Libre Como el Viento

Another awesome bumper sticker I saw haha 

This was a little difficult but that's okay I've been warned that the mission isn't the easiest thing in the world. Anyways I've had a lot of heart breaking experiences this week that literally i just cant take bc they make me so upset. 

1. This experience happened about 30 minutes ago. I went up asked the guard to a bank if i could pay the light bill here and he said yes so i waited in line for about 45 minutes only for the guy to awkwardly look at the paper i handed him and say what is this and me explain it to him and he goes yeah we don't do this. I wanted to hit that guard in the face. not cool. 

2. This next experience is actually one that really made me upset. We taught this new investigator and she listened and all that. Then at the very end of the lesson when we were getting ready to invite her to baptism my comp said something about the book of Mormon and she went LOCA! COMPLENTAMENTE LOCA! She was like i cant believe in another book. Okay why not. Bc the bible is all there is. No, Christ said there are more of His sheep in another part of the world this is them. NO i dont believe you. Thats okay you can go pray about it. No i wont i like my church. Have you received an answer that your church is true? no. Will you pray about our message then? no. Will you pray about your church then? no. Okay hermana whats gonna happen if you don't pray about your church or ours and what we are teaching you is true and you didn't even want to pray about it? Idk but i just don't believe in that book and I don't wanna pray about it. That is basically how the last 20 minutes of the lesson went. It literally broke my heart to see such a sweet person go so cold hearted and not even want to pray about what we were teaching. I can only imagine how Heavenly Father feels when His own children reject Him and His son. Its really quiet frustrating and sad. 

3. This kid my home boy, my home skillet, home slice home digity, Alex Vargas is the freaking man! He is only 16 years old and this kid is just awesome! Over the past month or so we have been teaching him I've developed such a love for the kid! (not gay love) He is so awesome! Like any one would if they did everything we invited them to do after each lesson, he has received an answer and knows what we are teaching him to be true. He literally is the coolest! The only sad part is that his parents wont let him get baptized. They believe hes not old enough to make that decision. Ive begged Alex to let us talk to his parents and his parents say they have nothing to talk to us about. That we can continue to teach him, he can come to church, he just cant get baptized because hes "not mature enough yet". Man Alex just started crying in the lesson when he told us all this and was like I know its true they just don't believe me that i know. He then said "once I turn 18 I'm going to get baptized" Mom, dad, i promised him i would go to his baptism in 2 years. Please let me haha. But he also goes to all the missionary prep classes that our church has. The kid is a stud! Love that kid! 

The cool experience of the week was yesterday. We went to go give a blessing to a less active that has been sick. I told my comp to do it because he never has and it was awesome. Hes 82 years old and hes been sick with pneumonia. He hasn't walked in a month! My comp blessed him with the ability to go to church next week and to reactivate himself. After the blessing my comp goes, "i said in the blessing that you would have the strength to be able to go to church again. How about you walk around the room." He was super hesitant and so i booted in and said "hermano do you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?" He said yes. So i said "you cant have even a slight doubt that you cant walk around this room. Have faith in him and we will do it with you." He was so scared so we said it to him again about not having doubt. Then we helped him up and watched him walk around the room. First time in a month he has left his bed and walked. That was honestly such a spiritual experience to us all. He came back to his bed and sat down and just had this glow in his eyes. There is a reason the first principle in the gospel is the faith. Without the faith, there is nothing.Such a powerful moment. Makes all those other heart breaking experiences i mentioned above so worth it in the mission to have experiences like this. 

Thanks for all the letters y'all have sent me! They are awesome as is you. Love you all! Talk to you all next week! 

My new glasses!

These fun toy motor cars that my comp and me had a race in around the mall. As you can see in picture 2 I won. He ate my dust

"If life was easy, it wouldn't be hard"

So this week was awesome! Im not gonna lie, the mornings were a little bit rough, but i went hard on the workouts to get my mind off things and let me tell you what. I is gonna be ripped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its been a great learning experience and I'll tell you why. 

So I had the opportunity to read my patriarchal blessing this week and some things really hit me hard. I wont share them but its had such a positive impact on me. Its given me a lot of comfort and helped me more fully attempt to grasp the idea that God has in store for me. Ive been reading "leales a la fe" and its been helping me a lot too. Talks also are getting me pumped up to work! If you are ever down and you don't like it, listen to a bombin talk by either Elder McConkie or President Brown and they will make you feel like a champ and you is happy. Also dustin told me one time that I shouldn't be sad because sad spelled backwards is das, and DAS not good. Believe it or not, its helped. I would say the thing that hit me the hardest was the song "have I done any good" by Alex Boye. I was listening to it and it just hit me super hard!

Have I done any good in the world today?

Have I helped anyone in need?

Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?

If not, I have failed indeed.

Has anyone's burden been lighter today

Because I was willing to share?

Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?

When they needed my help was I there?

The reason I love it so much is because I bring a message of happiness as a missionary. The last line "when they needed my help was i there?" Hit me super hard! Its like I can be sad or I can do my job and my calling and help others be happy. I need to be there for others and I need to help them out and the Lord will bless me after the mission. Grasping this concept has made me cheer up so much. I am really grateful for everything that has happened in my life. I know the Lord has put me through trials bc He knows I can handle them. I love my mission! 

Thanks so much for all the letters and prayers and consejo! Its made me feel very loved and im happy now. I would honestly say this is one of the happiest times I've been on my mission. Give everything to Him. Don't fight anything and you will be blessed with happiness! This church is true and you all stay golden! 

Remember me? No you don't! Cuz I'm gonna mess you up

Well yeah this week has been a pretty crazy and a rough one that's for sure. Yeah to start out, we got emergency changes and I stayed in the sector and elder espinosa left. i was kinda bummed bc i was really ready to leave, But my companion is awesome! He jut came back on the mission about a week ago and so hes got about 5 months in the mission. He's really an awesome guy and im going to learn A LOT from him this change! His name is Elder Gonzalez from Texas. People think hes latino but i don't see it haha 

Well with a pretty big trial that just hit me, I was forced to reflect more on my purpose in the mission. I remember about 2 months ago I fasted and prayed super hard to receive comfort in the plan of God. Yeah, it's going to be hard, but bc of that time I have my trust in Him and He knows WAYYYYY better than I do. Ill be great! Thanks for all of the Support!

So this week we only got to visit Alex one time. Hes doing great now! Hes been praying and reading and so he went and talked to his parents and said "I've been thinking and praying and i want you guys to know i might changereligions" after a  few questions he said he feels good doing what we invite him to and he wants to know a little more about his answer first. He still hasn't come to church but this week he will! I have faith! Hes awesome

So next we got Kevin Baca. That malcreado is funny but he's starting to frustrate me. He's not doing anything and won't come to church. We taught him about as spiritual of a lesson as you can when you are teaching in the street and my companion went HARD! He testified and said " We know that if you come to church tomorrow, you will have your answer" So powerful even if the spanish was off. It was amazing to be present. Unfortunately, he was scared of an answer and didn't come. We will see what happens with him!

Well yeah, sorry this letter is kinda short. I hope you all are doing great and having a fantastic time! Thanks for all the prayers they are much appreciated. Time to get even more lost in this great cause! "despues todo lo que se ha dicho, el mayor y más importante deber es predicar el Evangelio" I love you all! Talk to you later! 

Pitch perfect: élder welch brings j-biebs back

So this past friday was a pretty good day! I was really happy about what we could get done in our short work day. So Alex accepted fecha for the 13 and so did Kevin. Although that doesn't sound like that big of a deal, that's the first time someone in our sector has accepted fecha for about 4 weeks so i was pumped even though they both fell on sunday. Other than that, our ward did a show de talentos. With how typical of Ecuador it was, they ran out of talents after about an hour so they just started calling people out. They called some people out and they left to go practice in another room. Then they called on an hermana who sang primary hymns in english and spanish. Then my name creeps up "welch, welch, welch, welch!" So i played it cool. I went up talked to the DJ and got things rollin. The intentions were to out-do myself when i did "ill be there" on the cruise. I was planning to bring high-pitch matt back. I didnt quiet out-do myself on the cruise, but i did bring the house down and got chanted for an encore. I brought JBiebs to the Latacunga building. I brought the pitch, i brought the moves, I even brought Ludacris with me when I dominated "baby" by JBiebs. My moves were killer. I am officially known as Elder Bieber in the ward now. 

   

So as far as work goes its going ight. We are working super hard and not seeing very many fruits but I know they will eventually grow on this tree that I'm planting here in Latacunga! So last week dad and dustin wrote me about alma 21-24 i think it was of Ammons converts. How they built there testimony in Christ and they never fell away. So I decided I would capacitate on that on thursday in the district meetings. We are all taught at the beginning of the mission to baptize converts, and how do we do that? we teach and preach and testify of Christ and invite others to follow Him. So an activity we did is we went through lessons 1-4 and counted the number of times it mentioned Christ or one of His nicknames. It was a TON! I forgot to write down the exact number of times in my agenda but it was a lot. We then did practices having to teach a principle in a lesson and use His name the same number of times predicad does. I think it was a really good practice to help us remember our purpose and to help us have converts in Christ not in any other reason! 

   
A couple other things happened this week that I loved. So I was reading alma 60 and was reminded of a capacitation that the APs gave in a zone conference one time about cleaning our vessels first from the inside and the outside will be pure too. I really loved it. Ill keep what i learned to myself this week and invite you guys to read it and share something with me about what you learned from it! Another thing that happened was my comp got pretty sick one morning out of no where. So after studying for awhile and getting pretty bored after a couple hours, i went through all my pictures from where im at now, to the very beginning. It was so weird first of all to see how much I've changed outwardly, but also to see how much happier I look now in my mission then i was at the beginning. Its might be hard for you guys to see the difference if you went through my pictures but the mission has honestly changed my life. I always had a testimony, but not on a lot of gospel principles I do now. I understand so much more and i still have a lot more to learn! Tengo más deseos ahora a perseverar hasta el fin para que yo pueda llenar mi silla en el reino celestial con todos de mis queridos! The mission is awesome and I'm super excited to see you guys in 11 months! Im excited to see you all and how much you've grown and to show you all how much i have! Thanks for all you guys do! Thanks for all the letters. I love you all and will talk to you next week! maybe in a new sector also because we have changes this sunday!!!!

I also cut my comps hair and I messed up big time and just had to cut it all to a 0 hahaha. I thought I was qualified to cut a black people type hair but the fade is too hard haha 

The long awaited moment has come to an end! I finally ate guinea pig and I'm okay if I don't get it again! 

This is what the leg looks like

Salí con Dios. Si no regreso, me fui con Él

Ive decided when i cant think of a good subject ill put a wicked awesome bumper sticker I have read here. So far, this is the most commonly used.

This past week we were waiting for Galo to show up and we found a bike outside. I found a lot of cinderblocks and I made a ramp. It did not turn out to well for my companion the 2 attempts he tried. I told him he had to pick up the front wheel or he would flip but he did his own thing and he flipped. The second fall I got on video. Unfortunately i cant send videos home cuz they are too big, so i took a screenshot of a part of the fall. It was great and i laughed really hard haha

well with this past saturday behind us and that day being exactly the half way point of my mission, I am officially on the back 9. I played pretty well on the front 9 with a few bapts and rescues and of course i got myself a couple blisties, but i can play better.

So this week i was reading in Alma a lot about Moroni and the wars and stuff. Yeah i have read those chapters before, but ive never read them as a missionary. It was awesome. I got so pumped up while reading those to just get jacked out of my mind. So ive been going super hard in the mornings and started my new diet. Its basically impossible to count your macros here on the mission so that one wont work so i decided the new diet im on is the Word of Wisdom haha. I heard Christ followed it like to the max and he never got sick. So i figured i would give it a try and see how it goes. If i wanna play better on the back 9 i cant afford getting sick. Ill let you know every now and then how its going.

This past week I went so freaking hard in the paint! We knocked about over 300 doors this week and played with a lot of dogs. But we unfortunately fell short of the goal of a new every single day. However, we do have at least 1 very sure investigator and another that will progress if we can find him a friend in the church. So we have some work to do but there is a lot more to do. Ive studied the map thats in my house for a few hours and ive made a couple new plans this week of where we need to go! Im super excited to try these out and to hit some more doors and save some souls! 

The investigator that is progressing his name is Alex Vargas. Hes super cool and hes best friends with our old pensionistas twin boys. Hes 16 and shows a lot of promise! He loves to pray and he said hes looking for the true church. We got the permission from his parents to teach him more now they know that we arent testigos. Im super happy with his desire to pray and listen to us! Hopefully you will see a picture of him in white within a few weeks!

So one of the plans we came up with is the ward plays soccer friday nights on the church canchas. Alex was there and he had a lot of fun. The members want us bringing more members so that is 100% fine by me because it will help the progress of our investigators and I get to play soccer. Hopefully it works great! I think it will

Thanks so much for your letters. You guys are awesome and i hope you all have a fun week playing the new pokeman game. Everyone knows about it here but it only works in the states. I heard theres one on everest so good luck with that one! But I love you guys and hope you all are doing great! 

the Avila families cake for me haha 

belt ZIPLINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE did not work I have more pictures but my time is up. I started 15 minutes before i had to go and they didnt download in time. Ill go to a fast cyber next time. I love you guys! I still got plently more pictures! 

Really Late Birthday Celebration for Matt!

To explain yeah I'm some members got some festivities for me after pday! So it should be fun! 

So with last weeks email I explained the bad luck ive been having these past couple days. Well the bad luck continued. I was playing with a soccer ball on our patio and kicked it onto our neighbors roof. Still havent got that back. Then onTuesday we were visiting a less active thats about 14 and he was playing soccer in his store with his cousin and i kicked a freaking HUGE hole in this glass case haha. I like held my foot once i heard glass shatter and it was inside the freaking case haha. I had to go buy a new vidrio to put in and i bought the wrong size. Lucky it fit another area in the store that was broken and didnt have to buy a new one but it still wasted like 4 hours and some money. My comp told me to get rid of my bad luck i needed to shower with salt and sugar. So i did it. Let me tell you what. IT WORKED!!! If you guys are ever in a slump just do that and itll work. I even got the cell phone back that i lost last sunday! WOOOOOO

Okay to start about the work, Its been pretty rough im not gonna lie. There have been some spiritual things happening and some experiences where its like youre lucky i dont know my bible well enough to just make you cry right now. Other then that im lovin it. Every sunday night though i get pretty frustrated with the numbers for the week. SO i made a goal with my comp to find 7 new investigators this week. The goal is one a day. Ive decided im not just settling for the recent convert lessons, which are good but thats all we have, and im hittin doors all day if its necessary to find that one new investigator for the day. Now, you might be thinking, door knocking= not effective, but in this mission it is! We are baptizing 47% from contacting. Thats more than any other method. I truly believe in contacting and as a lot of people say talking to everyone. I know the Lord will put people in our way to teach and help progress when we show Him more diligence in trying to find.

To end, I was reading the book of mormon the other day and came across a scripture that i really liked. I dont remember where its at but Alma is talking to one of his sons. He starts explaining about the laminitas and how the Lord is going to preserve them because eventually they will be converted. Now that got me pumped up! I read that verse and right after we did weekly planning and thats where I made the goal to find. I truly believe SOOOO many of theseEcuadorians are descendants of the Laminitas and the Lord is preparing them for us. We just gotta do our part.

The work is rough and we are basically starting all over again investigator wise. But thats okay because i know something great is going to come out of this week and im excited to see the Lords help as we try to bring more souls to Him.

I love you guys and im grateful for your letters! I have pictures, but i just got back from a zone activity and dont have my cord to upload the pictures cuz i havent been home yet. You'll get double next week! I love you all! Have a great week! 

525,600 minutes!!

haha i started singing that song and then realized i have a latino companion that doesnt know english so i had to make a remix and sing it in spanish. English version is better. 

So this week was pretty rough and i aint lying. So to start let me tell you why. First i lost my agenda in a taxi. My companion hasnt been writing anything down so all of our planned lessons i didnt remember and all the contacts we have done gone. I am now getting on him about writing down EVERYTHING! Second, I lost the freaking cell phone. Man was i tickled about that. Just too much this week for me to handle haha. I have also been having a lot of headaches due to a LOT of stress!

So its going ight here in latacunga. We have no progressing investigators and havent since Galo got baptized. I feel like ive been working so hard like harder than i have my whole mission and nothing. Its very frustrating. I dont know what is needed to be learned out of this experience, but like i said in an email a couple weeks ago, you gotta choose to be happy. Despite all the very very frustrating things that have happened to me this week, ive been trying to stay positive and just laugh it all off even tho its not funny at all. I dont like losing my temper anymore for that i had to stop playing chess with my last comp haha. The mission is really teaching me so much. Ive never been more paciente in my life. Its a goal i made at the beginning of the year with president which was to be more positive. Theres no reason to be negative on the mission.

Work wise, we have the fam andrade. Once again didnt show. This reasoning was pretty garbage it was they were at a party and the husband got drunk and they didnt get home till 4 am. Honestly I love this family and know there is potential. We just need to keep working with them and following their needs and eventually they will come around. The spirit is present in these lessons, they just arent doing their part. I know eventually though they will get baptized. When, i dont know.

As a zone we have a zone cita. Its the Joseph Smith quote of "after everything thats been said, the most important duty is to preach the gospel" (almost positive i butchered that. I only memorized it in spanish). Its really actually such a powerful quote. Whenever your day is just garbage and you wanna just sit down and die cuz you are so tired of walking up and down hills all day you think, this is the most important thing in the world. I need to do my part. Besides i only got 525600 minutes to do this full time!

I love my calling and the opportunity i have to help these ecuadorians. Thanks so much for the birthday wishes and all that jazz. Happy late birthday to tyler and early birthday to boston! Hope all is going well! I love you all! Talk to you next week 

So there was a cool mountain biking contest here. I decided to take a Dan Jones foto of me preaching the gospel to some of the crowd