Cast the Net

So this week has been pretty good. I know my companions name now which is cool haha his name is Elder Alanoca. He's a cool fun companion and we get along pretty well. He thinks I'm funny so thats cool. This week has been a pretty hard one as far as work goes but man am I pumped about working! Seriously I am so pumped and its awesome. Its been raining like crazy here in my new sector. It was 3 days of straight rain so basically the only time I was dry was when I went to bed but it was still awesome to work! Like the caption says, cast the net, thats what we have been doing a lot this week. 

This sector was not taken very good care of this past change. No one did the area book and all they did was visit members so we have no program and like nothing to do all day. So its just been contacting all day basically in the rain. And yes its walking every where there aren't any buses that we take(#JakeFisherdoesntknowwhatwalkingreallyis). It sounds pretty miserable but I'm actually very happy here. Im working probably the hardest I ever have my whole mission. I have so much energy all day and then once i step foot in the house im basically falling asleep while we plan at night and doing the area book but its all good:) 

I know that the lord is blessing us because we contacted over 100 people this week and we got maybe 5 numbers out of it. It was pretty discouraging but I tell my companion every time we get rejected or that someone doesn't answer their door that its not their time then I smile and then we get going to the next house and I realized its really helping him out because he doesn't wanna be here in this sector anymore. So having to put the team on my back this week I continued contacting. Today when I got online we had 10 references given to us! (that was the blessing). i have no idea if they are any good but man was I pumped! I know the Lord is aware of us and hears our prayers. Its going to be a great week:) 

So something that is cool is that when I first showed up all the members told me I look like Peter Parker and some said I look like Harry Potter. Well yesterday while we were contacting one of the doorbells was a little low and i cut my forehead on the little visor type thing it had and so now i look even more like harry potter. Ive also got fleas or bed bugs again and my flea collars are out of juice:( Hopefully with all the work and changes I made to the bed it takes care of the problem:) 

Anyways I love being a missionary! Only 20 more weeks to ball out baby! Love you all and thanks for all you do! 

Season 14 Episode 1

So its another change and im out of my good ol sector of Mariscal de Ayacucho but it was an awesome 3 changes. I learned to love so many people there and it was hard to say goodbye to so many of them. As of now I am in a sector called Santa Ana in a zone called la colón. So you can basically say im in columbus again! But with this new sector i have now been in every sector in Quito. (4 in quito and 4 outside of it) But im excited to work hard in my new sector. I forgot my companions name (lol haha but its so hard) but he is a bolivian and just finished his training. I almost had my first kid but the streak continues. So yeah im no longer a zone leader but im still super excited to keep working because no matter what, the work is true:) 

So something ive really been trying to focus on is my obedience these past couple weeks. Not trying to say im disobedient, but  there is always room to improve. Idk why its so hard at times but everyday my goal is to be more obedient than I was yesterday. You really can see the difference in the work when you give everything you have as a missionary including your thoughts and your efforts. The Lord needs missionaries with ready hearts and desires to serve so that this work can go foreward. 

Sorry this letter is short. It was a good last week and I loved it all. Im really enjoying being a missionary and im trying to make every last second count.

I love you all and thanks for your letters. I have plenty of pictures to send so stay tuned:) 

 my home boy Jose and his sister Daniela and the mom Susana 

The Andrade family

Fourth Quarter Baby!!

So this week was pretty good. Im getting more pumped about our sector because we have been able to find more investigators the past several weeks. We have a couple families but now we are only lacking in making more contacting with them so that they start to progress more. Like I told you guys in the phone call its a little hard to squeeze everyone in between 6-9 everyday. But its still no excuse. 

Anyways I've been thinking a lot about the whole fourth quarter reference that my president told me last week. I use it to get me pumped up about everything. Especially since its been raining a lot here in Quito and not just raining but down pouring you got to get some motivation to keep contacting in the rain haha. I made a few goals this week and one of them is to be more sensitive/ follow the spirit more. I know it probably sounds a little ridiculous because i have like a year and a half in the mission so you think I would be an expert at it but as time goes on and you teach the restoration 100s of times and you talk to 1000s of people throughout the months, its hard not to fall into a routine. To not start saying the same thing for every point in the lessons or even in doing the same thing everyday. So the goal is during lessons to really pay attention to what the spirit wants me to say. Or where the spirit wants me to go while we are walking around in the streets looking for people to teach. 

So this past week on divisions we were just contacting some people and trying to just go places we havent been to hit some doors. So we were walking all over the place contacting and making our way towards an old investigators warehouse to see if we could teach him (he was only an old investigator because we have lost contact). So we were walking and we passed a door and I heard a family inside the house and I felt the prompting to hit the house. When the door was answered it was that investigator that we have been looking for. The first lesson we taught him about 2 months ago he confessed to us about his dad and one of his kids passed away in his arms both happened within a month. So we were able to find out where he lives and we were able to teach him the plan of salvation and how he is going to be able to see them again. Without a smile the whole lesson from him when we said that he got a big smile on his face. The work is so much more effective when we pay attention to the spirit and not just go off of experience that we may have as missionaries. My desire now is a lot bigger to keep paying more attention to the spirit. 

Anyways, thanks for everyone who wrote me. You guys are awesome :) I hope you all have a great week and Ill talk to you guys next week! 4th quarter baby! LESSSSSSSSSS GOOOOOOOO!

Still A Buckeye

Tell you what, wasnt fun to show up to the offices and have everyone saying role tide to me today. All I know is that Ohio state got stomped and nothing else because mission life. Anyways, on new years eve we werent allowed to leave, besides to go play soccer in the morning from permission of president bc it was my comps birthday, but after we just had to stay in the house all day. I took it like a champ drinking from my ohio state mug all day just trying to do all I could to support them but it didnt work so its been a long pday. I also didnt play to hot in soccer Saturday, darn it

So this week was pretty good. It was a lot better of a week than the last, which isnt to hard because we had like 10 lessons all last week, but we found some new investigators and they are legit. Not gonna say they are golden because they arent, but they are awesome. We just have to keep pushing to help Alejandro change his job and things will get rolling. He is the son of one of the baptisms we had about 4 months ago here. Its his son and his wife so it should go great cuz his dad and his brother are super strong converts:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

My mission president made a good reference to me today that i thought I would share. So he told me that football players give everything they have when they play, but winners tend to give more in the 4th quarter and then he goes your in the 4th quarter of your mission. So it was a big wake up call telling me its time to start working harder. With 2017 being here, never thought this year would come when I first started haha, time is just going to start flying by. This time doesnt come back so im excited to give all I have these next couple of months!

I love you guys! thanks for your letters and those writing my college essays;) you da real MVPs. Anyways talk to you all next week! 

Maria Rodriguez´s baptism 

I don't remember if I sent this one home, but its Darwin's baptism :)  

I screen shotted a firework show. It wasnt too poppin but it was better than last years show!

SEXY 6!!!!!

So tomorrow officially starts my last 6 months of the mission. Its crazy that its here. I've been planning for this day since the beginning. Its been a lot of crazy eating the past 5 days trying to get in all the food I wont be eating for the next 6 Months. So what the sexy 6 is, is when you diet and work out like crazy so you come home lookin like a G. My companion only thinks ill complete on the work out end but I'm determined haha! LESSSSS GOOOO!!!! No more pan de chocolate or the polaca! 

So its been a pretty rough past couple of weeks. This is the second week in a row without finding a new investigator or EVEN a lesson to an investigator. We have absolutely ZERO investigators right now. So my first change here, we had half of the ward. My second change, we had the whole ward. Now I'm on my 3rd change here and once again, we have half the ward. So the sector boundaries didn't go too much in our favor cuz we left everything in the other half. We are working hard and contacting but I believe where we are lacking is in following up with the contacts. Its easy to talk to people, write their number down, then forget you ever talked to them haha but we are working hard to improve on that.We are teaching a good number of less actives and a couple that i love! They are so awesome but so difficult sometimes. Its hard to respect their agency but its a good patience lesson when they explain why they wont come back to church. The mission no longer is focusing in the less actives. We are only focusing on finding and baptizing then repassing the lessons. What we are mainly focusing on is the finding then we will worry about the other 3 steps.

Anyways the work is going good! We had a couple baptisms while i was off the internet which is awesome so if i have more time Ill send you guys some more pictures. I also went to the basillica today which is a really old catholic church. I couldnt take pictures in the coolest room of gold with like 5 virgin marys. However, i did go on top of the building and about peed my pants it was so scary. thought I was gonna die bc you know me heights aint my thing but i got up to the top. Also I took a cool picture that if you zoom in its blurry bc a fellow elder never turned off flash but its of me in the priest chair with the virgin mary behind me. Then the guards came and told me I couldnt sit in the chair. So the picture will have to do for now!

Thanks for the letters! i love you guys and I hope you are all doing great! We found a place to do skype so Ill be talking to you guys in about 12 days!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I'M BACK!

Hey sorry its been awhile but things are going good here in Ecuador! It was a rough past change a lot of things to keep me busy which is good! Somethings that's changed is that the first presidency said that we have to have a zone conference and interviews every single change now. Normally it was one change conference next interviews. So I had an interview with president and it was awesome. I talked to him a lot about why its so hard to be exactly obedient. He talked about how well you get to know someone in 2 changes and i was like really well. He goes now how long was the pre earth life and I said an eternity. So he said Satan was able to get to know you VERY well. That's why temptations are so hard to resist because he knows your weaknesses because of that time. I havent thought about it that way and it really did help me out. It didnt really change how hard it is to be perfect but it did help me not beat myself up all the time with the imperfections that I make. 

Well In the zone conference we had a cool training by the assistants about how short our time in the mission is. They added up all the time we sleep, eat, study and all that other stuff including the time we are actually proselyting, which adds up to 6 months. We spend more time in the mission sleeping then we do actually working. Thats what really caught my attention. The next news I got in the interview was I asked president when he goes home cuz I knew it was near when I go home. He said he goes home on the 4th and I said oh so my last interview ill have a new president and he said no. your last change is only 3 weeks. Because changes are on the 2nd of July and he said it wouldnt be fair to make the new mission president do all the new changes in one day. So i now come home on the 13th of June. My mission is now 6 weeks and 3 days short of 2 years. That card that the assistantsmade of the mission of it only being 6 months of working is now a LOT smaller amount of time. The mission is passing by super fast and its crazy. Never thought 2017 would come but here it is! Im excited to work super hard in my last 4.5 changes i have left! The mission is the best. I love you guys talk to you all next week! 

Matt's Letters

Matt informed us that he won't have access to the internet for the next couple of weeks.  So he won't be able to send or receive emails for that period.  You can write him at this address:

Elder Matthew Welch

Mision Ecuador Quito

Calle Robles E4-151 y Avenida Amazonas

Casilla: 17-03-078

Quito, Pichincha

Ecuador