Week 25 Feliz Navidad!

Ok so I want to try to keep this letter as short as possible since I am going to be skyping my family this next Sunday.


Alright so first off I am so glad that I left Maldonado and came here to Lezica in Montevideo. Especially cause our stake has the coolest most dopest Christmas parties every year. We went to a Christmas Concert in the stake center here and the members here put a lot of work into this concert here and it was super cool especially when they sang the song "Last Christmas" (I gave you my heart or something like that) and they sang it in English very well which was really cool. They ended the concert singing Feliz Navidad which was also done really well. There were soo many people there it was packed and President Eddy and his whole family came to it as well and so did President Olsen and his whole family (he is the president of the West Uruguay mission).


Ok so also this past week I got my packages from my family. I recieved the huge 50 pound bag that I had to haul back to our house and also my parents got a bunch of other gifts for me which was a huge surprise cause the bag alone was 50 pounds.


Also church yesterday was very interesting. An x-missionary who served 8 years ago returned here to Uruguay cause a girl he baptized just finished serving her mission in Paraguay and she is in my ward and was giving her homecoming talk.


Also besides my parents, someone else from St. George decided to take a trip down here as well.
His name is Amando Sandes and he is from St George from the Morningside 6th ward and he currently lives in the Riverside apartments so it was really cool seeing someone who lived 30 seconds from my house in St George in a country that is really far from the US. Funny how small this world is.


Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad!

-Elder Welker

Also I am kind of impatient when it comes to waiting to open Christmas gifts on Christmas Day

Week 24 First week here in Lezica!

Ok so this past week I said goodbye to Maldonado and made my way to Montevideo North in the area of Lezica. First things first is that Lezica here is a lot smaller than my old area and also there are a lot less people and Lezica is also quite a bit nicer than my old area so a lot of the people are not as humble just adding to the difficulty of finding new investigators here. We only have like 3 investigators we are working with right now and none of them have been progressing very well so I am hoping to turn that around here and start finding more people to teach.


My comp Elder Sarkady is a cool guy from Provo Utah and we are getting along great. He has been in the mission for 15 months and so I am hoping to learn a lot from him this change. Also we share a house with 2 other Elders. E Filigrana from Columbia who also happened to start his mission in Maldonado like me and E Soriano from my group in the CCM. He is the one from Suprise Arizona.


Yeah but things are good here. I cant lie when I say I miss Maldonado but I enjoy my new area and I am hoping to make the best of it while I am here.


Also it was good to hear that my parents had a good trip here. This country is great and I love the fact that I get to serve here!


-Elder Welker

Didnt have any pics of us before so I just barely took this

Week 23 Goodbyes are sooo hard!

Ok so I just got the news last night that I am leaving Maldonado and going to the zone of Norte in Montevideo. My new comp/district leader is Elder Sarkady. I dont know who he is all I know is that he is a big guy- taller than me (first time thats happened here) 

But of course I was already expecting to be leaving since I just finished my 3rd change here and so I said goodbye to all of the members already. To be honest I am sad to be leaving because the members and just this area in general is so great but I was getting a bit bored here since I have the area memorized like the back of my hand and so after a while all of the days just kind of blend in together. 

I had my last charla with the family from Columbia and they came to church this Sunday which was super awesome. They love the church and are really close with the members here. It definitely wont be long til they get baptized and hopefully I will be able to travel back here to see it.

Well while it is hard to say goodbye to all of the members it is going to be especially hard to say goodbye to my friend Elder Cary tomorrow. Me and him are going to have this one last night and also the bus ride to Tres Cruzes before I wont see him again for 18 months. He was the coolest person I have ever met in my entire life and he is like a brother to me. He also gave me his American Flag and also some ties and some cool Star Wars collectables. I am probably going to cry when he leaves. I will definitley take a bunch of photos tonight and tomorrow.

1. Me with family Rodriguez and family Tort

2. Me with family Sanguiao and their dog Roco

3. Me with Hna Laura and her son Augustine

4. Me and E Alvarez having asado

Week 22 Might be my last week here in Maldonado.

Ok so like the title says this could be my last week here in Maldonado.

Changes are next week and it is very likely that I will be leaving for a different area. But to be honest I am not going to be very sad if I leave cause I feel like I have been here for such a long time and I want to experience something different.

Of our current investigators, Giulianna is the only one that is progressing right now. She is doing really well while trying to quit smoking. However she is leaving Maldonado and moving with her and her 2 kids to Treinta y Tres next week 😞. But thats ok cause the missionaries in 33 can continue teaching where we left off and hopefully get her batpized (or I could be sent to 33). 

Ok so me and my comp just experienced the biggest miracle I have ever seen on Sunday.

So none of our investigators showed up at church which was a bummer. But during the 3rd hour of church a family walked in our church (a mom, a dad, and a son (12 yr) from Colombia). They are not members of the church and had just moved here to Uruguay 8 days ago. They have always been religious and decided to go to a church on Sunday. The bishop and the other leaders of the church moved quickly to get to know them and where they lived. We introduced ourselves as the missionaries and after getting their address we asked if we could come by at 4 o clock to get to know them a little better.

So at 4 we arrived at their home. We walked in and they were very friendly and we started to ask them some simple questions to get to know them better.

They said that their daughter currently lives here in Maldonado and that they wanted to leave Columbia for a place that was more peaceful. And because their daughter already lived here it was an easy move for them.

So after a few minutes we started talking about our beliefs. They told us that they had always been active in a church in Columbia, but they didnt agree with that church because the preacher their used the members tithing money to buy nice things for himself. They didnt like the fact that they had to give of their money for someone else to have really nice things. We quickly explained how all of the teachers and the leaders at church do it out of service and how tithing is used to help others in need and to build the kingdom of God.

We then started talking about the Restoration and the BofM and we explained how God can tell us that these things are true through the Holy Ghost because the Holy Ghost will give us good feelings that will testify to us if these things are true and how it can guide us. They then told us the most amazing thing. They said that they didnt know which church to attend that morning. They said that there were many different churches in every direction from their house. They then said that something told them to head up a certain road and as they started up that road they saw the spire or point of our church and decided to walk in that church. 

They truly were sent here to Uruguay for a reason and God led them to His true church because of their faithfulness. They truly are faithful. They live Mormon standards better than I do. They only listen to Christian music and dont watch movies that are bad or are horror movies and things like that. I would love to stay here to continue to teach them but if not it is ok and I know that they will turn out fine. Whether or not they end of joining the church they have felt Gods love for them for their faithfulness. But I have a strong feeling that they are never going to turn from this path and my comp and his next comp are going to have some great experiences teaching this great family.

-Elder Welker

Week 21 Conference with Elder Rasband

Ok so this week was pretty good but had a few let downs 😖 (I dont know why but the other Elder Welker really likes to use these emojis in his letters and to be honest it is about the only thing you can do to make letters a little bit more interesting)

So this past week was pretty interesting. On Wed my District Leader accidently stabbed himself in the leg with my switchblade and had to go to the hospital which really ruined our plans for the day because they were in the middle of an intercambio. It was actually really funny and all of us were just dying laughing when we realized that he had accidently stabbed himself in the leg (until he took off his pants and there was blood everywhere) which at that point we called 911 😅. 

Anyway we are still laughing about that today and probably the rest of our missions. 

So the conference with Elder Rasband was soo good. It was probably the happiest day of my life because the bus from Maldonado to Montevideo is 2 hours long so I got to talk with Elder Cary, my best friend in the mission and 8th best BF4 player n the world for the whole ride. After me and E Cary got off the bus we we walking to the entrance of the conference center and I saw Elder Arthur Anderson from the other mission standing at the entrance so I ran up to him and we took a picture (I didnt have my camera but he did so he will probably send it your way) It was cool seeing someone from my old ward. So I totally forgot to bring my notes with me but it was such a great talk that he gave on following the spirit and overcoming the natural man in our work. I also got to shake his hand which makes him the 2nd apostle that I have shaken hands with. I really liked his talk and I know that we need to be in tune with the spirit and to try to let the spirit influence us in our lives on where to go and what to do and what to say. 

It was a great week and Giulianna finally came to church for the first time! She is also doing good with her goal to stop smoking and we are keeping close tabs on her. We are trying to figure out what to do with Federico because something went down and his family is really concerned for him cause he may have went back to doing drugs so we are trying hard to help his family and also to get in contact with him. So right now we are just trying to find more people to teach and it seems pretty likely that I am going to leave Maldonado in 2 weeks so I think I am going to start packing just to be safe.

Love you all!

-Elder Welker

The Corn Bread Krew

Me, Elder Cary (Former King of the CBK but resigned because he is leaving in 2 weeks) and Elder Ontiveros. Also E Andersen in the back but he isnt a member

He thought if you press the button down on the switchblade you can push it against your leg and the blade will just go back in the handle (which is true). He had it in his hand and as a joke he pretended to stab himself in the leg cause if you hold the button down it looks like it would enter your leg but the blade really would just go back in the handle. The only problem was that it didnt go back all the way so a part of the blade actually entered his leg. We didnt notice at first until we saw a hole in his pants.

This is from Arthur Anderson's email:

Speaking of people that look like they are doing well; The day of that conference I was nearly blindside tackled by an Elder with a very familiar face. Elder Justin Welker almost turned me into a squished orange when he saw me. He gave me the biggest hug I think I have ever gotten in my life and had the most sincerely brilliant smile I have ever seen on Justin's face. It was really good to see him. He has grown up A TON! It sounds like Spanish is coming along pretty good for him with all his Latin friends he has. He is going to be wonderful missionary and a leader real soon in his mission! Here is a picture of our meeting!

Week 20 Great way to finish off our week!

So I am not going to include anything about last week except for Maria and Belen

Alright so last Thursday E Alvarez and I took our District Leader to the house of Maria and Belen to have their baptismal interviews. And just as expected, THEY PASSED!!!

On Saturday at 7 pm we had the priviledge of witnessing their baptisms. 

I am not sure if I ever told you guys but her son (Gonzalo) is a very active member of the church in another ward here in Maldonado and he baptized and confirmed both of them. His daughter also spoke on the topic of Baptism before the baptismal service and it was so cool seeing Gonzalo and his entire family their to support them. I have also never witnessed anything so remarkable and spiritual than those two baptisms last Saturday.

Gonzalo was struggling to say the words to baptize his own mother as tears were flowing down his face and after baptizing her they hugged for the longest time. It was such an amazing experience being able to see someone baptize his mom and sister.

Also if I didnt mention before Gonzalo was the member who took himself and his family to see general conference in Utah last month.

It was such a priviledge to be able to be a part (small part) in this process. I am thankful to all of you and all of your prayers that really helped us to help Maria and Belen reach this point in their lives.

It was also very touching to be able to shake hands with every member of their family and hear each of them say "thank you" in English (which is funny cause I can understand what they say in Spanish) but it went a long way and really meant a lot to me (even though the people that had the most effect on Maria and Belens conversions was by far their own family). I will never forget these moments and the spirit that testified to me during the service that said "God Lives and Loves each of His children!" I know that this is why I came out here and I know that this is why God calls on each of us, fulltime missionary or not, to seek out the lost sheep and bring them home.

Thank you all for your support in this divine process that allows families like these to be together now for all eternity!

-Elder Welker

1. Saturday with Maria and Belen before the baptism

2. Same but after they changed into baptismal clothes

3. After the confirmation on Sunday with Gonzalo and his family

Week 19 Getting really hot here in Uruguay!

ok so I am not sure where to start. Me and my comp have just been working nonstop here in Maldonado. It is really great and I am learning so much. The weather here is the absolute worst, though. Mon and Tue it rained soo much and was freezing and since Wed it has been soo hot here! By the time we return home I have sweated through all of my clothes.

So we are focusing all of our efforts on Maria and Belen, Federico, Giulianna, and finding more new investigators. I dont think that I expressed last week how ready Maria and Belen were for baptism because we are baptizing the two of them this Saturday! Belen is 10 yr and is the daughter of Maria if I never specified that. Also one of the sons of Maria, and his family, are very active in the church and are in the same stake. Marias son is going to baptize them both this Saturday which is a blessing especially to have the support of family members. We also have a bapt date for Federico for the 19th and he needs to attend church this Sunday in order to meet that date so keep him in your prayers because he is ready and cant keep prolonging the process. Giulianna wont be able to meet her date of the 26th because she didnt attend church yesterday and so we are going to have to move it back another week.

Well that about covers our week. I am sad that E Harkness isnt here because it was him and I who initiated this process for those 4 investigators. It was a blessing having him as a comp and all of his work here in Maldonado was not for nothing and thanks to his efforts we have these great investigators.

Also just some quick news: Elder Ronald A. Rasband is coming here on the 17th for a multi-mission conference- the Uruguay Montevideo and Montevideo West missionaries will have the opportunity to hear from this great apostle in less than 2 weeks from now. I am very excited to hear from him.

I hope you all have a good week!

-Elder Welker

Week 18 FIRST WEEK IN THE BROWN BOX

Alright so this past week I killed E Harkness and E Gehring. It was wierd saying bye to them and it didnt even feel like they were leaving for their homes in the USA. After a few hours last Wed, I went and picked up my new comp, E Alvarez.

Ok so like I said I am in a brown box right now, where there are 3 latinos and 1 gringo. First off it is really helping because we speak only Spanish 24/7. He is one of the best missionaries I have ever met. He was in Paso de Los Toros for the past 6 months and Maldonado is only his 2nd area in the mission. He had a lot of success in Paso and we are working really hard here in Maldonado right now. He has developed so many good missionary skills in the past 6 months and I have a lot to learn from him.

Ok so right now we are on a really good streak. E Alvarez is really obedient and is always very straightforward in telling me what I need to do to be better. But he is not too critical and isnt a "robot" missionary, so thats good. He is actually pretty chill, especially in the house, but when proselyting time comes we hit the streets hard. I am learning a lot from him and especially with the language which I am planning on learning very quickly this change.

So the past 4 days we have found 8 new investigators and 5 with a baptismal date. We are working really hard to find good new investigators to teach.

 Also just some quick news: 

I was really bummed when the family at the panaderia dropped us, because no matter how badly they wanted to be baptized they just couldnt commit to getting married.

We got back in contact with Federico and are trying to get a new bapt date with him.

We are working closely with Giulianna and are trying to help her with prayer and to have a stronger testimony of the BofM. We also pushed her bapt date back to Nov 26 because she needs to attend church.

We got back in contact with Maria, after she talked with us at the Stake Conf last Sunday. E Harkness and I had talked with her halfway through my first change here in Mald. She was a reference from her family that lives in the other ward bounderies. Her son and his family are very active in the ward in Lussich and even went to general conference this month in Utah. Because Maria didnt want to attend our church (because her family attends the other ward), E Harkness and I passed her on to the elders in Lussich. But just this past Sunday we got her to come to our ward and she really wants to be baptized, along with her daughter Belen, and has all the support from her family, We have a bapt date for her, Nov 12. We are going to try to meet this date with her but it will be tough because although she is ready and has attended church many times we have to teach all of the lessons.

Ok so that about covers our week. We are working very hard from morning til night and are being exactly obedient and it is really paying off! Exact Obedience Brings Blessings!!!

One last thing: If any of you remember, my cousin, Scott Welker obtained a reference for me 2 or 3 months ago. Her name is Selene. She lives in Montevideo and it was too dificult for us to meet with her since she is not in our area, but, in fact, in the other missions bounderies. However she refused to talk with any other missionaries than me or Harkness, but there was nothing we could really do so we told her to attend a local LDS ward on Sunday and then hopefully other missionaries would come in contact with her.

So I had to go to Montevideo this morning to sign a legal document and I ran into Elder Poulson, who is ending his mission this change. He is also a close friend of Elder Gehring. I was talking with him when he asked "do you know Scott?" to which I said "How do you know Scott!" "There is no way that you know who Scott is!" He then said "No way, you are actually the cousin of Scott?" I didnt even know what to say or how who knew who Scott was. He then told me that last change, he was in Este (an area in Montevideo) and said that he met a girl named Selene  and that she went to church and that is how they met. He told me that they taught her and that she was obsessed with Scott and would show them his Facebook and stuff. He had to leave but I asked him who was in Este now so that I could call them and ask how she is doing. E Poulson told me that he thinks she will probably get baptized and so I hope that I can go to Montevideo when that day comes. 

Ok so just keep praying for our investigators like I know you guys do! Thanks for all of your support and dont be hesitant to open your mouths and share the gospel with others!

Elder Welker

Week 17 Week of Changes

ok so this is the last week of the change with E Harkness. I am killing my trainer and I will be staying here in Maldonado, thankfully. This past week we had interviews with President Eddy and I told him about our area and how we have a lot of potential here with our investigators. I also told him of my desire to learn Spanish quicker in order to be a more effective missionary. My needs in my area were answered last night as we received the changes for missionaries. E Harkness is going home and an Elder Alvarez from Peru is coming here to be my new comp. He has (time in mission) I believe about 7 or 8 months here in Uruguay. Also my ZL Elder Gehring is going home with E Harkness and so the other ZL in my house, E Fernandez, has a new comp, Elder Rodriguez from Panama. The missionaries here call this a "brown box" because I am now the only gringo in our house. This is actually a good thing for me because for the next 6 weeks we will be speaking only Spanish. I am really hoping to learn a lot from my new comp this change and to learn Spanish very well.


Anyway things are going great here. We have found a lot of new investigators and so I am hoping to have a lot of success here with my new comp. This past week E Harkness and I have just been going by all of the members homes to say goodbye and take pictures and also going by investigators to tell them that E Harkness is leaving. Also we finally saw Federico for the first time in almost 2 months. We were having an asado with his parents and afterwards we were leaving when I saw a moto outside the house of Federico (they live right by eachother) and I decided to go knock on his door. He was home and E Harkness got a pic with him. He was sad that E Harkness was leaving and also he lost his job just recently and is trying to find new work. I also invited him to come and play soccer with us this wednesday and I think that he is going to come so please pray that we can help him back on the right path.


Anyway this next change will definitely be different because I will be in a house of 4 people who want to work and not try to figure out what to say in their homecoming talk. Wish me luck!


-Elder Welker

Week 16 almost the end of change #2 here

ok so I have to keep this short since I need to be heading back to my house soon. Also I forgot my camera so I will have to send you some photos next week.

Alright so I will try to keep this brief:

So E Harkness and I met with Julianna three more times after monday last week. We were able to set a bapt date for her (Nov 5) and she has learned so much already. We are trying to get her cousin Lucas to come with us to the charlas because he was baptized just a few months ago and would be a great influence for her.

Also because E Harkness will be leaving in just a week from now we are trying to go by as many members as possible to say goodbye and so that I can get to know them very well before he leaves.

So we are also still working with the family at the panaderia, its just that they are struggling right now because they know the church is true and that they need and want to get baptized, but in order for that to happen they need to get married, which is a difficult thing for them. We are just going to continue to pray for them and visit them often. They are really great and always say that they love having us over because they can feel the spirit so strong during the charlas. We are just going to give them some time to ponder and think about all of this and are going to try to make sure that they continue to read and pray about the BofM and all of the lessons we have taught.

Besides that we have a few other old investigators who we havent met with in a long time that we are going to try to meet with this week in order to say bye and to try to schedule another time to visit all of them. E Harkness and I have also been working to try to find more new investigators so that I have a lot more people I can work with with my next comp.

Today was our pday and I went with E Cary and Ontiveros and also H Labrum and Harpole to Pan de Azucar and we hiked all the way up to the cross at the top of the hill. E Harkness did not go with us and instead went with the ZLs to Punta del Este again. Not really sure why since we have gone there almost every pday. So the cross at the top of the hill was really cool. E Ontiveros and H Labrum climbed on top of it, which was so crazy. It was high up and I didnt even like looking outside from inside the cross. They climbed on top of it with the wind blowing really hard and were taking selfies. I dont know how they liked being up there cause it is really high up and there are no rails of any kind and nothing to hold on to and it is only like 5 feet wide and the thought of being on top is frightening. You should all definitely chech it out online and look at it yourselves.

Anyway that basically covers our week. FYI our pday will be Tuesday next week because next week is changes. Talk to you all next week!

-Elder Welker

Week 15 Getting really hot here!

I never realized how hot it can get here. Winter is over now and its starting to heat up. I really miss winter especially since I didnt sweat or have to worry about mosquitoes.


Ok so E Harkness and I couldnt email yesterday because all of the computers were taken all day because there are so many young teenagers who play League of Legends and apparently there was some sort of tournament type thing and they were all playing so we couldnt find anywhere to email. Kinda ironic how that used to be me before the mission, playing games and not having a life (but for reals, League of Legends is just too far. There are soo many other games they could be playing instead that are way more fun and not 100% a waste of time)


Ok so this last Tuesday I had to go on an intercambio with the comp of my district leader, E Perrins. This was a very interesting day because my district leader is training, so his comp E Perrins is a new missionary (oro) like me. I was just glad that we had an activity with the ward that night so the day went by a lot faster cause I was not looking forward to teaching anyone that day since neither of us knows the language very well. But it went ok and I am just glad that I probably wont have to do that again.


Ok so I am actually really glad that I couldnt email yesterday, or else I would have missed the best part of our week and would have to wait to tell you next week.


So Sunday night E Harkness and I didnt really have any plans and were trying to figure out what to do. We decided to go to Lucas (a 15 yr old that E Harkness baptized the month before I got to Maldonado). We usually go to his house once a week to see how he is doing but havent been able to meet with him for the past 3 weeks. We got to his house and his sister said he wasnt there. We started walking away and said bye to his two sisters when E Harkness stopped because he realized that it was only one of his sisters and he didnt recognize the other girl. I thought she was one of Lucas sisters but turns out it was his cousin who just recently moved to Maldonado.


We introduced ourselves and she said her name was Julianna. She asked us why we wanted to meet with Lucas and we told her that we meet with him regularly because he was just recently baptized into our church. Right then she was really surprised and said "Lucas got baptized?!". We told her more about our church and yesterday we met with her after our pday and had a really cool charla (lesson) on the plan of salvation. She is 20 and has a very young daughter and she really liked the message of the plan of salvation. She is really cool and she invited us to go to her house today at 3 to eat with her and teach her more. Because she is luckily not living with anyone right now in pareja we are going to try to get a baptismal date with her today.


Well thats about all I got to say about this past week. I really hope things go well and that I can tell you all about it next week.


-Elder Welker

Not sure I ever told you guys but La Barra is also our area here. It is on the coast like Punta del Este. It is really touristy and E Harkness and I have gone twice and done a lot of contacting there. Theres also a lot of English speakers there. I had a 15 min conversation with a guy who is from Georgia, US.

view of Punta del Este from La Barra

not too far from the US

This is what will happen if you accidentally pierce a shaving cream can with a switchblade.

yeah and the shaving cream sprayed all over our room but it was easy to wipe up

 

 

This is also in our area.  Closest thing to Disneyland.


I took this pic the night of the 26th of Sept. after being reminded of the 50th birthday of someone very important in my life, but I forgot to send it that following week.

Happy 50th Dad!

This is a rosca filled with dulce de leche. I would have sent it to you but then it would have turned gross and also it has gluten. But it definitely tasted really good!

Week 14 Great week here in Maldonado

ok so this week was full of improvement over last week although we are still trying to find new people to teach and are going to try harder to receive more solid references from the members.


So E Harkness and I taught the family at the panaderia twice this past week. We talked a lot more about the Restoration and watched the 20 min version with them on their computer. After that we actually asked the father if he had time to watch the hour long version, which he ended up doing before our next lesson. He had a lot of questions for us about it and we were able to answer them all and help him and his wife and daughter with their doubts. We also talked a ton about temples, eternal families, and the priesthood with them. I actually tore out a page from the last general conference Ensign which showed the pictures of the apostles, the seventy, the prophet, etc to show them how priesthood authority worked. We then invited them to watch general conference.


We also went over to Natalys home a couple times this week. We talked with her and her family and also invited them to watch gen conf. They fetching love me and E Harkness and they are so cool. We are hoping to get the rest of her family baptized and help her gain full activity in the church.


We are still just being patient with Federico. It seems now that we only have about 3 weeks left before E Harkness leaves that he is probably the only person now that we could baptize before Harkness leaves. We are still trying to secure a time to meet with him but we leave a lot of reading assignments for him at his parents home and also asked him to watch gen conf. We are really hoping to meet with him soon and his parents keep telling us that they will try to help us secure a time to meet with him. We are also still trying to get his parents to go to church and we also asked them to watch gen conf. So this week we will see how everything went for everybody.


Things are still going good here. E Harkness and I get along great and I dont know if I will ever find another comp like him. We also have to put up with our zone leaders so much recently. I swear that me and Harkness have to babysit them and it really gets on our nerves and they are also very hypocritical but Harkness and I still do fine and just try to do the best we can do.


The language is still coming around very slowly. The hardest part is probably trying to understand what others are saying.


Now that the weather is getting a bit better here we have a lot of spiders coming out of their hiding spots in the house so I always have to be very watchful. There was one on my bed but luckily I had made my bed so it was easy to spot.


anyway thats about it. Here are some pics of my room and the ZLs. Should be obvious which one is mine and Harkness´s.

Week 13 Almost General Conference

really excited for this next general conference. In our house we actually have a ton of old Liahonas from the past 10 years and I have read so many of them this past week and I didnt realize how helpful those talks can be for me. Also in case you were wondering we actually get to listen to gen conf in English this next weekend so I will be sure to get the most out of it.


So we are continuing to have charlas with the family at the panaderia by our house. They always have many questions for us because they are so eager to join our church. They just found out that E Harkness will be leaving in a month from now and the couple there who have been together for 16 years but never married really want to get married now so that E Harkness can baptize them. Either way I just hope they reach that point soon. We showed them LDS.org and they have been watching a lot of videos on their computer and really like what they watch. We are having a charla with them tomorrow night and are going to invite them to watch general conf which I am betting they will.


So Nataly wasnt able to make it to church this Sunday which was kind of a bummer after last Sunday but we went by her house and she was sitting outside with her husband and we talked with her for quite a while. She is the coolest person! She actually had to work that morning but she really likes me and E Harkness and she is going to hopefully come to a family home evening tonight with us.


We are still trying to help Federico be baptized. It is so difficult because he is just working nonstop but all we have to do is fit in 3 more charlas and have him go to church one more time before he can be baptized. We have talked with him a bit this past week and he wants to be baptized and sometimes we drop stuff off at his house for him to read. I continue to pray for him because we dont want to lose him and know that if just his work schedule gets a little more flexible that we can help him be baptized.


So that was about all that went down this past week. E Harkness and I are still trying to find more new investigators to teach and are trying to get more references from members.


As always, have a good week!


-Elder Welker

Week 12 second change in Maldonado

ok so we had changes this last week. In my zone both of our Brazilian elders were taken out of Maldonado because last change they did some really inappropriate stuff with some chicks from Brazil when we last went to Punta del Este. And because one of them was E Ontiveros companion, E Ontiveros gets to stay here for a 5th change which is insane especially because this is probably the best area in the mission. But our zone is a lot cooler now. E Ontiveros new comp (E Cary) is a professional Battlefield 4 player and is ranked 8th in the world at that game so the past week we just talk nonstop about videogames and stuff. Funny thing is that along with BF4 we have a ton of other things in common like Star Wars, LOTR, etc, and the fact that we both had an Isuzu Rodeo before coming on the mission so it is a good thing that Elder Cary is not the district leader for my district haha.

Anyway so that was just the unimportant (to you guys) stuff that happened the past week.

So we are still working on Federico and trying to continue the charlas with him. He still wants to be baptized and we continue to go by his parents home to talk with them and leave him something to read but it is really hard to meet with him because of his work schedule.

E Harkness and I did find someone this past week who has a very interesting story.

So while E Harkness and I were out contacting we knocked on a door of a young woman named Natalie who lives out in the same area as Federico. She came out and said that she was actually baptized when she was younger but that she hadnt gone to church in a long time. She said we couldnt meet with her right then but that we could come by another day at the same time.

So we were thinking to ourselves that she doesnt want anything to do with us and that if we come back she isnt going to answer the door and what not cause that is normally what happens.

So we come back the next day at the same time and like we thought nobody came to the door. As I was standing there E Harkness said "Well thats just what happens like always" but I decided to try one more time and as I did she came out of her house. She invited us in and let us sit down. We had decided that we would just use the time to get to know her and as we were talking E Harkness kept asking her a lot of questions to figure out why she stopped going to church. I am not sure and neither is E Harkness about what question he asked her cause the next thing we knew she was just crying and she told us she was baptized when she was 11 and that so were her parents but then her mother died and soon after her father died also. She left the church and she is 22 now and hasnt gone to church in 10 years.

While we were there we bore our testimonies on the plan of salvation and shared with her 3 different scriptures that really just seemed to work in that situation. The spirit has never been stronger before. At the end of it her husband and her 2 or 3 kids showed up to the house and we talked and shared some things with them before leaving. We walked out of that house and E Harkness who has been on his mission for 22 months, said that was probably the best experience he has had on his mission. I couldnt agree more with him and just to show how great it was she came to church the next day and stayed all the way through- first time in 10 years. The members got to know her very well and she went to Relief Society and stood up and said that she had been baptized in that ward 10 years ago and right then everybody in that room remembered who she was. Natalie explained how she was so grateful that the missionaries showed up to her door that day and she said that she felt something inside of her that told her that she couldnt send us away but that she needed to talk with us.

THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! I have a feeling that she is never going to miss another sacrament meeting again.

One last good experience. So E Harkness and I always go to a panadería that is right next to our house almost every morning and sometimes in the afternoon because they have the best bread and bizcochos and because I am always hungry. So I remember a month ago that the first time we went there we gave them (a family of a husband, wife and one daughter) a B of M and a folleto to read but we never had a charla with them because they were always unsure about it. Until just 3 days ago. As usual I went there in the morning to get some food when the husband and his wife started asking questions about our church, first time in the past month. They told us that they had this really strong indication that they needed to join a church and get baptized. They said they attended a different church but they didnt like some of their wierd ritual type stuff and how they would fall on their knees pleading out loud to have the Holy Ghost or something like that. They told us that they didnt think the Holy Ghost worked like that and the wife said that she had actually gone to our church before and that her grandmother is a member and that she thinks that our church is the most correct one of all. We got soo excited. We came back that night and got to know them and they were asking us so many questions about things they knew like the Word of Wisdom, Tithing, etc. We spend that night answering their questions and talked about the B of M and shared some scriptures. We invited them to church and they also came that Sunday. Just the husband and his daughter since their panadería is open on Sunday. But we were still really happy that they came and are going to meet with them again on Tuesday.

The gospel is true. It changes peoples lives and guides them in the right path, as do stomachs since some of our investigators have come from me needing to buy food or drinks at a nearby almacén or panadería. I am grateful that I have been able to have these experiences and I know that there are people who have been waiting in the darkness and are searching for the light in their lives, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. As always, til next week.

-Elder Welker




mate above. Everybody here drinks this. Not gonna lie it is really gross and tastes like grass. It is a lot better with sugar.



This is an Oreo alfajor and is amazing. This is also what most alfajores look like. 3 cookies, 2 creme, 1 chocolate coating, 36 trans fat

Week 11 Another week in Maldonaldo

So this was the last week of my first change in the mission. To be completely honest nothing crazy or spectacular has happened this past week. Me and E. Harkness have still been trying to meet with Federico who is our golden investigator and his mom said that he is having a really hard time cause he is wanting to quit his job because he hasnt been able to make it to church the past couple weeks cause his job keeps him very busy. We are really hoping to meet with him this week because we only need to have two more lessons with him and have him attend one more sacrament meeting before he can be baptized. We have however been receiving a lot of references and are hoping to contact many of them this week because the best investigators are the ones who have a friend or family member who is in the ward.

Our zone leaders who live with us really killed it this change however. Like I said about member missionary work they were able to baptize four people last change who were references through the members. They led the whole mission in baptisms this change so always remember to use the members as much as possible with finding investigators.

I would encourage all of you to get the book "Tracting and Member Missionary Work" whether you are a missionary or not.
My ZL Elder Gehring lended it to me and me and my comp read it and it has been helping us a lot with our contacting.

Anyway so my comp and I are really hoping to find some good investigators this change and to hopefully help Frederico reach baptism this change.

Thank you all for your support and hope you have a good week!

-Elder Welker

My Zone Leaders E. Fernandez and E. Gehring

1. Fabiana and Jennifer and the two jovenes who baptized them in the middle- last Saturday

2. Angelina and Wendy- two weeks ago

Week 10 Another week in Maldonaldo

ok so this last week was pretty rough for me and Elder Harkness. 

So on Tuesday I had an intercambio with the comp of our district leader. He is from Brasil and his name is Elder Brasil. He was really cool but the first couple hours with him were rough cause he is bipolar and would get really angry at me out of nowhere so I am glad that only lasted one day. We taught Frederico the Plan of Salvation and I led the lesson and it went pretty well. We just taught using the pamphlet and then bore our testimonies and asked if he would pray about it. I asked him if he was reading and praying each day which he said he was. He is super ready to be baptized and believes in our message and keeps his commitments and comes to Family nights with members and also plays soccer with us and some of the ward members.

So we got some bad news this past weekend. So Frederico got in a fight with his mom so he asked us if we could meet with him at the church now instead and we scheduled to meet with him on Saturday to have our charlas. We got to the church at 3:30 on sat for our lesson with him but he never showed up which was wierd cause he is always on time. We tried calling him and he didnt answer so we walked to his parents house and they felt so bad to tell us that he got a new job and that he couldnt meet with us that day or come to church on Sunday cause his new job is 6 days a week for 12 hours a day. We were able to talk to him over the phone on Sunday and he asked us to forgive him cause he knew he had to attend one more time to be baptized. We told him it was ok and that his new job was a blessing for him following Jesus Christ in his life. We are going to meet with him tomorrow to talk about the situation but it will be a long process now getting him baptized cause now we can only teach one lesson a week at most with him and his work is very unpredictable.

So me and E Harkness have been scrambling to find new investigators and were pretty upset with the situation but because we couldnt get him baptized this weekend we are now just talking with everybody we see and being very persistent because we want to get new investigators and we want them to learn of the restored gospel and be baptized.

Ok so one other thing was that future elder Scott Welker got me and E Harkness a reference one week ago who we contacted on the phone. She lives in Montevideo near Tres Cruzes which is a bus station that we pass through everytime we go to the mission home. We are going to talk with her (Selene) and we are going to try to hand her off to the missionaries in her area because she doesnt want anyone else to teach her but us two.

As always thanks for the support and keep praying for us and our investigators. Just dont pray too much cause Frederico is having too many blessings now, haha.

-Elder Welker

some pictures of some "great" food we had here yesterday after church

so Mondonga is cow intestines and the picture on the bottom is pig skin. So its Mondonga with pig skin. The first plate was actually really good but they asked if I wanted more which I said I did even though I didnt actually want any more. The second plate had this really big piece of pig skin with whiskers on it. It was really gross and felt really wierd in my mouth. And then the beans and rice were cold and I was forcing myself to swallow that. I would take a bite and then fill my mouth with bread that they had in the middle of the table. It was probably the worst thing I have had yet!

Week 9 Another week here in Maldonaldo

I will try to keep this short cause I had a lot of emails I had to read.

Ok so Frederico came to church again this Sunday which was a miracle cause we werent able to teach him this week because 1. his stepdad and mom got in a car accident and got injured, but nothing life threatening 2. we went to the temple on Friday which was really cool and I would love to talk more about it but I am short on time and 3. I didnt get any photos and if I did my camera is at home, but the weather on Saturday was soo ridiculous! It rained more than I have seen in my life. Luckily for me I had a lot of waterproof clothes but everyone else got soaked and our house got soo wrecked. But anyway we are just glad he came to church and we are going to teach him this Tuesday. This Sunday we will be announcing his baptism which will be next Saturday if he keeps his commitments and goes to church again this Sunday.

We also have one other investigator who is going to church right now named Maria. We dont have a baptismal date with her yet, but will get one this week and could actually be baptized next Saturday also cause she has attended church more than 3 times now.

Anyway so things are great here! I had some photos but forgot to bring my camera. My Zone Leaders just baptized two girls last night. Angelina (9) and Wendy (8). Their cousin Jose who is a priest in our ward baptized them which was really cool to see. I will send you all some photos next week. Thanks for the support and I am really hoping to have some more success this week. Til next time!

Week 8 Another week here in Maldonado

ok so I dont know where the time goes cause I thought I was just emailing two days ago. So a ton of stuff happened this week and I will try to get through it quick. And sorry but there are no pictures for this week.

So earlier this week me and Elder Harkness had our first lesson last Tuesday with Frederico and his stepfather Hermano Castro. It went pretty well. We talked about the Restoration and after I talked about the BofM and Priesthood Authority I shared 2 Nephi 31:4-5 or maybe it was chapter 30 but I then asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized to which he said yes! Me and Elder Harkness are very excited for him. We had another lesson with him on Thursday and answered any of his questions and shared with him a message about Sabbath Day and church attendance. Turns out he read the whole introduction to the BofM and also the testimonies of the witnesses and Joseph Smith. He also read through the pamphlets and so we gave him the pamphlet on Plan of Salvation. We went to his home a third time on Friday but only his stepfather was there because Frederico had to work. We talked with Hermano Castro for about an hour. Turns out Frederico was in prison for drug problems and theft and got out of prison a year ago. He took bible classes during his time in prison and really wants to change his life around. He doesnt do drugs anymore and is really wanting to have God more in his life. We also found out a lot more about Hermano Castro. Turns out he was the Ward Mission leader for a long time and during his time as Ward Mission leader he worked a lot with less actives and reactivating them. Apparently he had a very efficient plan and got a ton of people going back to church. He also shared a ton of stories with us about him and working with the missionaries. We found out why he is less active now but turns out he isnt a less active but he was actually excommunicated. He was serving as a counselor to the bishop and they always got into arguments over priesthood authority and I guess one thing led to another. He has however expressed to us many times how he knows that we didnt find him by coincidence which we also agree with. He also told us that he wants us to help him because right now he isnt legally married to his current wife and because he is excommunicated he has to get baptized again. I know he wants to change though and he is the biggest help during our lessons with Frederico. Also on Sunday Frederico came to church and we didnt even tell him cause its not a rule but he decided to shave that morning which just shows us that he truly cares about all of this. He could only stay the first two hours but thankfully the First Presidency just changed the rule about investigator church attendance which now says investigators only have to come for the first hour of church for 3 times before getting baptized. Really glad it was this week. Anyway please keep those two in your prayers and also Fredericos niece because we are going to start teaching her also this week.

One last thing that was really cool this week. So after teaching Frederico for the first time on Tuesday me and E. Harkness decided to go find a reference given to us by the Hermanas. We couldnt find the street so we stopped in a store to ask for directions. As E Harkness was asking the owner for some directions a woman approached me and asked if she could talk to me outside. I went with her and she explained to me that she had a son with drug problems and she wanted our help in order to help her son turn his life around. She asked me a question after and I cant remember what she said but I didnt know how to respond so I grabbed E Harkness and they talked for a little bit and we then followed her down the street to her house. She said her son wasnt home but asked us to come back tomorrow to talk with him. We asked her if she had met with missionaries from our church before which she said she had. She said she took the lessons but was never baptized. We asked her if she would want to take the lessons again and be baptized which she then said that she would want to be baptized. We came back the next day and met with her son and shared a short message with him and asked him to read the pamphlet and go to church. Ok so its a long story but his mom was moving into her sons house and the moving company came Sunday morning so neither of those two came to church but we will try to get them to go next week. Keep them in your prayers too.

Anyway so we had a very busy week and there are a couple of other investigators that I couldnt talk about because I am short on time but one of them also came to church on Sunday and shes had the lessons and can probably be baptized within the next week or two because she has also been attending church for the past couple weeks. Thats another long story but she has been attending a different ward so we didnt find out about her til this week.

Ok so it was a really great week and please pray for our invesigators. We are going to try to get baptisimal dates for all of them and are hoping to continue to find investigators like these ones. Thank you all for the support and I will talk to you all next week! Love you all!

Week 7 Week 2 in Maldonaldo!

This past week me and my comp had a few more miracles.

First of all, before I get to that, the family that we were able to teach last week and give a full lesson actually wants nothing to do with us and just thought it would be funny to have us over. So they were basically joking with us. We have tried to go back many times because we know the spirit was there in that lesson but they denied it.

Anyway so me and my comp found this really cool area where he hadnt contacted before and the people are super friendly and we contacted so many people and within a couple days already know a lot of the people there and they know who we are which is good. The first day we contacted that area we ran out of pamphlets to hand out and shared a lot about the gospel with a ton of people. We found the niece of Walter Gonzales- I think thats how its spelled. He is the president of the Seventy of South America, I think thats what the title is called. She knows a lot about the church but after asking her many times last week she doesnt want to attend church. She isnt a member but me and my comp are really trying to get her to church because we know we found her for a reason.

We also were walking down the street when a guy pulled up to us on a moto and asked us if we had any pamplets we could give him. His name is Fredrico and turns out that his stepfather is a member that is less active. Fredrico wants to learn more about the church and tomorrow we are meeting with him to give him the first lesson and ask him to be baptized. We actually saw him again yesterday. We were in that area and we went to his house. He wasnt there so we started walking up the street and 30 seconds later, there he his on his moto and he pulls up to us cause he just got off work. We were talking with him and he was asking what the age limit is for missionaries in our church cause he is 23 and me and my comp are thinking that he is really serious about learning more about our church. Then, another miracle. As we are talking it turns out that we are right in front of his stepfathers house and he comes out to talk to us. Turns out that his previous marriage he was married to a woman in Elder Harkness´s last area in Montevideo. She was in his ward and her whole family is active and knew Elder Harkness very well. Then the stepfather told us that he used to serve in different church callings but it seems that after his divorce is probably when he went less active. As we were walking away he shook our hands and asked us to help him come back to the church. We knew and he knew also that we werent there by coincidence. Also, I almost forgot that Fredrico also has a niece who is 11 who lives in his stepfathers house who also really wants to learn more about the church. We are really hoping to have success with them and are going to commit Fredrico and if his niece is there then her also to be baptized. Keep them in your prayers!

Anyway to things are good here and one last thing. Today we went to Punte Del Este which is the nicest, most touristy part of all of Uruguay. I will send you all some pics. It was super cool!

Thanks for all of the support! I really hope to get a baptismal date with Fredrico. I will let you all know how things go next week!

Love you all! -Elder Welker

Some of last week in Punta Ballena




Pics of Punte Del Este today









Jonah and the whale