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