Baltimore is wild and I love it

Heyyyyy All!!

Baltimore is Soooo wild and I love it! There are so many things going on at once and it's just funny to watch sometimes.

Like I have said before, the bus rides are always the most entertaining. You see just about everything while sitting on a bus day after day! This week, while sitting on the bus, a lady in the wayyyy front yells all the way to us at the back of the bus: "Hey, Y’all Mormons??" I nod my head yes and then look at my companion Elder Howell. When I look at my companion, he is slowly shaking his head in a panic kind of way and mouths the words: "Elder She is crazy" (I didn't know beforehand that he had already had previous encounters with this same woman on the bus). Anyways after I nod my head yes to this lady in response to her question, she begins to push her way through this jammed packed bus full of people, with her 3 bags.  She makes it all the way to the back of the bus where we are sitting.  Haha she sits down right in front of me, and pulls out a Bob Marley CD.  She asks if I have ever heard of Bob, I again nod my head yes. She then puts the CD back in her bag and then looks up at me and just starts singing Bob Marley as loud as she can!  All heads on the bus turn, and while she is singing she is looking right at me the whole time.  Everyone was laughing and looking at us.  Which means my face went pretty dang red of course.  I then start to casually try and get her to stop singing, while doing so I look to my companion for help out of this awkward situation and he is looking out the window as if he didn't know me.  Haha

While waiting for a bus this week at a bus stop, I decided to buy a donut at the Dunkin Donuts that was right next to the bus stop. We walk in, buy the donuts, and then stand and eat them real fast.  I'm not sure why, but the bus stops seem to be the place where the drug deals happen the most.  Haha while standing at the bus stop eating the donuts, we see all these dudes standing in a circle.  Then the guy that seemed to be in charge of the group just casually whips out a huge bag of weed as if nothing is wrong (IN PLAIN SIGHT) and starts spreading his wealth to everyone in the circle.  I about died!  Haha but I guess that is the norm around here.

Another weird thing that happens on the bus here where we are at is there is a guy that I call "The Soap Guy" hahaha. The reason that he gets this name is because he will get on the bus each day with his huge back pack.  He will then make his way to the back of the bus, takes off his back pack and opens it up. People begin to crowd around him and he starts unloading bottles and bottles of Suave Shampoo and soap.  And then he sells and deals all this soap on the bus as if they are drugs! Haha I kinda just laugh because I guarantee that 100% of the soap being dealt and sold by "The Soap Guy" was stolen. The adventures and memories I have made on the bus in the last 2 weeks have been quite interesting! Haha

On a different note, we have an amazing friend of ours named Travis and he is getting baptized this Saturday at 3:00pm! He is the most intelligent man I have ever met.  Haha he studies The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and other things on LDS.org so much!  For example, we went in to teach him the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom last week.  We have not even mentioned these things to Travis at all.  We thought this would be his first introduction to both commandments.  Well,  we began by asking him if he knew anything at all about the word of wisdom? He then replies: "Oh yes! I have actually been without coffee now for 3 weeks!"... Now, the requirement for Baptism is that you have to be clean from anything that breaks the Word of Wisdom for 2 weeks before your baptism. But Travis had already studied and started living the commandment 3 weeks before we even taught it to him! Haha he is insanely intelligent.  He is super cool and I can't wait for him to be baptized this week!

We had stake conference here in the Baltimore Maryland Stake Yesterday!  It was super good!  Just from the Chesapeake ward we had 8 investigators at church today!  3 of which came with Elder Howell and I! It was super cool!

The area here has been great for me and I am loving it. There are people everywhere and we always, always have someone to talk to! Which is a blessing.  Haha I love riding the bus and I love the members here!

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

Love, Elder Welling

"Baltimore: The Greatest City in America"

Hey All! 

"Baltimore: The Greatest City in America!"

Every bench in Baltimore has this saying on it.. Haha 

Well everyone I have found out this week that I have been pronouncing "Baltimore" wrong my entire life.. In the actual city, when you are trying to say "Baltimore" drop the "T" out of the name and you'll get it right. They pronounce it "Ball-More"

What a week of change it has been! I went from one of the smallest populated areas in our mission to the highest populated area in our mission! The Chesapeake ward that I serve in covers the whole bay area, and the entire East side of the Baltimore City. This is change ladies and gentlemen.. When I saw the sky scrapers and tall buildings for the first time I about choked. Haha I got to my area, dropped my suitcase off at the apartment, and we got out and went to work! We started by getting on the bus, which is actually the funnest thing ever. We are the "Bus Elders" as everyone in our mission calls us. We are on the bus full time! We don't have a car, so we are 100% of the time on the buses here! And let me tell ya... Just in the short time I've served here, I have seen some wild things while sitting on these buses. Haha LOTS of drunk people! There is a liquor store almost in every corner of Baltimore.. Haha for every church there is out here I feel like there is 2 liquor stores!

As missionaries we are told and instructed to talk to everyone we see. Well my first day here when I bussed into the City, I stepped off the bus and saw hundreds and hundreds of people.. How in the world am I supposed to talk to everyone? That has actually been super stressful. Haha but sitting on the bus is nice because you can always strike up a conversation with the random guy named Jimmy on your right! Haha

While being here in Baltimore I have become accustomed to blaring rap music in the streets, garbage flying everywhere, and the smell of weed. Hahaha the city has opened my eyes so much!

The apartment here in the Chesapeake area isn't the best. It may look nice from outside, but it's pretty crummy. Haha I think I would take the Romney Trailer before I take this apartment! But it will all be okay! We have a little mouse in our apartment that is smarter than our traps.. It's either that or the mouse is smarter than us. Hahaha it could be both. But while eating lunch or dinner the mouse will pop up out of our stove top and just look at us and mock us. Haha we have tried quite hard to kill the thing. But the mouse is winning..

My companions name is Elder Jared Howell from Salem, Oregon! He has been out a transfer longer than I have and he has served in some of the same areas I have! We don't have much in common at all to be honest, but we make it work and have a good time so far.

I'm still the DL and yes my whole district is in my ward! So I see them like 10 times a week! Haha so it will be super fun

On the spiritual side of things I have truly felt like this area has brought me to the high point of my mission. It is the point where I have been in the mission for a while, I know the basics, and I have 5 months to live it up! I have learned so much in just a week of being here. Seeing people live the way they do in Baltimore has opened my eyes and made me look differently at these people. It's sometimes super sad to see some people actually living the way they do, it's also very mind blowing to see some people act the way they do. Haha But all in all, the general thing I have learned while being here is how much the world needs Jesus! That sounds super cheesy.. Haha but no joke! You should see these streets. If any place on earth needs Jesus, it is Baltimore city. My eyes have been opened to what the world is really like in some places. It's crazy! Not all places are like Utah and WYO. We have been blessed to have all that we have back home in Utah and WYO.

The best part of my week has seriously just been walking the streets and saying hi to random people. All day and all night we see people walking past us so down about life. But walking past them and saying hi and then joking around with them or just talking with them for a minute just brings a light to their eye. It has been a blessing to see this all day everyday with people walking in a city that has little hope.

Anyways, thanks for the emails and support! I love and miss you! Thanks for all you do! I am loving life, and my mission.

Love, Elder Welling!

Leaving a town I LOVE

Hey All!!

Start spreading the news because I am headed to BALTIMORE!! Haha just kidding. Not quite Baltimore. Close though! I am headed to a place called Chesapeake. Which is right on the Chesapeake Bay and is half of Baltimore! So I'm not going to the Inner Harbor which is the super sketch part. But I am still going to half of Baltimore! Haha

This week has been super sad! I've been here in Luray Virginia for the last 5 months. I've been here for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, and almost St. Patrick's day! Haha I have loved the experiences and people that we have taught and been with. I love the branch and I love the members here! I will never forget them and I cannot wait to come back and visit them all. We said goodbye to most of the members yesterday at church. We will be stopping by some places here in the next 2 days to say goodbye to some more! It's always super sad to leave and area. And it's always hard too! But just like always, missionaries live around and change. And now I'm headed to Chesapeake!

Here is my new Address:
1403 Browning Drive,
Essex, MD. 21221

I added it up the other night when we came in for the night.. Over the last 19 months, I have served 10 months in a branch. That is so crazy!! But I wouldn't trade the last 10 months for anything. The branches and members I have served with have changed my life and helped me learn and grow so much!! The Romney and Luray Branch will always be my favorites!

My new companion is Elder Jared Howell! He served in Luray when I served In Romney! I've never actually served around him. But I've seen him at meetings and Zone Conferences! So we will see how it goes.

Sorry this week's email is super short. We are super busy today with everything we have to do. Elder Kershaw is going home in 2 days and we have been sending things home and running around everywhere trying to figure everything out. Soooo stressful! Haha

Anyways, I hope you have a great week! I love and miss you! I promise I won't die in Chesapeake/Baltimore! Haha it's gonna be great! Love ya!

Love, Elder Welling! 

Busy Busy Busy Week

Hey All! 

This week we have been busy, busy, busy. I feel like we are making great progress with the things that we are pushing for and everything is going great!

This week, Elder Kershaw and I were at the church real fast to use the wifi to message some of the people we are teaching. While there we message a good friend of ours named Mark Stanley. We have been working and teaching Mark and his Wife Laura since the first week that I got here in Luray.. Which has been 18 weeks.. Haha well earlier this week we were messaging him and following up with him about the lesson we had with him a night earlier. In the lesson the night earlier we talked about the power of prayer and the witness that will come with it of the truth by the power of The Holy Ghost. We committed him to pray that night to see if The Church was The Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. Then while messaging him, we ask him how his prayer went. We said: "Hey Mark!!! We wanted to message you and ask if you had a chance to pray about The Church of Jesus Christ last night? How did you feel?" He then replies with this: "Yes, that it is true." Elder Kershaw and I then reply with this: "That's so awesome that you received an answer. What do you feel like you need to do with this knowledge that you now have?" He then replies with something that about made our Jaws drop and hit the floor.. Haha here is what he said to this: "Pray, repent, and be baptized." Elder Kershaw and I were in complete shock.. Haha it was crazy!! We then sent this message: "Mark, will you prepare to be baptized on April 13, 2019 by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" Mark them replies with: "Yes, I will try." let me tell ya.. RARELY do missionaries get a chance to invite someone to a baptismal date over the phone! This was all done on Facebook messenger. So crazyyyyy!! We literally committed a man to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ over Facebook! Hahaha so it was pretty cool to see. I love Mark and Laura a ton! They are some of the best people I have met here in Luray.

Earlier last week Elder Kershaw entrusted me to be his barber.. He was getting some long hair and so we set up the barber shop in our apartment bathroom, and we got to work on his hair. It was all going great for the first few shaves on the sides. But then we decided to go a bit shorter.. And that's when we messed up! Haha we cut it too short and we couldn't do much about it.. So we ended up shaving his whole head. The very unfortunate thing about this is he goes home In 10 days and has an army buzz cut.. Hahaha we about died laughing!

Practicing ASL has been going great this week. We have been doing Skype lessons with the ASL sisters here in the stake and I've been learning lots! I finally understand the way the language all comes together. Before I knew a bunch of words, but now I know how to blend them together to talk to someone! Haha so it has been super cool!

Anyways, this next week we will find out if I am being transferred or not! If I stay I will be doing 6 months in Luray Virginia. That's wild! I guess we will see! I hope you have a great week! I love and miss ya!

Love, Elder Welling! 

It's Great to be a Missionary

Hey All!

I cannot explain how much of a blessing it has been to serve Jesus Christ for these last 18 months. I never could have imagined before I left the experiences and feelings that I would have while serving.

I've learned a lot of important things the last 18 months, that will stay with me my entire life. I often times wonder to myself which are the most important things I have learned. It's so hard to narrow it down! But I have managed to narrow it down and chose one thing. The number one most important thing that I have learned for myself is that The Atonement of Jesus Christ is REAL. It is an actual power that works within us. The Atonement of Christ brings mercy, forgiveness and peace to everyone that asks for it. It amazes me how quick The Lord is to forgive if we repent and Change. Everything that I have learned, everything that I have changed, everything that I am, has come from The Atonement of Jesus Christ.

It took me a really looooong time to figure out why mission are so hard. I would always sit and think and think and think on why it had to be so hard. Why we were rejected so much. Why we were made fun of and laughed at. This is the true Church. This is the truth and the way in the world today. But, after a looooong time of thinking and wondering why it had to be so hard to serve, I came to the conclusion that if missions were easy there would be no point to them. It would be pointless to go and serve for 2 years if missions were easy. God purposely intended them to be difficult because He needs us to learn, grow, and experience hard things. My mission has also allowed me to see, in a small degree, what Jesus Christ went through as He walked the streets trying to help and save people. My mission has given me the upmost appreciation for what He did for us, and has allowed me to be grateful for the hard times I have had. He walked through all of my hard times for me 2000 years ago and that has helped me in so many ways.

This week we taught a man in Front Royal named Shane. This man has gone through a lot of trials and a lot of hard times. His wife passed away 6 months ago. She was a member of the church and he is not. As we talked with him about The Restoration, he told us how badly he wanted to be sealed to his wife. How badly he wanted to be with her. Since she has passed, he has gone to the cemetery every single day for 6 months and sat at her grave. But as we taught him about The Restored Priesthood power that seals families on earth and in heaven, he felt the joy of the gospel! It was a great experience to feel the power of the spirit that night in his home as we talked about the sealing power that has been restored to the earth.

We also got thrown out of an apartment building this week and that was pretty wild. Haha all we were doing was talking a guy about the church and the manager lady came up to us yelling and cussing us out, telling us to get out of there or she was going to call the cops. The sarcastic Nate came out of me there and I fired back at her.. I just couldn't go down without a fight ya know? She didn't really like that I fired back. But it made her be quiet Haha anyways, we ended up leaving. Even though I didn't want to. Hahaha 

It's been a great week here in Luray and I love being a missionary. It has allowed me to distinguish what temporary happiness is, and what lasting joy is! I hope you have a great week in WYO!! I miss that place. I love and miss you!

Love, Elder Welling!

Many Miracles

Hey All!!

What a week of miracles and blessings I have witnessed. To start off, we all witnessed one of the biggest changes ever to the missionary work in quite a while! I was studying American Sign Language on Thursday the 16th and I received a message From Elder Munden. In the message was a link. I clicked on it and it took me to Mormon Newsroom. And then I read the announcement and I almost fell off my chair.. I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a joke!! But as you all know, missionaries are now allowed to call home, Skype home, or text home each week! As you all know, members everywhere in the world either endorsed the announcement and change, or they disagreed and spoke out against the change. I for one support this change 100%. This is going to bless sooooo many missionaries life. Don't doubt this change at all! I trust with my whole heart that Jesus Christ instructed President Nelson to make this change. Here is why I believe it was made. Missionaries all over the world struggle with many many things while serving. Some struggle with depression. Some struggle with anxiety. Some struggle with Homesickness. Other struggle with things that they tell no one about. I believe that The Lord instructed this change because a weekly call home to the people you love will encourage, bless, and strengthen the missionary. I know that when I was very young in the mission, and I was struggling with the early months of homesickness, a weekly call home would have strengthened me tremendously. Members everywhere doubted this change saying: Missionaries these days are weak. “When I was on my mission all we had was email and letters”. My answer to these is simple: "believe that [God] has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." Members of the church as well as missionaries do not understand all that God can see and understand. So trust that it came from Him!! There is a reason for everything. For this big of a change, there is obviously a reason. Trust in God, and trust in His called servants, the Prophets. I love this change and look forward to implementing it into my mission. What a blessing this will be for thousands and thousands of missionaries.

This week we have had so many miracles. We have seen so many tender mercies from The Lord. This week we had just finished our branch missionary correlation meeting with the branch mission leader. It was about 8pm and we had nothing going for us. So we thought about it and came to the conclusion to go to some apartments in Luray. I was hesitant to do this because I had knocked a lot of them, and I knew the elders before me knocked them all. But a few weeks ago, the stake president here in Virginia said to us missionaries: We must fish where we have already fished and The Lord will show us that there are fish there. So we trusted this statement. We walk up the apartment stairs and knock on the very first apartment. A young man in his late 20's maybe early 30's opens the door and without a second thought says in excitement: "Come in!" this took us back a little bit because people rarely tell us to Come right on into their homes.. Haha we sat down with him and his wife and talked with them. They have 2 little children. As we talked with them they told us that they have been looking for God and that they want to know that He is there. So we started teaching them both the Doctrine of The God head. Now, the wife grew up Baptist and grew up learning about the Trinity. As soon as we taught that God The Father and His Son Jesus Christ are two separate beings with bodies of flesh and bones they said "That makes so much more sense!!" we then taught the entire restoration lesson and they loved every single part of it. We told them if they wanted to get nearer to God, to read The Book of Mormon Every single day. At the end of the lesson, the man stands up and says: "Alright, I'm gonna pray. Show me how to do it!" (He had never prayed before in his life.) we were blown away. This family is so elect. They even told us that they would like to be baptized. It was a miracle in Luray.

Another day this week we were teaching our good friends Mark and Laura. We decided to teach them The Plan of Salvation and focus on our earth life. We read 3 Nephi 27 and talked about what God required of us while living in earth. We then taught them about the spirit world and the degrees of Glory. They loved it!! Afterwards we invited them to be Baptized and both said YES!!

This week has truly been amazing to see. I hit 18 months this week and that is so crazy. Time is flying and the weeks just keep coming and flying by. I love this gospel and know that it has been restored to bless all of our lives.

I love and miss you. Thanks for all you do for me! have a great week!!

Love, Elder Welling!

Another Great Week and the Luray Caverns

Heyyyy all!

How is it going?? It sounds like Evanston WYO is getting wrecked with some snow. Haha there were a few days here on the east coast that were cold.. But there were also some days this week where it was warm enough for me to wear just a white shirt and no coat! So it was pretty nice. Haha

My week has been good! Again it seems like I was just emailing you all yesterday and here we are again emailing on a Monday. Haha but this week was busy.

So this week we had Zone Conference in Winchester Virginia. Recently, President Mutombo has felt the need to set a baptism goal for the year of 2019. The Goal that he received from the Lord is 1000 Baptisms by the end of the year. Now when I heard this was his goal, I about fell off my chair and my jaw hit the floor. Our mission on average baptized around 250-300 converts a year. Which for the east coast is actually pretty good. The east coast doesn't see a whole lot of growth due to all the other religious parties here. Anyways.. The goal of 1000 seemed unreachable to me. While sitting there at Zone Conference, the Stake President of The Winchester VA stake came and spoke with us for a few minutes. While speaking, he too said that when he heard the goal of 1000 he was just blown away. But he said that as he sat there and pondered and pondered on how in the world we as a mission were going to Baptize 1000 converts he couldn't figure it out. He said he kept thinking and thinking. And then all of the sudden the New Testament chapter John 21 flew through his head. He immediately turned there and found this:

First off I love the chapter John 21 because it's the chapter I read that made me come on a mission! Anyways in this chapter, the Apostles were confused on what they should do, because Jesus Christ their master had left them. So they decided to go fishing. While fishing they caught NOTHING. Day and night they fished and caught nothing. The Apostles looked over to the shore and see a man standing there. Here is what happened:

"4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."

After they had caught all the fish, they got to the shore and counted the amount of fish that they had caught. "Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken."

President Groll, the stake president looks up at us after reading this and says when I read that they had caught 153 fish, I thought harder. Then I realized that if each of the 7 stakes in your mission baptized 153 converts in 2019, your mission will Baptize 1071 people... Ladies and gents I was blown away. President Groll told us that the Apostles fished all day and all night in the same place and found nothing. But then with the help of Jesus Christ they caught so many fish they could not pull the net out of the water. It showed me that we must fish where we have already fished for people. And with the help of Jesus Christ, the harvest will be GREAT. 153 converts per 7 stakes will equal 1071 converts for the year of 2019.

We found one new person to teach this week named Evett! She is super cool and has such a cool story! I will make sure I tell you more about her next week!

One funny thing that happened this week was there is a little button on the steering wheel of our car and when you push it, it pauses the music and changes it to a radio station. We'll whole on a longer drive this week, it was dark out, and right in the middle of the song I paused it and acted like the radio was possessed. My companion Elder Kershaw actually thought it was because he saw no one touch the button.. Hahaha so I played with him for a little bit. We both got a pretty good laugh at the end of it hahaha. He was freaking out!

Anyways, I hope you have a great week! I love and miss you! Thanks for all you do for me.

Love, Elder Welling!