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