"Pray that we will be blessed with boldness, and the Spirit."

EMAIL from Elder Welker on 10/8/12

Dear Family,

 

Sup???? Ha ha ha. I am doing great. And I have a lot to say.

 

First, a cool fun facts. A kindly gringo elder acquired root beer for all district (distributed for General Conference). I shared with Elder T. last night, and he liked it. You can{t find root beer anywhere except at a Walmart here. So we enjoyed that, and Elder T. pointed out something very insightful about root beer, it kind of has a hint of mint in the taste. Huh. Ya learn something new every day.  Also, you can find peanut butter here in certain places! I just bought some today! Expensive, like fifty quetz, but worth it!

To answer your question Dad, yes, I can print these letters out, and it only costs like a dollar, so don{t sweat it too much! Thanks again for your letter, and I actually really appreciated the same thing about President Monson{s talk, about seeing people as they can be instead of how they are. Lots of talks said that, stuff like: "all that is essential to see is invisible to the eye",  or "I see with my heart".   Really cool, really interesting!

 

Funny story: So I was sharing a really spiritual lesson with one of our investigators. We gave him (and each of this three young children) a Book of Mormon. I asked him to turn to page 616 to read Ether 12:27...and IT WASNT THERE!!!! THE WHOLE BOOK OF ETHER, and parts of Mormon, and Moroni were missing...in ALL of our copies. We had given away like a dozen already, and all of the 36 we recieved had this error. I{ll keep one so I can show you guys later! Ha ha ha.

 

I guess I will start with the people here.

 

In La Alameda, most people are very friendly. They will stop for us if we begin talking to them. They may accept or reject our messages, but they usually accept and allow us to come by another time if we persist (which we do...). Most people here are either catholic, or evangelical. Or evangelical pentecosts, something else. Ok. To help describe what I am about to say, imagine how many chapels there are in Utah. Now cut up the chapels into fourths to eigths, and scatter them accross the neighborhood. That is how many evangelical churches there are. They arent usually very big. Usually they are in people{s homes. But as you walk down the street tuesdays, thursdays, saturdays and sundays, you can hear them singing alabanzas, applauding for the speakers, etc... These people are very festive, so their church meetings are like fiestas! Ha ha ha.

 

My comp, Elder T. has really helped me out here. He is like Elder Long with a ton of mission experience. He is hardworking, obedient, patient, and everything good that a trainer should be! Lucky me! Ha ha ha. He understands the value of being a "flechon" (hardworking, obedient, dilligent) missionary.   We are working our hardest to change how the members, leaders, bishop and others view us missionaries. 

 

We can do it. We say everyday when we plan or before we go out that we can do it. We can get a baptism (a lasting baptism) here. But we have a lot of work to do. We need to help the less active members of the ward council so that we can get a little help with our recent converts, less active members, and our current investigators. As of right now, we have three dependable men that can accompany us on our teaching visits. Two are youth about 17 and 18, and the other is an older father. We would like to find a few more. The members are everything when working with investigators.

 

Take for example our Investigator Monica. Monica is friends with another young single adult in the ward, and with the help of that friend, we have been teaching Monica, and we got her to attend Sunday Morning Conference with us! what a blessing! We must have tried with a dozen other investigators and less active members that said they would come to conference, we reminded them, and didn{t show for multiple reasons. But because that friend reminded Monica, walked to the chapel with her, and encouraged her, she attended, and seems interested. She is our first real progressing investigator!

 

We are striving for more.    There is a chain: Obedience leads to having the Spirit, which leads to working hard, which leads to working with the ward counsel, which works towards the family every week, which leads to new dates every week, which leads to the baptisms. Elder T. and I have the first three...we are going to visit every member of the council this week, and then we are going to move ahead!

 

We are teaching several other investigators that seem really interested in our help, the Book of Mormon, or the church. One just became (more or less) a single father due to the infidelity of his wife. We pray for him all the time. Another is a single mom that has a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but is afraid for some reason to come to church. Another is a teen about Emmy{s age that has a friend in the church, and seems to already know a lot about our rules and such. Another is an older man that has a hard time walking, but reads the Book of Mormon, and seems interested in our message. There are really actually a whole bunch of others, but they aren{t progressing very rapidly.

 

Elder T. and I believe that we can change this area. We have more or less seven more weeks to do so. So little time! We want to increase our stats slash numbers. For more than just the numbers. We want to be examples to the rest of our district in this tough area that we can make a difference, that we can fulfill the desires of our mission president, and that we can really change this area. The numbers, while aren{t everything, are very important because they indicate how the area is progressing.

 

Please, pray for our area. Pray that our ward will come together again. Pray that we may be able to touch their hearts. Pray that the investigators will keep their commitments. Pray that we can fulfill the goal the mission president has set for us. Pray that we will be blessed with boldness, and the Spirit. Pray that the other members of our district and zone can improve as well.

 

I pray for you guys. I appreciated the photos you guys took during conference. I really REALLY want the talks in English (they{ll come, don{t worry, we get the magazines). I learned and related to so many of them! Study their words. Especially concerning family history, family home evening, scripture study and prayer. I really hope you guys are continuing to do all of these! Please continue. I want to tell my investigators that these things can bless their family as it has mine. And strive for the conversion that many speakers talked about. I am trying to increase my faith. I need a ton more. Please work to increase the faith and spiritual activity of our family to more than Sunday.

 

Special Note, Britney Madsen, I got your letter, and will respond soon.

 

I love all of you guys. So much! But time is flying in this work, and now I can honestly say that I love it, and that I am immersed in it! I am not perfect, but I am trying.

 

Love

 

Elder Welker

"I know you guys are dying to know more about the area, so I will give you the best recap I can."

Email from Elder Welker on 10/1/12

I am doing great. The electricity came back this last Tuesday (yippie!), so we are going to buy fruit, meat, and stuff we can put in the fridge. I have to say, I am sure glad we cleaned the fridge. By the time the electricity came back, all of our food went bad, so we had mold like crazy in there. I took some picks so you can see before and after shots in the future! Ha ha ha.

I have been eating oatmeal, carne asada, rice, beans, nachoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooes........, and tamales, so I have been fine. OH! And we also ate this guatemalan dish: hilachas. MUY DELICIOSA. Its like a soup with potatoes (Boil them, mash them stick em in a stew), rice, meat, carrots. Way good stuff! Ha ha ha. I took some photos of this too, so you can see them later.

And just found out last night that Elder H. got an emergency transfer.  He is so stoked.   We{re happy for him. He leaves tonight at nine or so, so things will go back to normal...one companion....not two. Nope just kidding. That isn{t normal. Having two comps is normal now. Things are about to get a lot quieter around here! Ha ha ha.

Well, I got attacked by a chucho (dog) the other day. Tore up the bottom of my pants...need to get rabies shots if we don{t see that dog after a week.....

JUUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!    Ha ha ha. Nope, no problems with the chuchos so far. Most are pretty docile...and we avoid the others....ha ha ha. The most dangerous part about chuchos are the little chucho droppings that they leave all over. Yeah.....These shoes go through some abuse. Ha ha ha!

Ok, I got a list of some things that I might want out here for Christmas (Nikki edited out the stuff we sent him) :

-PHOTOS PLEASE send me some photos that I can hang onto. I wouldn{t mind getting letters with photos every once in a while as well. Digital isn{t as cool (can{t share them easy). Real photos are the best!

-Stickers. Everybody out here uses stickers. Around their TVs, on their cars, on their books, and missionaries in their {baggies{ (baggies are essentially yearbooks for missionaries. Friends write in each others, share photos, stickers of disney movies, mario, soccer, anything that has to do with them.). So riley knows what I like. If you guys could find any stickers that relate to me somehow (video games, movies, books, lds, etc...) I would love to have them!

Thank you so much for loving me. I don{t want you guys to go out of your way for me, but I know you want to send me something. Thanks! I love you guys!

Ok, I know you guys are dying to know more about the area, so I will give you the best recap I can.

I walk out of my yellow house. Lock the door twice. Exit the gate in front of my house and step out into the allyway. From there I walk out to the main street. On the main street are shops-slash-houses everywhere. They sell everything from tortillas to T'shirts. Each one is pretty small, and most have the kinds of things you{d find in a convenient store (candy, soap, dog food, bread, beans, etc...). And-you are going to have to have riley explain this-they are all Legend of Zelda (not Skyward sword) style shops. You don{t actually walk into and pick up your stuff. You stand in front of a gate between you and the shop, and point to what you want. Then they tell you what its worth, and you accept, or not. I haven{t seen my comps haggle much, and most of the prices are the same in between the shops. I think the heavy competition keeps it down.

Keeping in mind that I am the ONLY gringo in my area, I pass the shops, comedors (mini restaurants), people, chuchos, and chucho droppings, I walk down the hill into the larger part of my area. I see buses pass by frequently, because apparently they park their buses in a teeny little plaza after they make a round. The buses de Transurbano are pretty nice. You pay with a card to get on, and file to the back, because it can get a little crowded in there. The buses move pretty quickly. The taxis are REALLY fast. Ha ha ha. And motorcycles are really common here.

I see kids playing futbol in the street with little plastic balls a little bigger than a canteloupe that are pretty common here. Most if not all the roofs are made of corrugated iron, and many of the walls are too. Lots of smoke occupy the streets from the little grills that cook up tortillas, carne, and a whole bunch of other stuff that you can buy on the sidewalks.

Eventually we turn down a calle or avenida. They are narrow. The houses on either side are like walls made out of individual houses, just like the main streets. It reminds me a little of Main street in Provo. You can{t enter a house without first entering an outer gate. All the windows have bars over them, and the roofs of gates or fences have either nails, broken glass or barbed wire on top to make sure they are safe.

Then we go and teach our investigators, less active members and friends.

It RAINS often, so I always carry my umbrella. I can{t remember a time not seeing a cloud in the sky, or in the distance. At times when it rains, you can see your breath. Not because it is cold, but because it is so humid, condensation on your breath, skin and clothes is crazy. So yeah. Even with the umbrella, I get somewhat wet. Definitely not Utah. Ha ha ha.

Well, I only got a little time left so I want to tell you guys something important. Spiritual. Next week I will talk about the people.

Lets see. I have a few scripture heroes that I keep above my desk: Captain Moroni, Enos, and Jesus Christ. Today, I researched Enos like I researched Teancum in the past. And I found a lot of interesting stuff. I don{t have time to write it all today, so I will just give a short summary.

Enos{s prayer to preserve the records was answered. Everyone knows that. But something that always got me about that is the fact that it was already promised to Nephi and Jacob in the past. So did Enos receive an already promised gift?

YES! And that is the point.

He must have studied the words of his father and uncle a lot, and pondered on their prophesies. And he came to the conclusion that it was up to him to make this prophesy come to pass. He made a plan (like the brother of Jared and the stones), and presented it to God. He knew that their words will reach the Lamanites in the future, but he proposed that the plates be protected from the Lamanites (because the Lamanites swore to destroy them) even after the Nephites were destroyed.

Enos aligned his will with God. That is why he recieved the desires of his heart. He had faith in what was already prophesied. And because he aligned his will, he recieved what he desired. Faith must be centered in something true for it to be faith. Therefore, we must not pray with the desire to recieve things that aren{t the Lords will. we must align our will first. And then we will know what to have faith in. We must learn his will.

Five minutes left. I wanted to write part of my most important Journal Entry yet, but I don{t have time. It is about my lowest point in the mission thus far, about my moment of truth that they talk about in the CCM, and how things turned out. But it is very long. I may make photocopies and send it to you physically. 

I love you all so much! I hope you are all doing alright. Send my love to my BYU family, and friends. Im sorry I forgot to send photos. Next time!

I love you all!

Elder Welker

"I still have so many blessings! Why should I complain?"

Email excerpt from Elder Welker  on 9/24/12

(I had recently started calling Taylor "Teancum" from the Book of Mormon.  He responded:)
I did some research on him (Teancum) last week, and I liked what I found.  Teancum and his men were a wall against evil. They stopped evil in its tracks and sent it back where it came from. They were skilled, well above the skell of the Lamanites. Teancum would take matters into his own hands in defense of the people.  Teancum was wise, and patient in that he didn{t attack the Lamanites in forms that could risk his entire army. Yet he was dilligent in preparing his men for the time slash moment to attack.  He had Captain Moroni{s trust. He was commanded to be faithful in his area (a whole quarter of the country), to seek every opportunity to scourge the Lamanites in his part of the land, and to use strategem to retake captured Nephite cities, and fortify cities still under Nephite control. (Nephite cities are members, Captured Nephite cities are less active members).  He was obedient, yet prudent and made his own judgements (ch. 52).  Teancum commanded evil, and dilligently watched them to stop insurrections.

The one time he wasn{t patient, Teancum was slain.  Be constantly wary and never let your guard down.  And that is what I wrote in my Journal. Ha ha ha.

 

Cool fun things:  You know the tricycle Nacho drives in Nacho Libre? Rode in one! Man powered, not gas. It was only a Quet! Thought dad might appreciate that!

Quick note, any Christmas packages must be sent by October 15, or at the very latest October 31. I could use some fine tipped sharpies, and a few other things I can{t remember right now. I’ll write them down and let you know.

Lets see. Oh, I heard bite me in the boca and another Zumba song you listen to but can{t identify... Thought that might make you laugh mom! Ha ha ha.

Lets see. TELL EMMY HAVE FUN AT HOMECOMING!!!!

I haven{t had electricity in the house this last week because the missionaries before us forgot to pay the electric bill. So no fridge. No stove. No microwave. No hot showers (I can handle this part. You just don{t think about it. Just jump in as soon as the water comes on! Ha ha ha). I{ve been eating apples, raisins, crackers, cookies, at a cafeteria, at members houses, I{m fine. It is actually kind of fun! Ha ha ha. We use flashlights and candles at night. So we{re fine.

At first I was freaking out a little. I didn{t know how long it would be out. We just bought groceries, and everything. But then a few minutes later I had the thought, ´´I still have so many blessings! Why should I complain?´´. And I have been fine with it since. We are hoping to get the power back by next monday. We were going to get it back today, but we found out that we have to pay at a bank out of our mission, so we can{t go pay it. We have to wait for permission, or someone else to pay it for us. So we{ll see!

Ha ha ha. Sent Nick a letter today too. That{s why I am a little short on time today. I just needed to send him something. I hope he is doing alright!

Tell Riley I really wish I could have seen him push the pig off the tower. But I can imagine it perfectly. And cool idea for his tree house.

Just so you know. It may take months to catch up on these pictures, so bear with me. Ha ha ha.

Ten minutes left. What else What else. We had Domino’s pizza the other day. It was alright. Not my pizza, but alright! Ha haha

Well. I love you all. So much! Time is passing slowly and yet quickly. Slowly because I am at the bottom of the Zone, bottom of the mission in time. But quick because the work is going great.

Last story. Chuchos. Lots of them EVERYWHERE! They are wild dogs of every breed imaginable. Dangerous? Most no. Some...yes. But we avoid those! Ha ha ha. SERIOUSLY EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!

What else should I say... I love you! I love all of you! So much! I miss you. OH! If you could send real pics not digital with the Christmas package, that would be great too!

Love you all!

Elder Welker