Week 56 Yay onather week hure!

yeah soory ignore the title im bored haha. 

Well this week went by really really fast. On tuesday I had an intercambio with Elder Perrins and I went to his area. It was fun especially because the pizza is better and cheaper in his area haha. And I got to play with puppies while a sister from the ward over there fixed the hole in my pants that was right in the pacific rim (crotch). And no I dont have pictures of the puppies nor the ventilation hatch that that was in my pants. We did find a new investigator though by doing door to door contacting. Elder Perrins was happy cause they really needed more investigators. 

On thursday we were able to teach our new investigator Ernesto for the first time. He wants to get baptized asap because in late September he is going to move to Utah. He lived in Virginia before for like 5 years and so he speaks english already. He is super cool and we are going to try to help him get baptized before the end of the change. He has a friend who is already a member of the church who lived in this ward but in April moved to Utah and Ernesto is going to go live with him over there. 

On saturday we went and helped a sister from our ward with a service. Me and my comp and two brothers from the ward went and fixed her roof. We had to get on the roof of her house and lay tar paper (I think thats what it is called). It is like tar on the bottom that we had to torch and lay on the roof and on the other side it was like a thin metal foil material so that when it rains water doesnt come in from the ceiling. It was fun. Also dont have photos of that either. sorry.

On sunday we were expecting Selene to come to church but she didnt come so I was bummed. I showed our Mission Leader photos of her that I had and he told me to invite her to come to the church tomorrow and cook food maybe. He is 27 and is single and so yeah... haha. 

Also I gave a talk in church on Sunday and I talked about member missionary work and I told the entire story about Selene and talked about how Scott was able to use technology to share the gospel. It was good and it helped us a lot because afterwards all of the members put their names on our lunch calendar so we have lunch for the next two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤗

anyways thats it for this week. I dont really have anything else to say so I hope you all take care and have a good week! Love you all!

-Elder Welker

Week 55 Miracles in Uruguay!!!

First off, Scott Welker youre gonna want to read this email.

I know ive said this but freak this was like the best week of my mission! Like the highlight of my mission here in Uruguay! So for those of you who dont know or dont remember my cousin Scott talked with a girl from Montevideo almost a year ago and her name is Selene. She is like the biggest miracle I have seen on my mission because she talked with Scott on an app to practice her English and they talked about the church and he told her that I was here in Uruguay and she wanted to learn more about the church. So to fill you in on the last year I am just going to make a list of events that happened:

• August 2016: Scott Welker sends me Selene's contact information
• September 2016: Me and Elder Harkness call her and arrange to meet up in Tres Cruzes (a bus terminal) on our way to a conference. We go and she couldnt meet with us because she was working and couldnt get off work. She ends up getting in contact with the missionaries in Tres Cruzes, says she didnt like them because they were "robots" and ends up getting in contact with the zone leaders here in Este, Elder Poulson and Elder Mora (who are awesome) and she starts taking the charlas.
• November 2016: I didnt know that the missionaries were teaching Selene, I talk to her on email and I talk with the zone leaders to learn about her progress. They try to get her baptized but she still has lots of doubts so she kind of takes a break from the missionaries for a bit (also because the elders that she liked left and I dont think she liked the new elders that were there.
• December 2016: my parents go to Uruguay and they meet up with her, she likes the church but still doesnt want to give up coffee.
• February 2017?: Selene goes on a trip to Europe for a month and the new missionaries there never met her so she loses contact with the missionaries
• April 2017: President Eddy sends me to Camino Carrasco in East Montevideo, the 2nd closest area in our mission that I could possibly be to Selene
• May 2017?: Selene moves to Pocitos and no longer lives near Tres Cruzes.

July 2017:

Ok so now you know a bit about what happened to her the past year. And as you know from my email a couple weeks ago I was really bummed that me and Elder Lopez were staying together. I thought for sure that one of us would be leaving (most likely me) and I didnt understand why President Eddy decided to have us stay together here. 

Well, now I know why. For the past year I have prayed almost every single day of my mission that Selene would stay in contact with the missionaries and that she would eventually be able to get baptized soon. And I always wanted to meet her because she really likes Scott and she met my parents. Also if any of you guys read my email last week I talked about how I was talking with my MTC companion Elder Hemeyer (who started in this area) to see if he could give me some advice on how to find new investigators. One of the things he told me was that I should do a fast. He told me that every 2nd Sunday of every month he does another fast and tells me that it helps the missionary work a lot. He told me that he has had a lot of miracles through lots of sincere prayer and fast. So I took his advice and last Sunday a week ago I did a fast. 

Well this Friday we had a multi zone conference and President Eddy talked a lot about how he recieves revelation about our transfers in the mission, and testified to us that he doesnt always know why but he knows that our transfers are inspired. It was the first time that I had heard him testify of that and I loved everything that he shared with us on that subject. Well the conference ended and I was talking with the zone leaders here, Elder Grigor and Elder Guerra (awesome guys) and they said "Hey Welker, take a look at this" and Elder Guerra handed me his phone and it was a message from Selene and she told them that she wanted to know which church was closest to her in Pocitos and that she missed meeting with the missionaries and that she wanted to maybe get baptized. Well that was like no coincidence and so I went home and I said to myself "ok, this is long overdue. Im going to call her and im going to meet her" and I still had her number written down in my first agenda from Maldonado and so I called her and we talked and I set up an appointment for today, Monday the 17th. So me and my companion went to her house today and we talked and it was awesome! I have been waiting soo long to meet her and she is great! She still has a lot of doubts, like she doesnt understand why she has to give up coffee and she doesnt really understand why we have modern day prophets but besides that she likes the church and she believes in the Book of Mormon. She told us that she just has this feeling that she knows its true when she reads it and she told us that she believes that it is the word of God. So for the least she knows that the Book of Mormon is true. She just needs to give up coffee really, which is pretty hard for her to do. But I have a lot of hope for her and I think that eventually she will realize that it really isnt that important and that she doesnt need coffee. 

Well yeah, it was pretty dang awesome being able to meet her. It really is a huge miracle that she was able to learn about the church and also that I was able to finally meet her and that I was in the right place at just the right time, when she decided to get back in contact with the missionaries. I also testify that prayer and fasting bring about miracles, and that those two things together will allow God to bring about miracles in our lives. 

Also Selene said that she wants to come to our ward on Sunday. I told her it was fine, its kinda far but she said it didnt matter to her. Im also going to make sure that the missionaries in Pocitos get to know her. But they are in the other mission so im not super sure on how I will be able to keep up with them but I really hope that they get in contact with her because Selene is fine with it as long as they arent "robots" like the ones from Tres Cruzes.

But yeah its freaking awesome being able to see miracles here in Uruguay! Thanks Scott for sharing the gospel through technology! 

Keep up the good work folks! haha. Keep sharing the gospel with others in any way you can and remember that prayer and fasting bring about miracles in our lives! Take care love you guys!

-Elder Welker

Week 54 Missionary Milestones

Yeah so this was a great week as a mission! So this previous week was the last week of the change and our mission had a goal of 90 baptisms and 2250 new investigators for the change (6 weeks is one change). Yeah our mission doesnt baptize a ton like other missions do but we are trying to change that here. But we ended this change with 90 baptisms (same as goal) and 2307 new investigators. President told us that the mission hasnt had this much success in years. Now we have a goal for 100 baptisms and 2400 news so we'll see how close we get this change.

Well as you all know I am staying here with Elder Lopez. I am just glad because I just love this area and im on my 3rd change here now!!! Its great and it also sucks!!! hahaha (not the area, just because it has been raining every single day this week and I hate rain as a missionary!) But things have been good here! You know that last change wasnt easy for me. I know that I shouldnt say anything bad (cause im a missionary) but ive had disobedient companions in the past and nothing has challenged me quite like this. Last change was great because Rosa, Andres, Tania, and Mikaela all got baptized and I love them so much and so it was soo great seeing them get baptized!!! But I knew that I was struggling a lot with my companion and I was struggling to be obedient and so I told my Mission President in my interview that I cared a lot about this area and that I wanted to stay here but I needed him to send me a younger missionary who wants to be obedient to be my companion. I shared with President a lot of things and I left that interview feeling very confident that President was going to send me a new companion but as I waited patiently Monday night I got the call that we would be staying together.

Well I couldnt believe that this was happening to me. I just remember being soo mad and saying things that I shouldnt have said and my companion as well (cause he didnt want to stay here). I remember praying and just asking God "why, why does this always happen to me?" All night I was just feeling like my president just didnt care about me and that I had no purpose here in the mission and that I should just give up trying to be obedient because my president doesnt want to help me. Well the next day was our p-day and I was acting like I completely gave up on life. Well I got on the computer to write my family and they told me some things that helped me quite a bit but when I started writing my weekly email to President it helped me to get some anger off my chest and I felt a lot better suddenly. I remember that I later got on MormonChannel.org and I downloaded a bunch of conference talks and that night I just started listening and it helped me a ton. I remember that afterwards I just got on my knees and prayed for a really long time and just really opened myself up to God and asked him to just help me to forgive my companion and to stop blaming all of this on him and my mission president. I realized that God did have a purpose for this and I just remember having this strong feeling that I needed to start taking responsibility for my actions. That I needed to start doing more personally to work harder and be obedient. I realize now that although we may not have a very obedient companionship that I can do everything myself personally to be more obedient. I also remembered something that my mission president told me in my last interview "you cant control the agency of your companion but you can control your own and do everything to be obedient on your side" and he also told me that "if your companion doesnt get up on time in the mornings and doesnt want to study that you dont have to let that affect you. You can still be obedient and know that God knows that you are being obedient and that He will bless you for that". 

Well this has been helping me soo much actually. What I thought would have a negative impact on my life as a missionary has actually turned into a positive one. I dont think that at any other time of my mission have I kept my thoughts so focused on the mission. And Ive just felt so different now. I feel the spirit so much more now and I feel just so much more "rejuiced" you know? Its changing everything and I think that these next few weeks are going to change me so much. Another thing that I think helped me was asking for some advice from my MTC companion Elder Hemeyer. He started in this area and he's the one that found our investigators that we baptized. I asked him if he could give me some advice and if there was anything that he did in particular to find investigators and have success. He told me that there was no particular tool that was better than another. Like which of these: street contacts or door to door contacts or referrals was the best method to use. He told me that each person he found was found through a completely different method than the other. But he did tell me something important that I already started putting into practice which was: 1. being exactly obedient 2. praying to find investigators and for each person individually and 3. to do a second fast (the second Sunday of the month) specifically to be able to find new investigators. He told me that by praying and fasting that he and his companion experienced miracles and found in total 6 investigators that got baptized (2 that he baptized and the 4 that just recently got baptized). I know that God blesses those who are obedient and that He will bring about miracles in our lives or the lives in others through keeping his commandments. I can testify of that because I was here to witness the baptisms of Rosa, Andres, Tania and Mikaela and the missionaries found them because they were obedient and God brought about that huge miracle because not only were those 4 prepared to recieve the gospel but also because those 2 missionaries had also prepared themselves and God knew that He could trust them with that responsibility. 

I know now that I am staying with my companion for a reason. I am learning a lot and progressing a lot on my own now. Not because I have an obedient companion to tell me what to do in order to be obedient but for the first time because I not only have a desire to be obedient but now I am ready to do it on my own and that by exercising my own agency to be obedient that I can grow and progress spiritually. I think thats why God wanted me to stay here with my companion for one more transfer. Because I needed to learn that and if I was with obedient companions my whole mission I would have never had to use my own agency to choose to be obedient but my companions would have just made sure I was being obedient. I cant wait to see what happens these coming weeks. I think this is going to change everything and that God will finally be able to trust me more and to mold me into the missionary that he wants me to be.

I love you all! I dont have any pictures, sorry. I hope you all have a good week and that you all stay safe!!! I get worried about you guys sometimes, haha.

-Elder Welker

Week 53 4th of July!!!

Yep so today is the 4th of July!!! 󾓦󾓦󾓦 We didnt really do anything to celebrate today. We just went to Mcdonalds since that is about the most American thing we can get here in this country, so yeah. I actually completely forgot about the 4th of July, my comp from Peru reminded me on Saturday and said "hey isnt the 4th of July your country's day of independence or something?" and I was like "oh yeah, that completely slipped my mind..."

Yeah so this week is changes for us and I am staying here and turns out Elder Lopez is too. I was like so excited to find out what was going to happen because we thought that the last thing that would ever happen would be the two of us staying together. Yeah so this is going to be fun... So my comp had actually asked President to go home an entire change early and President told him ok, so my comp last change was already acting like he was going home and we just barely found out like 3 days ago that the Area Presidency didnt approve it so now he is going home in September instead of August. But this is just awful because now we are just going to be repeating the last change because this time he really does only have this change and one more left (which is what he thought last change).

Yeah so this was like the most uneventful week ever because my comp thought he was leaving this area and didnt want to really do anything (and I thought one of us was leaving for sure too, especially just because of the way that our interviews went with President a couple weeks ago). Yeah so I dont even really know what to do now. Its just that me and my comp dont get along super well and I really want to be with younger missionaries so that I can focus more on the mission. I dont know, I think im just going to be patient and try to just get through this change without thinking about it too much.

Also I lost a bunch of photos because my camera chip got filled with a bunch of viruses and I lost a lot of photos from my mission.
And a friend of mine in our district here got sent home (honorable release) for medical issues and wont be coming back here to the mission. 

Yeah sorry if this email sounds really depressing because I know you guys want to be able to learn something and hear about my amazing experiences here in Uruguay so I just want to apologize to all of you guys. This has just been a really rough week for me.

Well keep praying for me please! Those prayers go a long way!!! I know that God gives us challenges for a reason and I am sure that all of this is happening for a reason and that I am supposed to learn something here and learn something from these things that are happening.
Well hey you all take care and have a great week and a great 4th of July! 󾓦󾓦󾓦 I really wish I could be there with you guys to celebrate this amazing event! Love you all!

Eat a 🍔 for me...

-Elder Welker

Week 52 1 Year!!!

Yep so this past week I completed the first half of my mission!!! And yes I do have photos so dont worry mom!

So I hit a year on wednesday and to celebrate this important mark of my mission I had an asado with Pablo and Tania and I burned a shirt! It was super awesome and hitting a year on my mission turned me into a completely different person and instantly I went super saiyan and there were like lightning bolts everywhere and everyone there seeing that went and got baptized wahhahahahhaha. None of that happened. I did hit a year and I dont feel different at all which I think is a good thing? Everyone makes it sound like hitting a year is such a big deal and I guess it is pretty cool and it makes me feel like im a little bit older now out of all the other missionaries here in the mission (which im not, I mean kind of but im really just in the middle now). 

Anyway so things have been great here in my area! I've been spending a lot of time with our recent convert Rosa because she is studying for an English exam that she has so ive been helping her with her english which is super fun to do! Everybody is doing great here and they (Rosa, Andres, Pablo and Tania) are all getting ready to go to the temple in a few weeks. Its awesome. I love these guys!!!!

Also it supposed be really cold here in Uruguay because it is the end of June and the seasons are the complete opposite of the USA but it is still like summer here. Everybody is like so confused because it is still really warm here and hasnt gotten cold yet. Like a week ago there was a day that it was super freezing and everybody thought that winter had already started but the next day it was warm like summer again. Its kind of annoying me because here in Uruguay the weather can change in a matter of a few hours. Its soo weird and its something im not used to because im just a noob from Utah.