Week 49 I have met every Uruguayan from St. George now!!

haha not really^, but seriously St. George isnt that big and neither is Uruguay. So I forgot to tell you guys that two weeks ago I met a man named Noberto Hernandez. He lives in St. George and is a member of the church that attends a Spanish branch in Washington (st george). He is from Uruguay though and was baptized here where im serving a long time ago. It was super wierd because if any of you remember I met an Uruguayan named Amado Sandes in my last area (Lezica) and he is also a member of the church that also lives in St George, and he's from my stake, and he lives in Riverside Apartments like 30 seconds from my house. So yeah really wierd how I keep running in to people that are from St. George. Its like as if my mom is worried about me or something and is asking Uruguayans from St. George to visit me here or something. Or maybe God sends them here to make sure im doing good as a result of my mom's prayers. All I know for now is that i've always been serving where God wants me to serve. I mean, my mission president could have sent me anywhere here in Uruguay and its a huge coincidence that ive just happened to run into two Uruguayans here on my misson that are from my city (which is small, I have to repeat that a lot cause it really is a small city). But yeah the world gets really small when youre a member of the church.

Well everythings awesome over here! Congats to my brother who is going home in a week✈ ! Last fetching full week in the mission and its back to real american food and also mexican food and awesome weather (plus its summer over there, aww thatd be soo nice right now cause its getting cold over here!) And of course being with the family and being a normal person again, thats nice too.

Well me and Lopez are doing great!! We had 12 investigators in church yesterday!!! In our entire zone we had 17 total and 12 were ours so were on a roll over here! ALSO!!!!!!! ROSA AND ANDRES ARE GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🐕🐕🐕🐩🐩🐩!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And on the 15th Pablo and Tania will also be getting married and then on the 17th Rosa, Andres, Tania, Mikaela (sister of Andres) and maybe Christian (brother of Rosa) will all be getting baptized!!! Which is also my Moms Birthday!!!!! And also my brother's homecoming party thing. So yeah you guys can party and stuff and screw around but im bringing souls into the kingdom of God over here! Enjoy enjoying yourselves!! Haha im just joking but im super stoked for the 17th its going to be great! I never want to leave this area!!!! I could stay here for the rest of my mission!

But yeah this week was good. We saw the Finals for futbol (soccer). Real Madrid won... I dont really like Real Madrid and I dont really like Ronaldo a lot either so it wasnt even worth seeing... Also I made brownies while we were watching the Finals. We were with a less active family that we are trying really hard to reactive-- their last name is Carvallo. They are super awesome and have the cutest little twin girls I have ever met in my entire life. But yeah the brownies turned out great! It was the first time I ever made brownies but I used my dads recipe and after seeing him make them so many times I was able to pull it off and they turned out super good! Btw I was referring to my missionary dad (Elder Harkness). Haha sorry real dad...

Anyway thats it for this week! Love you guys! Take care have a good one!!!!

-Welks

Week 48 June 17th!!!!!

Yeah so this last week was just great!!

So Elder Lopez got here on Wednesday and we went to the house of Rosa and Andres so that my new comp could get to know them. They are getting married on June 5 btw. So im not sure why but none of the missionaries in the past had ever worked with Andres's sister, Mikaela. She is 9 yr old and Idk why but the missionaries in the past had never really taught her. So we got to talking about baptism and first of all, Rosa and Andres were going to get baptized on June 10 and on June 17 Tania was going to get baptized. But I knew that Rosa and Tania were really good friends so I asked Rosa "Elder Silva was planning the baptism your baptism for June 10. And Tania is getting baptized on the 17 so do you want to get baptized then instead?". And she said "I didnt know that we were going to get baptized on different dates. I want to get baptized with Tania!" So I told her that we would push the baptism back a week. Plus it makes our job easier not having to fill up the baptismal font twice.

Ok so back to Mikaela. So we got done talking about the baptismal date situation and I asked Mikaela "do you want to get baptized with your brother and sister in law on the 17th?" and she said yes!!! We then asked her mom and her mom said that she is 100% behind her with her decision. So we had another charla with her a couple days later and I asked her "why do you want to get baptized?" and she replied in her own words (before even starting the lesson with her), "because I want to recieve forgiveness for my sins and live with my family forever". Later in the lesson we were talking about the Book of Mormon and she asked us "is that the book that talks about three men who became immortal and are still here on earth?". I was super suprised by that. I dont know how she knew about the Three Nephites, I was pretty dang impressed. We also got a baptismal date for the 17th as well for Christian, the brother of Rosa.

So on the 17th,

Tania
Rosa
Andres
Mikaela (the sister of Andres)
Christian (the brother of Rosa)

will all hopefully be getting baptized. And also my brother will be having his Open House cause he is going home! About time. Dont get too trunky haha. He's already going home!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah im really looking forward to June 17th. Me and Elder Lopez are doing great here!!! Elder Lopez is cool, he's pretty chill but he's kind of quiet which can be a challenge when you live in an apartment and its just the two of you.

Anyway so y'all want to see pictures??? Cause I forgot to take any pictures this week so I'll try to get you guys some pics next week. Anyway have a good one love you all!!!

-Welks

Week 47 Chau Elder Silva!!

Well today is Elder Silva's last full day here in Camino Carrasco and he'll be getting home on Thursday. It was super great getting to work with him! I learned so much more than any other change of my mission with Elder Silva. By far one of the best changes of my mission!

Well we got changes last night and Elder Lopez from Peru is coming here with me. He has 3 changes left in the mission so it looks like he'll probably be dying here in this area after I leave. He'll be getting here tomorrow in the afternoon. I dont know why im with another viejo (old) missionary again. I was actually quite shocked by the changes cause Im hitting a year in a month and I thought for sure that someone younger than me in the mission would be coming here with me or that I would possibly be training this change. Its actually pretty funny cause all of the elders from my group have already been or with the new changes are now senior comp, except me. Not really sure what happened there, but i´m definitly going to be talking about this with the president the next time I have an interview with him. I know this sounds pretty prideful and I kind of dont want to say it but I honestly feel like I deserve at least some responsibility here on my mission. I want to feel like President has at least some expectations for me here on the mission.

Anyway that's definitly something that Im going to talk about with President in a couple weeks from now. But yeah Im actually excited to be with Elder Lopez I heard that he is great so we'll see what we can accomplish here! We have 3 baptisms coming up right now- Andres, Rosa, and Tania in the coming 4 weeks. Me and Elder Silva have been helping them get ready to get baptized and they are beyond ready so Im really excited to be here to help them get baptized.

But yeah everythings going great over here! I feel fine about Elder Lopez coming here with me actually, I feel like we´re going to do great together! Ive heard great things about him and I think were going to have a great change and I hope that we can find even more people here in our area to get baptized!

Also funniest thing ever!--- So Tania and Pablo are going to get married on June 15 and then Tania is going to get baptized on the 17th right? So Tania went to some store that makes wedding invitation cards and told the lady working there to put on the cards that they will be having the reception in the Mormon church that is on Camino Carrasco (So Tania said "Mormon Church" and the church remains on the street, Camino Carrasco). So the lady made the invitation cards and when Tania went to recieve the order of cards do you know what it said? Oh I wish I had the picture with me cause Tania took a pic of it. It said that the reception would be held in "El Reino de los Testigos de Jehova" which interpreted means "The kingdom (or church) of the Jehova´s Witnesses". Me and Elder Silva couldnt believe it! We were sooo ticked that somebody thought that the Mormons are the same thing as the Jehovas Witnesses. Confuse us with another church, thats ok. But insult us, nooo! Elder Silva told Tania to give a Lesson 1 pamphlet on the Restoration to the lady that works there. First of all, the biggest difference between the Mormons and the JW´s is that one is true and the other is not. Obviously all of you guys know which one is the true church. It just bugs me that people dont know the difference. But it happens so often here in Uruguay. I dont know how many times that someone has confused us with the JW´s while we´ve been out tracting. It happens so much but thats why we go out and preach so that people can learn that there is a difference between us. And also so that people can get converted and learn that our church really is the true church of Jesus Christ. It really makes me realize how important missionary work is not only for the missionaries but for members as well, so that for the least part if people dont want to get baptized into our church that they at least know the difference between us and all of the other churches out there.

I have no doubt that this church is true. A testimony is the most important thing that we have. I love Helaman 5:12 cause it teaches us that as long as our foundation is centered on Jesus Christ and if our testimony is centered on Him then we will not fall.

Sorry I kind of had to make this email short I would have loved to write more but I dont have a lot more time to write. We´re super busy today cause Elder Silva has like 20 people that we have to visit today to say goodbye to.

Love you all have a great week!!

-Welks

Week 46 Fernando's Baptism and also Skype

Ok so on Saturday we had Fernando's baptism!! We were kinda scared it wasnt going to happen because he was supposed to have his interview on Friday but his son had to go to the hospital and so he had to have his baptismal interview Saturday morning and our district leader was also having a baptism on Saturday so we had to have the interview at 9 am so that he could do the interview and then get back to his area to get ready for his baptism.

The baptismal service was really good but only 10 people came besides me, Silva and Fernando. It was a little disappointing but it was a pretty complicated day for everybody because the entire ward went to the temple to do a session a few hours before the service so it kinda complicated things but at least Fernando got baptized! Now weve just got to start working with his kids and get them baptized too!


------------------------------ ----------------------------sk ype--------------------------- ------------------------------ -----

ok so I just did Skype with my family yesterday but for those of you who didnt skype with me these are some of the questions I was asked and also some of the questions that I was asked in email by my parents that I didnt get to answer in my skype call:

My Favorite Food from Uruguay: Asado, tortugon, lentejas con arroz, feijoada (Elder Silva's signature Brazilian dish)

Craziest food ive had: Mondongo (innards/guts, actually pretty good), cuero del cerdo (pig skin, really wierd and really chewy), Morcilla (Blood Sausage, nasty as heck), Morcilla Dulce (sweet blood sausage, nasty as hell)

Funniest thing thats happened: stepping in poop 3 different times on 3 different days and tracking it into a members house all 3 times without knowing (same member) (see my emails from when I was in Lezica)

Favorite Companion: Elder Harkness (my dad/trainer). Best comp you could ever have. The comp that was more like a really good friend than just a comp. Super chill and really funny.

How has my testimony grown: Praying intentionally. Not just giving the same prayer every day but letting God know how I feel about things and sincerely asking him questions or expressing gratitude or letting him know how much I love my family and friends and the people that I serve here on the mission.

How have I changed since I left Utah: Lets see. 1. Having to find ways to cope with boredom other than listening to music or playing xbox (which is what id always do before the mission) and trying to do other things to keep me going. 2. Not being that picky anymore and eating almost everything (no doubt though, I will never come to like mushrooms, green olives, or tomatoes) Well tomatoes by themselves that is. 3. being patient and stuff and not letting my temper get the better of me. Just being happy all the time, not important the circumstances 4. my love for Xbox, music, movies, youtube, technology etc. has grown like 100%. Given that some may think it is a waste of time those things are super freaking fun and not doing any of those things for the past year made me realize just how much I enjoy playing Xbox and listening to regular music

Challenges I face on a daily basis: Cute girls, being American, not being able to turn on music and stick my earbuds in my ears and listen to music when im walking in the street

Favorite thing I did on P-day: going to Pan de Azucar with Elders Cary and Ontiveros and Sisters Labrum and Harpole. (look it up I wrote about this pday a long time back when I was in Maldonado). By far the best pday! Just me, Cary, Ontiveros and two of the chillest Hermanas in the mission just hanging out and hiking up to this cross on the top of this hill and also going to the zoo. And me almost dying cause I have a fear of heights and stuff

Favorite Spanish hymn: Juventud de Israel, La Luz de la Verdad

Language mistake: Saying Pajero instead of Pájaro (Pájaro is Spanish for bird. Pajero is a really bad Spanish swear word that I wont describe). My comp at the time was from Ecuador and when I said that he fell on the ground and almost died from laughter in the street.

What I miss about St. George: my family, friends, home ward, my house, xbox, having a car, American food, Mexican food, fun stuff to do, the weather is always amazing

Well thats it! Love you guys have a great week!

Also I was at a members house and we watched an entire match of tennis from start to finish between Nadal and Goffin. I freaking love tennis now I never watched it before the mission but I freaking love it now! Apparently Nadal won the ATP tournament that ended yesterday. That guy is super good! Tennis is like the only sport that I enjoy watching now since before the mission I hated watching any type of sport

-Welks

Week 45 Where does the time go?

Ok really I dont know where the time has gone. We're on week 4 here in Camino Carrasco, Elder Silva is going home in 2 weeks, my brother is going home in a month and I almost have a year here already. Honestly I dont know where all of that time has gone. It's also been exactly a year to the day since Captain America Civil War was released in theaters haha.

Well yesterday was a great day for Elder Silva and I because we had 9 of our investigators in church and it was Fernando's 3rd time in church and so it looks like we are going to be having a baptism this Saturday!!!!!! As long as he passes the interview (but he should, no problem).

Well what else happened this week...

oh yeah so last week Elder Silva loaned an investigator (Mario) 500 pesos. Ok so as missionaries we're not supposed to loan money to anybody and I already knew that but Elder Silva decided that he wanted to help the guy out and since he is leaving he didnt really care. Ok but first some background info on Mario

Mario: 38 yr old, not member, rest of family are members, wife- Alicia, 4 kids (not his biologically), doesnt have a job, hasnt had a real job in like 15 years, does drugs and drinks and stuff, and you guys get the idea.

So Mario needed 600 pesos in order to buy needed things for his family like medicine and food. So Silva told him "if you get 300 pesos I'll loan you the other 300". So a few days later Mario told Silva that he had the 300 pesos so Silva gave him 500 (cause he didnt have change) and so after buying the things he needed he was supposed to give Silva the change (200 pesos). Well you guys can imagine what happened (or maybe not its pretty crazy).


So on our way over to their house the next morning I told Elder Silva "I bet he went out and bought drugs" and Elder Silva said "maybe but I think that he actually used it to support his family". So we got to the house and the Alicia told us that after we left that night Mario actually went out and bought a few things for the family ok so in part Silva was like 30% right. But after returning home with some food he left again and went and bought drugs and didnt return. So the family was super angry and said that he is never allowed back again.

So 2 days since that all happened Silva and I were walking a street on the other side of our area and there is a guy that sells hot dogs on the corner and guess who was there. Mario. So we walked up to him and he sat down on the ground and was crying and stuff and we asked him what he did that night. Well you want to hear his explanation? He said that after returning home with a few things he recieved a strong spiritual impression and said that God told him to go buy drugs. 😒 Really?? God told you to buy drugs? Well which God were you praying to?! He then went out and got high and stuff and didnt return home. So Silva told him to not return home for a long time and to try to get his life back in order and stuff and then shared some scriptures that drop Cain👋 and stuff. Well really interesting story right? I learned two things (well maybe more but definitely 2)

1. never loan money to people (as missionaries). We're missionaries and it straight up says in the Missionary Handbook "do not loan money".

2. God will never tell us to do anything contrary to the gospel and will never command us to commit sin. He only wants the best for us and will only do things to help us. He loves us and only does things for our benefit.

Also funny thing of the week: We passed by some recent converts of ours (Maria y Sonia) and they have a biggish (kind of big) dog that is 16 years old. Well we were sitting in their patio and the walls are concrete and the dog just randomly walked into the corner of these two big fat concrete walls and started barking at something. I walked over there and there was nothing there in the corner at all and there is nothing and nobody on the other side of the walls and then like a minute later the old dog went into the corner again and starting barking again. And it was funny cause he had his head in the corner and it was facing down so it was just really funny. "Does somebody need a shot of Euthenasia?" hahahaha.

Well thats it for the week! Take care talk to you in a week!!!!

-Welks

Week 44 Wow that week flew fast!!!

Ok so I have no clue where that last week went! I also havent been taking hardly any pictures this change cause I dont like to carry my camera with me when we're working cause Im afraid im going to get robbed or something (we have parts of our area that we dont walk in at night because it gets super sketchy. Everybody here looks at me wierd and asks about Donald Trump and stuff and thinks im a racist and im like "at least im not the one who assumes every white person is a Trump supporter or anything"). Also last week this black guy almost started a fight with me and my comp cause im white. (I love how white people are the racist ones!) My comp Elder Silva told the guy "im not Brazilian, my comp isnt American, and youre not Uruguayan!, We are children of God!" Yeah i'll never forget that line and its true! It doesnt matter where we are from we're all children of God!

Also this past week was insane! The air has just been full of mosquitos! Its crazy how many mosquitos there are! Silva and I were walking to a charla and we were walking in a part of our area where the streets are grass and dirt and we were getting attacked by like 2000 mosquitos and we didnt have repellant so I shouted "¡Corramos!" (let's run!) and we ran the next two blocks to get away. But like every day is a battle between us and the mosquitos. We have to like be slapping our face and arms like every 3 seconds or if I have a sweater with we then im just swinging it around as we are out walking. I really hope it starts getting a little colder so I dont have to have this ongoing battle 24/7.

But yeah all of our investigators are doing really good. Tania and Pablo are going to get married on June 15th and then Tania is going to get baptized on the 17th (my moms bday!!!) They are sooo awesome. Pablo is already baptized and they have a little girl who has like 10 months (I think). Also Andres and Rosa are going to be getting a marriage date set as well, possibly also for June and they might actually get baptized the same day! They are also good friends of Tanias and they are also like members already (theyre soo great!!!). Also Fernando came to church for the second time last Sunday so he might get baptized before Elder Silva leaves! We are really focusing on him a lot cause he is also a really good investigator and it looks like he could be getting baptized in a couple of weeks. But yeah those are the investigators that should be getting baptized shortly! Were going to keep going out though and try to find some more investigators. This is the biggest area i've been in (its actually not that big, but my other areas were smaller) and there are a ton of people here to talk to!

Also we had interviews with President Eddy yesterday and we had a really good conference as well and we did a ton of practices. And then we ate pulled pork sandwiches 😁!!!! And then we walked home cause we live close to the Temple/mission home. And had another battle against the mosquitos on the way back 😒.

"Freaking mosquitos del infierno!!!!!!!" -Elder Silva about every 5 minutes

-Welks