! Have a great week and I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling