Staying in Luray...Hooray

Hey All!

Well.. I have said it before and I am going to say it again. Haha on the mission, The Branch Life is the Best Life! I found out this week that I will be staying another transfer here in Luray Virginia. Which will be my 6 transfer in a small branch here on the east coast! Which adds up to 9 months of my mission out of 18 months so far. Haha that's half of my mission I have been in a branch! I have loved it though. There are lessons to be learned in areas like this that you can't find anywhere else. I have learned so much and love the branches where I have served.

This week has been the usual week, we tracked and tracked and tracked and then, tracked some more. Haha I always find it fascinating that ways people find to either hide or run from us. Haha and it's always Interesting to see the way they reject us. Haha it's different every time.

This week we got to do something super cool! A few times this week, we used our handy dandy technology and I Skype Elder Munden and Elder Shepard and all 3 of us practiced ASL this week together a few times. It was legit. And of course it was a good time chilling with my old friend Elder Munden. He and I still talk all the time. Haha

Something I have been focusing a ton on this week is really trying to listen for the spirit. And as I have focused on this, it has amazed me how often the spirit prompts us to do things! It also amazed me how eager the Lord is to guide us and direct us to where he wants us. The constant companionship of the Holy Ghost is one of God's greatest gifts to His children on earth. We can't gain salvation without it, that's what's crazy to think about. 

The weather here hasn’t been bad. A few days this week have been COLD. But other than that it has been pretty mild here.

Anyways nothing huge happened this week. But the works continues to roll on! I'm excited to be here in Luray for another 6 weeks and I am looking forward to seeing where the Lord takes this area. In my interview with President Last week he told me that he keeps me in branches because I have the skills and traits, and tools necessary to change and help the branch. So he decided to keep me another. I look forward to working more with the branch!

Baptism wise we have no one super close.. But we have this lady named Mandy and we are really focusing on her. She is so elect and so prepared. She loves the Church and we are looking forward to focusing on her

That's great that grandma got hi Def TV now!  I can imagine grandma Welling chilling there with her huge TV watching the jazz! That's so cool! 

Thanks for the email and the love and support. I hope you have a great week! I love and miss ya!

Love, Elder Welling!

First Trip into Baltimore

Hey All!

My week has been good and FAST. We started it off by going on 2 exchanges with some elders in my district. We went with the Front Royal Elders and the Woodstock Elders! It was pretty fun and I had a good time with all of them. But.. After exchanges the moment I have been waiting for, for 17 months finally came.. I got to go to the great city of BALTIMORE. I cannot tell you how excited I was to wake up that morning. Hahaha we had to wake up at 3:50am and get out the door by 4:30am. For those who know me well, I am NOT a morning person. But the morning I was going to Baltimore, I was! Haha anyways we drove all the way over and got there at about 8:30am. Pulling into Baltimore was so wild. We were sitting there at a stop light (which was hanging from a thin wire about to snap 😂) and we look over and this gang of black guys were fighting another group of guys. There was about 12 guys going at it right on the street. I legit wanted to film it, but decided that I probably shouldn't. Haha anyways we got to the doctors that day and Elder Kershaw’s appointments went great and everything. Afterwards we were hungry, so we decided to stop at Applebee's and grab something to eat. We pull into the parking lot and it's almost completely empty. We walk in and the whole place is empty except for about 6 people. I was wondering why.. Either no one can afford Applebee's in Baltimore, or this place is going to be nasty. Anyways, we sat down and we ordered and we were doing our thing. And across our little room sitting by us was 2 big heavy set black ladies. Probably in 30s or 40s. I wave at one of them and she looks at me like I was a piece of trash and then she just flips me the bird. Like no joke. Just straight up flips me off. It's a wild wild city ladies and gentlemen. Haha but it's the greatest city in the world ;)

This may be my last week in Luray which is for sure sad. I want to stay another one, but I also want to see some other parts of the mission. So either way I will be happy. But I do love the Luray Branch! Serving in these branches on my mission has truly blessed my life and helped me grow in so many ways. Romney and Luray have helped me a ton on my mission!

We taught Mark and Laura this week. And it went so great. In this lesson we were planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation. But felt they were not ready for it. Mark is a devout Catholic. He thinks the world of the Catholic Church and at the beginning would never think about leaving it. Well we decided we would teach about Christ's original Church, the Apostasy, and the restoration of Christ’s true church and a HUGE focus on Priesthood Authority. And let me tell ya, the promise that is made in The Book of Mormon is so true. "for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." when we taught Mark about the Restoration and about the authority of God only to be found in this church, he totally changed and he knew without a doubt that it was true. Since our last visit he has read 14 chapters of The Book of Mormon. That has been 4 days. Haha but The power of The Holy Ghost will carry truth and penetrate a heart of it is open to receive it.

My week has been great and I love being a missionary. Serving and working on the Lord's errand has brought me a joy and happiness that I can't describe. The Lord has been good to me these past 17 months.

Anyways I hope you have a great week! I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling

Praying to find the elect

Hey All!

What a week it has been here in Luray Virginia. We have been sooo busy. Which is good. Haha to start off the week we had exchanges with The Front Royal Elders and that was good! One of the Elders named Elder Beus came to Luray with me and he has only been out for about 3 months.

Elder Kershaw and I one night were sitting in our car across the street from a members home here in Luray at about 8:50 using their wifi and finishing up some things we needed to do before we went home. While sitting in the car, a man comes and knocks on Elder Kershaws window. We roll it down and he says: "Do y’all know anyone that lives here in this house?" we say no we did not because the house we were in front of was a random persons. He says "Do y’all come around here a lot?" we answered not really. He then says: "That's interesting because we have been having some break-ins here lately" and then he just walks away into the house he was talking about which meant it was his house. Haha so we sat there and continued to do our thing and then before we knew it there were cops all around our car with lights flashing in on our windows. We roll down the window and there are 3 cop cars around us. Not just one cop car.. But 3. Haha I thought they were going to have me and Elder Kershaw on the hood in cuffs patting us down. Haha anyways we explained to them who we were and what we were doing and they were super chill about it and let us go. So no harm was done! Haha 

President Mutombo has been challenging us all lately to pray morning and night for The Lord to give us an elect person every day. He promised that if we would do this, then the Lord would place an elect person in our path every day! So this week Elder Kershaw and I did his challenge and it was so true! A few days ago we prayed for an elect person to come into our view and no joke we found a FAMILY here in Luray VA.. Here is the crazy story about them. Haha we knock on their door and we hear a man's voice from inside yell "Come in!" we were a little hesitant because no one just yells, come in without seeing who we are first.. Haha so we walk in and he asks us to sit down and he was super open to hearing us out. As we sat there and talked with them all, the wife and all the kids come out as well and start talking with us. Well guess what?! While talking to the wife, she told us that she had been to our church before but that it had been a long time ago! She then told us that she had actually talked with missionaries 24 years ago and that the elder that taught her still sends her Christmas cards! And now here we are 24 years later sitting in her living room after we knocked on a completely random door. Haha The Lord for sure led us to that door. We may not have known it, but He did!

Then later in the week we were praying and praying again that The Lord would lead us to an Elect person. Well a week ago a man stopped us at McDonald's and told us that he was a member of the Church and that he works here in Luray but doesn't live here. He told us that he has a person that works for him that is super interested in the Gospel and wants to meet with us. So.. Yesterday we get a text from this man and he says "Elders, Mandy has been sick. She has asked for a blessing. Can you go give her one??" so we head over to her house. When we get there this lady is just so excited to meet us! We give her the blessing and teach her a little bit. The member who works with her has already taught her all 3 lessons and has her on the Gospel Library app, and has her listening to General Conference! She is so elect and so prepared for the Gospel. How it all started was about a year ago, Mandy's nephew Committed Suicide. When he did so, all the members of the church she was attending told her that her nephew was going straight to hell. Well she was one day talking about this at work and the man, who is a member of our church overheard her talking about what happened. He stepped in and told her that her nephew wasn't going to hell. And then boom.. She told us that when he said that it seemed like her world opened up and her view changed.

It strengthened my testimony a ton and here is why. It doesn't matter where we are, who we are with, or what we are doing. There is someone around us that is hurting, searching for truth, or just having questions. All we have to do is open our mouths and testify of a restored truth. Because this member did so, and because He did it so simply and smoothly, this woman is now SOOO excited and so prepared to meet with us this coming Friday. People are searching for the truth, but they know not where to find it and all we have to do Is open our mouths!

Another time this week we were praying for another elect person for that day. I was in the shower and while thinking about what we were going to do that day, I had a random thought to go to Page one, which is a place we go and do service once a week on Wednesdays. The only problem was today wasn't Wednesday, it was Friday. And we never go on Fridays. But I trusted the thought and we planned to go To page one to
Do service. Well we get there to Page one and we start doing what we normally do and then I realized the reason that The Lord sent us here today. A black deaf man comes walking in the door. And I speak Sign Language. This week has built my faith in Promptings as well as finding elect people that want truth so much! All we have to do is ask and seek from the Lord and He will give it to us.

My week has been busy and full of instances where I see that the Lord truly is in every aspect of our lives. He Loves us and is so aware of us. And He is so willing to guide us! The promptings we receive will move us forward if we follow them.

Thanks for the emails and for the love and support. I love and miss ya! Have a great week!!

Love, Elder Welling!

Great Week at MLC

Hey All!!

Well 2019 is officially here and rolling! I can't even believe it. But it sounds like you all had a great week. Dad got sworn into city council and you are again on the school board. I'm so glad that Jason is doing so much better. I'm sure the prayers and fasting of all who love him have accelerated his recovery this far. And the news about Bill and the medicine trial made me so happy! That is so good to hear that he is doing so good with it. 

I was so glad to read about your experiences doing "Come follow me" this week!! As missionaries we are not required to do it. But I personally chose to do it. So whenever I have time, I will study it and do what it tells me to do. Recently I have been studying the New Testament a ton so I have loved learning more about it!

This week has been pretty good! We had some sketchy experiences and some really good ones! Haha the really good experience was MLC which is a Mission Leadership Council. All of the Zone Leaders and District Leaders and Sister Training Leaders met up with President and the Assistants in Fredrick Maryland for a meeting. This one was pretty long. We got there at 7:40 and didn't get done until about 5:30/6:00! It was a looooong meeting. But a good one!! President Mutombo, like I have said before, has SO MUCH faith. Like it's insane. Our mission on average baptized about 300 people every year. Which for the east coast is pretty good. Haha but President Mutombo this last week at MLC told us all that he thinks we should and could be baptizing 1000 people every year. INSANE. BUT A GOOD INSANE. haha

While at MLC I had 4 of my previous companions there. They are all District Leaders so it was super cool to see them all again! Elder Munden, Elder Jackson, Elder Cook, and Elder Jex were all there!

While walking around this last week we were walking in the rain and it was dark. So it may it harder to see as we were out and about. Anyways I was walking on this paved road and didn't really see the ground in front of me and then Bam.. I fell right into a hole.. Haha what happened was there was a water pipeline hole that didn't have one of those heavy metal caps on it.. It was off to the side and my whole right leg dropped down inside the hole. It actually really hurt because my whole body fell on the pavement and scrapped everything up. Haha good times.

We found one new friend to teach here in Luray this week. His name is James Burraker. He is an older man and he is stuck in his ways on religion. But he is willing to listen and we will take it! Haha

I am so excited for this year. So many exciting things are going to be happening. But I am looking forward to setting and reaching my goals that I want to accomplish this year. There are a ton of things I feel like I have to do before I go home in August and there isn't a ton of Time to do it is what it feels like right now. Haha like David said, I only have 7 more fast Sundays.. Holy crap. But I am looking forward to reaching higher this year and continuing to strive to be the servant the Savior wants me to be before I get home. I want to set the tone and pace in the Gospel before I go home that will carry me on throughout my life. This is all so true! I have been so blessed in my life and He continues to bless me daily with His love and guidance.

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss ya and hope everything continues to go up hill! It sounds like every ones life just got a lot better! Haha have a great week. Love ya!

Love, Elder Welling!