Tener Careful!

So it was another successful week in Tena, meaning I survived and the crazy indigenous didn't rob me! Anyways its been a good week. I love being with my Colombian comp again. Hopefully I'm still saying that by the end of the change haha. 

Idk why but i literally feel like Benjamin Button because I feel like my body is falling apart. I wake up and my whole body just hurts and I feel like an old man but everyone tells me I look like im 18 so must be all the rice I eat:) Anyways so we went to a waterfall today in the middle of nowhere jungle town. It was the muddiest trail to get there and it was like over a 30 minute walk in straight mud. Luckily I made it safely and crossed the river and did some rad poses in front of the waterfall. Walking back was the tricky part. The whole time I literally almost fell like 50 times and so did the other elders so i decided I would make a deal first one to fall has to buy bread for everyone else. Luckily no one agreed because right when I was about to pull out a victorious walk I tanked hard core. I went straight from my feet to my back and it knocked the wind right out of me. I took it like a champ. However I feel bad for the branch pte when he washes my clothes tomorrow because it looks like I pooped my pants but i promise I didn't...

So the week was great. We are working super hard and contacting a lot and not seeing a lot of fruits but its still awesome. The only downside is we are making progress with the less actives here. Including going from telling the missionaries to stop coming by, to inviting us to eat with them every friday for lunch! I think the hardest part for me is its all coming to an end soon and I wanna see results and I wanna see them now before I go home. But Pte said something yesterday in consejo de rama and said we cant run with these people. It really made me think because yeah its cool to see results and to baptize and all that but the branch already has too many less actives. Im working on my patience now. Ive developed I think more tolerance on the mission than patience. You have to have patience and really learn how to love these people. Its great being a missionary! 

I love you all! 

Elder Welch

PS- come to Tena if you wanna hear a hot cheeto and taki talk on sunday about the work for the dead in the recently cleaned office building/ chapel that I got assigned to clean:) 

Hot and Sweaty

So its been another solid week here in Tena. So yesterday we received changes and Elder Velez the "mono" is now out of Tena and I will be receiving Elder Espinosa. You might remember that name because he has already been my companion. He is the colombian I was with that was WAY hard to understand. However, since Tena is in the absolute middle of no where, he still isnt here. He is coming all the way from Manabi and has to travel to Quito then take a 7 hr bus ride to get to Tena so he probably wont get here until about 8 at night. Its been nice being able to speak english with another elder all day since I haven't had a gringo comp since august. 

Not too much new went on. It was another week of contacting and naked people answering the door telling us they are busy. However, it was rewarding. We were able after 3 straight hours of tracting to find a new investigator named Gustavo. It was so nice we taught the restoration to him and felt the spirit so strongly. A few tears may have fallen from my eyes. Im not sure if its because we actually taught a lesson and he 100% understood and comprehended what we were teaching or because I felt so much love for him as he said yes to a baptismal date. Both reasons are valid. We also are going to start teaching a PF family. Everyone is member minus the dad. He played for the LA galaxy about 20 years ago so thats pretty cool. He started talking to me about pro soccer players about like 15 years ago and I was like yeah I have no idea who these guys are. I gotta stop telling people I like sports because they think I know everything. I stood my ground more though on soccer than I did with baseball #thankyoucompañerouruguasho :)

Well, I love being a missionary. It was a great week being all in! The weather is hot and we are sweating a lot. Its awesome too because my farmers tan line is getting pretty good as well. I found out this week that Tena is hotter than guayaquil so that made me feel a lot better. Not only am I walking more than Jake fisher, but I for sure am sweating more than him. 

I love you all! Thanks for everything and talk to yall later

The smallest zone in the mission

I ate a worm this week. Its called the Chontacuro. I only took it down fried but I wanna 

eat it raw this next time look it up in the internet

My mono:) 

I actually climbed a hill in Tena so thats all of Tena in the picture

All In!

So it was another great week as a missionary! It was for sure better than last week. It was a lot of prayers and questions answered as well as I listened to general conference:) Something else cool is that today I fed a monkey and it climbed all over me. That was WAY cool:) They robbed me a couple times including stealing the bag of grapes out of my hands but it was awesome! I want a pet monkey now. The only thing that scared me was the bigger one bit this guy so he slapped it in the face haha and they all went into attack mode so we got the crap out of there! Other than that it was great.

So yeah conference was wayyy awesome! Such good talks were given and so much was learned. The key things I learned were about being all in, following the spirit, and love. My favorite talk was given by Elder Gary B. Sabin. It was so good! It honestly just hit me super hard about being a missionary here in Tena. I just have to be all in and give everything I have to the branch and the Lord. Then the talks on the spirit too especially Elder Rasbands about following the promptings. I loved the part "9 times out of 10 youll be right" in referring to following the spirit. I thought about the internal battle missionaries tend to have when walking in the street and thinking "contact them" and then you fight it no and its just a battle honestly haha and then the person passes by and yeah. I referred that back to being all in. Not letting a single moment pass by! Then A LOT of talks talked about Christ's love for us and His work and also our Heavenly Fathers love for all of His children. It then made me think again about being all in. The branch and Tena in general need all the love I have right now. I know Heavenly Father loves all these people here in Tena even if they dont know it or believe it or dont want to know anything about Him. I need to have the same look on them. My goal is to eventually have the experience of Pte Eyring happen to me all the time where you just look at someone and see them exactly as He does. Im loving the people more, but I have a lot more of love to give them! For that reason, I want to be 100% all in. So by that im giving everything I have in what I have left. To help me complete my goal, I dont wanna think about home. Please when you guys write me do not mention anything of the house or how much time I have left. Anything that can be classified as "trunky" dont send me please! Subjects to avoid: anything related to the gym and working out(<--especially this one), sports, vacations, schooling, or anything else you guys can think of.

Im so excited to be here as a missionary! Pte told me in a letter that he sent me here because he believes with the experience that I have that I can help change the branch and help strengthen future leaders/ find them. Im grateful for this challenge. Yesterday we had a solid assistence of 14 people haha 4 being missionaries but thats going to change. Im getting used to the heat and humidity and im more focused!

I love you all! Thanks for the letters and talk to you all next week:)

My new style. You may be wondering what the heck your tie is too short, no its called the power gap

also note that I put a towel on my belt. Yes i do feel like a quarterback but its just to wipe the sweat off my face during lessons and stuff :) 

My monkey friend

"I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go"

Well its been another week in the mission. I finally made it to my sector on Tuesday around 1 and while I was sitting in the bus terminal all by myself (wasnt even that scared mom) I just started sweating like crazy. Seriously the sun is sooo strong and its WAY humid! The worst part is that since I got emergency changed I had to pack as fast as possible and get to the bus terminal so they could send me off. I forgot all my dirty clothes in my old house which was a majority of my shirts. So ive been wearing 2 shirts in 6 days. I have to hand wash my shirt every night and i don't think I'm doing that  good of a job because they are turning yellow... no me importa

I really love my house its cool its right across the street from the police station so they are keeping me safe in the jungle. However we did forget our keys in the house one day and we shut the door and were locked out. So being from the states I was like lets just tell the police theyll open up the door and my companion, from guayaquil, just kinda stared at me. So i told the police and they just looked at me like what do you want me to do so I was like can you guys just break into the house and they said they didnt know how so then I asked for a ladder and they didnt have one. So then after the police were no help I lifted my companion up to enter for the balcony but bc he doesnt work out in the mornings he couldnt do a simple pull up and get in. So we went looking in the whole part of the area for a ladder. Finally we got in about an hour later. I bet it looked pretty weird seeing 2 missionaries trying to  climb into a second story building but yeah. Also another story is ever since friday we have had the gusto to be hosting the evangelicas on the other side of the street. Man do they go hard. SO we live across the street from a basketball court and they started holding services there at night. The preacher goes way hard in the paint. He screams like crazy and then everyone starts screaming halleuya (i have no idea how to spell that.) and gloria a dios y amen! its so funny and they just all start clapping and going crazy. I would say the craziest part is when the preacher told someone he had cancer and said Ill save you and then he "cured him" and the guy fell to the ground and was all spazzing. That one tends to happen a lot too. I have some pretty funny videos I filmed from our house so Ill show you guys in 11 weeks. 

So besides all those crazy experiences that where pretty fun, its been a hard week. I got here in my new sector way pumped and ready to go and thats when it all struck. Everyone in the district just starts talking bad on Tena. I tried not to listen but then the work started.  I would say it all just hit me yesterday in church though because it just built up throughout the week. So we dont even have a chapel to start with. Its an office where we hold our meetings. We had an assistence of 48 people yesterday and the branch has over 700 members but the rest are all inactive. It just all hit me because I was sitting there in church like oh my gosh where the heck am I? Principios del evangelio was just us 4 missionaries  teaching to 2 converts and then elders quorum was literally quorum de elderes because it was basically all missionaries. It was 4 missionaries, the branch president and some man that lives 3 hours outside of tena. Its so hot here you dont go to church in suits and you just sweat all day. Its so hard because I dont know if you guys have seen that vine where the guy asks the kid whats 9+10 and he says 21 Then he calls him stupid? That is literally how I feel here. Doesnt matter what you ask someone it can literally be hermano who is God to you? and they will respond with I read the bible everyday and I literally am like I dont care thats not what I asked. My patience has never been tried so much all at once. Im not gonna lie, the mission hasnt been easy buts it 100% been enjoyable for me and ive enjoyed the whole process and its been way fun! I love the mission but this week has been hard. I just almost broke down into tears. The ward is like a bucket of water with a bunch of holes as my mission president put it. Im trying so hard to love the people and my companion. Its been a new type of challenge for me. However, I tell the Lord everyday "ill go where you want me to go" I know its hard but He knows what he is doing. I obviously have some more forming He wants to do with me and thats why im here. I know why im on a mission. The answer is the same that I recieved in the MTC when I was having a hard time. "Elder Welch, do you love me? Feed my sheep" I love the Lord. I know im here for a reason and so im trying to be as obedient to the call to serve as ever. 

Sorry if the letter was negative but its been a hard week. Im excited for the chance to serve here in tena. I hope to leave a lasting impact in this area and to really show the Lord that I love Him. Ill go where ever He sends me

I love you all

Elder Welch

12 weeks!

Well I don't know if its common in other missions but when missionaries start their missions they go through the 12 week process where they are being trained. Then its common for missionaries to say they are in their 12 weeks when they are finishing up with their last 12 weeks. Im now in that boat and its crazy!

Well I today has been basically the worst Pday ever! We were about to get on a bus to go to a waterfall for a zone activity and then the assistants called me and told me I have emergency changes. This is my 3RD EMERGENCY CHANGE IN THE MISSION! I HATE them. They are so stressful but I know they are inspired. So I got taken out of my beloved ward Vista Hermosa after 3 weeks. Its awful I didnt even get to say goodbye to the people I love most! I got shipped to the jungle. I now (fingers crossed) am in my last sector. My sector is called Tena. Its the hottest part of the whole mission and its like straight jungle. Its the only part in the whole mission where you get to baptize in a river because its a super small branch with an assistance of about 30-50 people. It should be way cool! Right now im in baños because I just got off of a 4 hour bus ride and still have 3.5 hours to travel to get to my new sector. So they told me to stop here for the day and tomorrow I have to travel more. Then every Thursday I have to travel to baños for the district/zone meetings haha. Pretty crazy but im excited to be here. I remember Pte Christensen told me a little over a year ago that maybe one day ill go to Tena. He told me that the day before changes and I didnt go. With time the thought faded away. Now im going! Should be great and im excited to work and to baptize so you see some straight flammin baptismal pictures in the river in the middle of a jungle! 

The work was going great in Vista Hermosa. We were receiving a lot of references and eating arepas! It was great. 

So last week I got a little trunky and decided I would write down on a piece of paper some goals. I called it the missionary/man I want to be. It talks about the characteristics of the missionary I dream to be and the man I want to be. I felt inspired to do it because I still feel like there is WAYYYYYY more for me to get out of the mission. I feel like the Lord isnt done shaping me into the missionary and man he wants me to be. Im so grateful for the 21 months Ive had in the mission and for the 3 months I have left. Time to work hard!

Thanks for all the letters! know that I love you guys! Hope you all have a great week!

NO REGRETS!!!!!

Arepas

Well I'm sorry to inform you guys, the diet took a huge hit this week and it was all my fault. I decided it would be way cool if I learned how to make arepas with some venzuelans and it was way cool. I still gotta practice it but dont worry ill have it mastered for you guys when I get back. 

This ward is FILLED with members from venezuela. They all keep coming here trying to escape the horrible conditions that are in their country right now. So our recent finds this week came from German. He has a couple roommates that just moved in. They accepted to listen to us, a baptismal date, and came to church and I was pumped! First time thats happened in a while! They are about 20 years old the 2 of them so we are working with future missionaries which is awesome:) The worst part is I told them I like baseball and they ONLY talk baseball with me. All I literally said was I like baseball and they took it as if I love like crazy haha. I know nothing about baseball as far as players go and everything especially international play. So if you guys wanna fill me in thatd be cool so I dont look like an idiot haha

Well in my personal study I came across something that called my attention in mosiah 18:30. In this chapter Alma has just baptized about 200 people in the waters of mormon. And what calls my attention so much is in v30 when it says all this happened in mormon where they came to the knowledge of their Redeemer. Why I like that verse so much is because as well in the Book of Mormon, we come to the knowledge of our Redeemer. I know because it has happened to me. My testimony is the Book of Mormon is VERY strong. I know that this book is true and I wouldnt deny it for anything. I hope you all are reading it daily and applying what it teaches us.

Hopefully what I shared made sense because it did in my head

I love you all and hope you all have a great week! Talk to yall later! 

Camila

So this week was pretty good! Thankfully the baptism was able to go through super well besides the fact that 3 members showed up haha but its okay! I was happy because this is the best ward mission leader I think I have had in the mission! He is always way on top of things. He got the font filled, vacuumed everything and made the program without us having to say anything. It was way nice! 

So I really dont have too much time due to getting a haircut that took forever because the guy is this hardcore haircutter thats gonna travel to the states for a haircutting contest where he puts designs in peoples hair. He took a video of me and then took a picture afterwards. LOOK FOR ME ON INSTAGRAM! I got an Angel Moroni on the back of my head now its pretty hyphy

The part that stood out to me the most this week was the familia Cadena. So on tuesday we were walking and a man and his wife start contacting us in their car. They said they wanted a book of mormon and so it was like ya of course where do you live? So on friday we visited them and it was awesome! So we start talking not even asking questions to get any information out of him and then he just tells us everything! He literally told us why he wanted to listen to us, what are his beliefs and doubts. Literally straight money! Then the part that stood out to me the most was about Camila. So he is studying to become an orthodontist and one of the people that studies their is a girl named camila. He said he noticed her and noticed how mature she was especially since she is only 19. So he started talking to her and she told him that she was a member of the church and thats why she is how she is. She started telling him about the Book of Mormon and everything! She made such a big impact on him just from the way she carries herself, that he is now listening to us. I dont know what will happen with the familia Cadena, but I am so grateful for people that live the Gospel. You never know who is watching and the impact you can make on others just by living and following Christ.

Anyways I know that this work is true! I love being a missionary and I dont have an angel moroni on my head but the rest of the information was true. I love you all!