Water from No Where

Hey All!!

I hope you enjoyed the Labor day weekend. It was always the best in Evanston. But guess what?! This was my last Labor day on my mission. It's so weird starting to go through all the holidays and things a second time on my mission!

This week hasn't been anything huge. Haha we had Zone Conference on Tuesday of last week and it was super good. It was all based off of what President Nelson came out and said the other week. How we need to Call ourselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And so it was all focused on Jesus Christ and how important that is!

This last week... It was blazing hot.. Like Flippin hot. And we were walking around in the 99 degree weather mixed in with some high humidity and I felt like I was gonna pass out. I didn't have any water and hadn't had any in quite some time. So we continued to walk and walk and I turn to Elder Dixon and say "Man it would be a tender Mercy from the Lord if someone gave us some water." not even 2 minutes later, rain starts to down pour.. Haha now, there was no dark clouds or rainy weather that day. But after I said that it started to RAIN! It was super cool. And we thought it was pretty funny. It rained on us for about 20 minutes. The rain was cold and it drenched us. But it felt amazing and surely was a tender Mercy from the Lord. Haha the rain clouds came from no where.

We celebrated our Labor day with some members named the McBrides. They are the same members that took us to the fair and all of that. They are super awesome and I love their family! They had some ward members over last night for a party and we got to spend some time with all of them as well! I even got to play some spike ball for the first time in a year ;)

Elizabethtown is going great. I love the members and it's so beautiful here in this area. The hard part is getting people to talk to us about anything here. Haha people here just don't like to talk to 2 white guys in a shirt and tie for some reason.. I can't really figure out why. ;) but I'm starting to love it and starting to embrace the bike life! Haha

This last week there was a man who called us and said his name was Larry. He told us where he lived and said he would like to see us. So we headed to his place and sat down with him. He told us he was a member and he had been less active since 1970. He told us his entire life story and all he had done and all he had regretted. He told us all of the mistakes he has made and how he had gotten to the point he was at in his life. It actually kind of made me tear up. This guy has had it rough! His whole family abandoned him and now hates him and much much more. But he finally told us this: "Boys, I let go of the Iron Rod years and years ago. But I need you 2 to help me find it again. And to help me find Jesus Christ again." so we gave him a Blessing and we told him we could surely do that. We had him read Enos and we are going back this week to meet with him some more! It was so cool but super sad at the same time.

There was also a family who fed us this last week. They fed us dinner and they had a nonmember there. So we stayed a little later with them and played some games with them and got To Know them all. We played "Things" and it reminded me of all the good times our family has had playing that game! Haha it was so funny!

And also for the record.. I'm pretty sure I moved the heaviest mattress in the world this past week. This thing has to be at least 250-300 pounds or more haha. It was insanely heavy and we couldn't even pick it up with 3 men. It was crazy! But no worries.. We got the job done and the bed moved. Slowly but surely it was done. Haha

Love, Elder Welling!

One Year Mark and New Apartment

Hey All!!

This week has been a good one. We figured the car situation out with the sisters and now we get the car half the week and they get it the other half! So it will be a lot more effective for both of us.

Well, I have loved my mission! There has been the hard times I talked about in my letter. But there has been wayyyy more good times that cover all of those up! The holy and happiness that we get to see all the time is way better than the hard times on the mission.

We really didn't have the most eventful week this week.. We stayed busy all week but I feel like we accomplished nothing.. Haha we knocked a lot of doors and we talked to a lot of people. But none seemed to be interested. We did pick up 2 new investigators this week. One is a Part member family and one is a door knock investigator. So that was good!

Unfortunately I was not able to burn my year mark shirt.. President Mutumbo said no more of that.. To quote him, he said to the mission: "No more False Traditions" haha so it was kind of scary. So I didn't do it. I will have to send it home and you can all burn it for me haha

This week we were knocking doors in E-Town and we knocked one door and she said she was already a "Born again Christian" she then directed us to the house across the street and said they were new to the area. We happily walk across the street and knock on this door. A girl comes out and she is about 13. Not only is she 13 but she is from India.. Haha she speaks perfect English and we ask if we can talk to her mother. She goes and gets her mother and she too was full blown Indian.. Just didn't speak a lick of English. So we begin to speak and she tells us her name which was "Maldy" well me being deaf called her "Baldy" good thing she doesn't understand English because if she did she would have been offended. The daughter looked offended for her.. Haha So we start trying to share our message with her and make signs and gestures, but the daughter keeps translating all that we are saying. The mom continues to nod her head with a smile. So finally after about 10 times of saying "We are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we are here to share a message about Jesus Christ and His prophets with you" the daughter finally gets tired of translating for us and just walks away.. The mother is just still standing there looking at us awkwardly. We sat there for a little awkward pause and she finally tried to tell us she was going inside. You would have had to be there while this was going on.. But it was the most awkward door approach I have ever had on my mission! Haha

Elder Dixon and I were adding up all the math of approximately how many doors I have knocked on my mission. If I have at least knocked 5 doors a day on my mission.. (Which I have indeed done that.) I would have knocked 1,825 doors. If I knocked around 8-10 doors a day (Which I have come close to that almost all days) I will have knocked 3,650 doors in a year while being a missionary. It's crazy to think about! I've seen alot of "No" because I know for a fact that not all 3650 of those doors and people have been baptized.. Hahahaha

Unfortunately Elder Killian had to go home this past week. He was having medical issues. But it was so weird to see him leave! I was looking forward to hanging out with him in the mission home the night before we were going home. But I will see him when I get home. It was super weird and trunky seeing him in a video stepping off the airplane.. Haha I wasn't expecting him or me to do that for another year.. So it was weird and sad. I know he didn't want to leave early.

We also got to go to the E-town fair, and it was sooo legit. A member named Brother Adam Mcbride took us and he is awesome. He actually works for the church over here! But anyways there were hundreds and hundreds of people and he took us there and was introducing us to everyone! And there were so many people asking us questions about why we were here and what we were doing on our missions! It was so cool! The fair was awesome too. We talked to alot of churches little booths they had set up and really got talking to these people called the Gideons. It was kind of interesting. Haha

But anyways not too much has gone on this week. There will be more next week. We have Zone Conference this week and that will be good!! I love and miss ya!

Love, Elder Welling