Another Week Bites the Dust!

Well mom I'm sorry I really blew it and didn't plan well and now here I am with only ten minutes left haha shoot!  

First off to start we had divisions this week and I left my sector and went with someone who speaks no English. A lot of people here don't believe we landed on the moon so I asked him what he thinks and that was a mistake bc he went off for about 15 minutes and I just nodded and didn't understand like any of that. But then he told me some Chilean bought the moon and I thought that was the biggest load of crap so I told him my family bought Coto Paxi and that took a lot of convincing on my part, but I may have got him haha.  

Anyways on divisions I was asked to say the prayer in english and I forgot how kinda. Also later that meal the mom asked me in english if I liked Ecuador and I thought she said acorns and I even repeated it back to her and she said yes. So in spanish i said I'm not a squirrel and she looked at me so confused and asked me the question in spanish and i felt like a huge idiot haha  

Well onto the spiritual stuff. The family we taught last week cut down to 3 and the other part stopped showing up. but these 3 are dynamite! Me and my comp the other day invited the mom and daughter to the broadcast and they loved it! Seems like all you guys back home did too! Their fecha is for the 17th and I'm so jacked for it! They all believe what we teach to be true so I'm so pumped and happy for them!  

Pablo is a 16 yr old we teach. Everyday he cancels on us then goes to some other ward (boundaries is a huge issue here along with tithing which is why they don't have a temple) he texted us last week says he's moving to the other ward and meeting with those missionaries instead. So my guess is he has a bae in that ward haha. But for real I was upset cuz I walked no joke 5 miles up a dirt hill to his house for him to decide 2 weeks later he doesn't want to meet with us. As long as he gets baptized in the correct ward I'm happy!  

Well I'm out of time. MOM I promise I'll send my volcano news on Monday! It's nothing to worry about we are completely safe! I just really want it to blow!  

I love you all tons! Thanks for the love and support! 

Feeling better!

I wanna start by saying how nice it is after two weeks to have my full writing time. Wow seriously so great!  

Alright so lets start at the beginning of the week. When I wrote you monday, I thought I had experienced all the sickness. Man was I wrong. I woke up tuesday with the worst stomach pain ever! I diagnosed myself with just about everything starting with appendicitis, to kidney stones, then to finish it, I diagnosed myself with death. Not only have I beat downs, but I beat death. No but for real I legit thought I was dying. I didn't throw up tuesday but I was at a zone conference all day and thought I would die in the chapel. Luckily I didn't. My companion started getting the symptoms I had on monday. So after that on tuesday the nurses sent us home. Wednesday came along and he woke up perfect again.  I on the other hand didn't. Third day in a row with a 102 fever and I was literally on my death bed. I slept all day and threw up all day too bc the stomach pain got so bad at points. By Thursday I was doing lots better, and now here I am on monday almost feeling 100%. So its all good here. My companion was very loving and patient with me.  

Thursday we taught a lesson with Rafael. He has been taking lessons and has accepted baptism and a fecha (or as I call them fetchya). Those haven't worked tho bc he lives with his girlfriend and doesn't want to marry her. Then just a couple weeks before I got here she got pregnant so now they have to. So this week we taught him lesson one. I of course had no idea what was going on half the time, but I tried. I did do the baptismal question though and he accepted! Except he didn't come to church this past sunday so we need a new date with him. But what's awesome is he has expressed interest in being married now to his girlfriend so I might have my first wedding in my first transfer baby!  

So Saturday night we finally were about to teach this family we contacted "about a week agoooooooo", well two families. We were waiting for their husbands and after about a week we said forget it so we brought our own guy. It was so awesome we taught these two sisters and their families! So a total of nine people! We taught them all of lesson one. (side note, before we go into this lesson my companion said what points do you wanna teach I said idk, but not the first one and he goes cool.) We get started with the lesson and he turns the time over to me and looks at me and says teach point one you got this good luck. I looked at them and said in my head, "oh flip." So like that whole first point I kept looking at him saying "como se dice..." haha seriously didn't go too hot, but oh well they got the message. After that I said a quick prayer and got back in it and did well when asked to speak again. The family is so awesome, and they are super interested! They will for sure be baptized within these next 12 weeks! Anyways, at the end we got them all to agree to come to church the next day and I invited them all to baptism! They all accepted so we had 7 fechas for that day! We were so stoked! the next morning we got a text saying one of the sisters had an emergency and went to the hospital (and for some reason down here when one member goes to the hospital the whole family goes) soooo we had no one at church! We stopped by later last night though and asked how she was doing and confirmed our cita with them for tonight! Keep this family in your prayers I don't know their names because it's way hard, but God knows who I'm talking about in my prayers. Other than these folks we've been contacting our butts off, so please pray for us!  

I love you all so much! Thanks for everyone who wrote me, it meant a whole lot! Till next time! I love you all! 

Elder Welch

PS happy birthday this past week to Ivy and Reese! Hope they were awesome! 

Week One in El Campo Down!

Well a lot has happened, but not at the same time. I got here and got my companion (he's from Idaho, loves sports, and is a norte!) I got very lucky with my companion! My mission president is the bomb. 

Okay so about my week. I'm in Los Chillos which is right outside Quito! I love the area. It's huge and a lot of work to be done. When I got here we had no investigators so we got to work! SOOOO much contacting it's ridiculous! Anyways we got about 8 new real investigators to work with right now! My area is super high so you can bet I'm exhausted by 9. We take tons of buses! 

Oh also guess what? My companions favorite food is slachi papas which is a hot dog and fries. Ive just been ordering solo papas. So just french fries. We have a less active who has his meeting with the bishop (who is never there at church btw) to make him an official member again! Today I woke up so sick and with the worst headache of my life! I threw up soooooo much this morning and have a fever of 102 so I'm not allowed to do anything today:( anyways hopefully I'm better tomorrow! Pray for me! I love you all so much!  

Sorry for the short letter I only had 15 minutes bc I was stuck at the office all day with the nurses :( 

BTW mom my package isn't here. Hopefully next week!

I live right next to Coto Poxy and it's about to blow! This is going to be awesome!

Letter and Pictures from Mission President

Matthew's Mission President and his wife sent his parents the following letter with pictures attached:

Dear President and Sister Welch,

We are so pleased that Elder Welch is serving in the Ecuador Quito Mission.  We welcome him with all our hearts and know that the special gifts he has been given from our Father in Heaven and talents he has developed will bless the lives of those with and for whom he serves in a unique way only he can offer.  His dedicated service will further increase his abilities and character in remarkable ways.

There are currently 210 missionaries in our mission, serving in 10 zones. Elder Welch has been assigned to serve in Quito in the Los Chillos zone with Elder Belnap as his companion and trainer.  Elder Belnap is known by the other missionaries as being hardworking, diligent, obedient, with a knowledge of the doctrine, and very kind. 

Attached are several photos that show Elder Welch with his companion; the group of missionaries with whom he arrived; and the group with their new trainers. There is also a Facebook group called Missionary Families Ecuador Quito Mission 2014-2017.  Please send a request, if you are interested, and I will add you.  I encourage you to post pictures.

We know and understand that there is sacrifice on your part both emotionally and financially to support him during this period of full time missionary service and we express our gratitude for your offering which furthers the work of inviting others to come unto Christ and to receive the blessings of the Gospel in their lives.

With our love and gratitude,

President and Sister Roger G.Christensen

Misión Ecuador Quito

I am here in Quito

So unfortunately it's a lie! You don't get to call and I only have enough time to write you guys to tell you I'm here and alive! The city of Quito is one heck of a lot more developed than Bogota and more organized so thank goodness! My mission president is way cool! I love him so much already (his hands are HUGE and swallow mine up each time he shakes my hand!) anyways I have a huge correction to the scripture, I'm a ding dong, it's John 21 (versus Matthew) so my bad! Anyways I love you all soooooooo much! I am taking pictures of the city and will have lots to send home on Monday my new pday. 

Anyways just got told its time to go! I love you all so much! Everyone write me when you can as much as possible! Mattito is officially in Quito!

Last PDay in the MTC, yo!

Although it's been nine veryyyy long days since I last wrote you i have about as much to say as I did last time I wrote. to start, on my tour I bought this bottle made out of a cow foot and I filled it up with water and was using it here at the CCM and I got in trouble with presidente because apparently they use that for alcohol down here. So I probably didn't look very good when they guy gave me a discount on it and said for the church I'll give it to you for that price haha. yikes. 
My companion's name is Elder Galan. He is from Guatemala or as he says Gutabuena. dumb joke I correct him every time. He's pretty nice but hes the first Latino I've meet with an ego. He thinks he's pretty know it all and speaks super fast Spanish to me even tho I tell him every time you talk to me slow. He says something slow then 5 minutes later its fast again. so i usually just speak English to him and then he stops talking. Hes our district leader which is cool, but he calls on me every single time in class to say the prayer or spiritual thought. It's like homie my vocab in Spanish is like 10 words i don't know what to say. We started teaching too this week and he would speak the whole time and i said we need more unity. so the next lesson he had me speak the whole time. i was like thanks for letting me talk but that's not unity. he is teaching me Disney songs in Spanish tho which is cool cuz you all know I love Disney! 
Anyways I'm running out of time so I'l give you the highlight of this week. This week with my new companion and my new district and Spanish EVERYTHING I got super depressed! The only thing keeping me from begging to go home was Ivy to be honest and what she told me on our last date. I prayed so hard I said "Heavenly Father if I am supposed to be here please let me know and when I receive an answer please help me to know that that is my answer." The next day someone gave a spiritual thought and shared Matthew 21 [correction: John 21] about feeding his sheep. I felt the spirit so strong and a feeling come over me saying I need to be here and feed the Lords sheep. As hard as it is here and as much as I'd rather be home with every single person I love like I was just 6 weeks ago, I know I need to be here now! 

I have a few minutes so I would like to tell you there is a stupid rooster outside my window that wakes me up at 5 everyday and doesn't stop till 6 so I just lay in bed for ever without sleep it is so annoying. 

Also with this being my last letter in the CCM I would like to let you know that a friend of mine here had a friend leave this CCM and go to Quito the day we got here and has already been robbed twice!  So keep me in your prayers, haha! 

I love you all sooooo much, but I need to feed some sheep! idk when I'll write you next, but I love you all!