Week 92 Jose's Baptism

So yes this last week we were able to have Jose's baptism on Saturday as planned! It went through really good so thank you all for your prayers and your support! He got baptized on the same day that my brother got married so it was a very good day for everybody! Elder Williams ended up baptizing him because the member that was going to do it was sick that day and I confirmed him on Sunday because the member that was going to do it didnt show up to church. So yeah it was really cool and everything is going great here! After everyone had left after the baptismal service we stayed behind with one of the bishop's counselors to clean up a bit and as we were leaving the church we asked him "so, is there anything else we can help you with or is there anything else you need?" and he said "yes. Find another family to baptize." haha. It was really funny but now thats what we're in the process of doing!

But yeah on Sunday was Raquel's birthday and I made her brownies and she loved them! So did her daughter-in-law Dyana and she couldnt stop eating them haha. I make pretty good brownies :) 

The wedding photos of my brother were great! I wish I couldve been there but I can probably just imagine how it wouldve been looking at the pictures my mom sent me😛

Well before I know it i'll be home. You guys have no idea how fast the time passes by now! Its insane how quickly the days go by! I still cant believe that im already at this point of my mission! The days and weeks now just go by too fast and I dont really want the time to go by this fast! I want things to slow down! 

Anyways here's some pics of Jose's Baptism! Love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Welker

Week 91 Last General Conference on the mission!

Well as you all know this last weekend was general conference! It was also my last one while being here on the mission 😖. It was really cool seeing who the two new apostles were and I really enjoyed this conference a lot. Our investigator Jose went to the saturday afternoon session and the priesthood session and he really liked it! He understood basically everything and had some members sitting with him to explain to him what everything meant. He should be getting baptized this saturday if everything goes through well. We hope it does!!!! Yeah, he's gonna be baptized on Saturday, then on Sunday he'll get confirmed, which is the birth day of Raquel and I have to make brownies cause I promised her id make her brownies and then on the 15th of April is Jose's birthday and were gonna do an asado with him so this next week and so should be really fun!!! 😁

This last week kinda stunk for me cause I was really sick almost all last week and I was having really bad stomach problems and I was having lots of digestion problems too. On thursday we had lunch with the Martin family and I threw up like halfway through the lunch and then after leaving their house afterwards I threw up even more in the street and yeah it was a fun experience.......?🤔

But yeah I couldnt really work that much this past week. We had an awesome trip to the temple on Tuesday and it was really good and I'll probably only have one more temple visit before going home. But yeah im feeling way better now, Elder Williams gave me some pills on Sunday morning and that literally cured me cause since then I have felt super good so were ready to go back out this week and hit it!!! 

Im really excited for this Saturday!!! Big shout out to my brother Jake!! He's gonna be a married dude at the end of this weekend! Also we are expecting to have the baptism of Jose this Saturday to top that! 

Happy Easter everybody! I didnt really do anything to celebrate it. woohoo! .....ummm anyways hope you all have a great week!!! Have fun watching my brother get married!!!!! Peace out!

-Elder Welker

Week 90 "You're gonna see me get baptized"

Well we had a pretty good week here this past week! Thanks everybody for wishing me a happy 20th bday! I would thank you all individually but im kinda short on time so if you read this email then you now know that you were thanked! (does that sound good? My english is kinda bad after being here for almost 2 years :)

Well anyways this email is gonna be pretty short so im just gonna write some of this last weeks highlights:

Monday March 19: had a zone activity in Bella Italia, I played soccer for like 3 hours and made some pretty sick goals, I even made a goal doing a scissor kick (the wet concrete court helped because I actually slipped while doing it but still made the goal :) I also got sunburned pretty bad cause I was outside playing the whole time.

Tuesday March 20: my 20th birthday!! The other elders surprised me and bought a cake that we shared at night.

Wednesday March 21: 21 months in the mission! We also had a multi zone conference in Carrasco and it was fun and uplifting as usual! 

Thursday, Friday, Saturday nothing super interesting to write about.

Sunday March 25: Gave a talk in church today! I love giving talks and I talked about member missionary work and the blessings of the temple. Our recent convert Raquel and her husband Jose came to church and Jose came in a white shirt and the tie that Elder Williams gave to him.

Monday March 26: I had some pretty bad stomach and digestion problems like all day so we didnt leave until the evening to go to some lessons we had set. We had an awesome lesson with Jose and Raquel and we taught Jose the Restoration aka lesson 1. It was really good and we had been wanting to invite Jose to be baptized for a while but we hadnt been able to have a formal lesson until last night. At the end of the lesson, right before I asked him to be baptized, he said "you know what, im going to get baptized". The funny thing is that I heard it, and Elder Williams also heard it, and we looked at eachother as if to say "did he really just say that?" and so Elder Williams was like "wait wait wait can you repeat that?" and Jose said "yeah, your gonna see me get baptized". And we were so happy and we set a date with him for April 7!!! We really think he's gonna be ready and he already has 2 assistances in church. I really hope he makes that date also because thats the day that me brother Jake gets married on and it would be awesome cause that way I feel more happy not attending his wedding! Haha, a big slap in the face!! haha just kidding! :) dont take that offensively! :)

Anyways things are going great here! I also have some photos here that I wanted to send you guys last week but my sd card was having issues and I couldnt get the photos out but here you go:

 

1. Me with my son (Elder Fairbanks) and my grandson (Elder Millet). Elder Fairbanks is training a new missionary this transfer and I got to take a pic with them at Tres Cruces on my way to Libia (my new area)

2. Me and Elder Williams! This guy is awesome!!! He reminds me of my brother Jake cause he likes football but he also likes video games like me and he knows a lot!! 😁

3. I dont think I sent this to you guys but this was when I was in Rocha with Elder Larsen. I found Monster Guarana!!! I didnt even know that this existed because Guarana is not something that you can find in the states but its common down here in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brasil.

anyways love you guys! Have a great week!!!!!

-Elder Welker

Week 89 Chau Rocha! Bienvenidos Montevideo por tercera vez!!!!

Hey everybody!!!!! We just got told transfers last night and im leaving Rocha and heading back to Montevideo for the third time!! Im soo excited to go! Im heading to Maroñas, the only zone in Montevideo that I havent been to yet (cause I was already in North and East Montevideo stakes). But now im going to a ward called Libia, which is also the name of my new area and also my last area of the mission!!! I'll be finishing out here in Montevideo my last 3 months of the mission!

Other exciting news: I'll be companions with Elder Williams (he was the MTC companion of Elder Fairbanks, my son haha). Elder Williams I heard is also like the grandson or something of Elder Ballard (thats what I heard but i'll have to ask him). Also Elder Fairbanks is going to be district leader and trainer in Treinta y Tres which means that im going to be a grandpa on the mission haha! Also Libia is right by my old area of Camino Carrasco!!!! The best fetching area in the world!!!! I'm totally goin to ask Pres Eddy during my last few weeks to visit members and converts from there. Also im going to be living in the same house as Elder Castañares (my last comp) and so im going to watch him die (end his mission cause he goes home after this transfer). Also my trainer Elder Harkness served in Libia right before going to Maldonado to train me, so im gonna have to talk with the people there and see if the remember him. But yeah im super stoked to end my mission there!! Also Libia/Maroñas is the most sketchy part of our mission, where missionaries get robbed most so im putting my watch in my luggage and i'll probably not wear it til I go home haha.

But yeah these last few months were pretty fun here in Rocha. I learned a lot here and I hope to be able to finish out my last 3 months strong! This past week one of our investigators, Graciela, finally came to church and she had friends there that she didnt know were members of the church and so she fit in just fine. She has a baptismal date for the end of the month. We'll have to see how that goes. I think she can make it and I hope that Elder Larsen does well here in Rocha with his new companion. This past transfer wasnt easy and we had a lot of ups and downs but overall we had a good transfer and overall I feel like we did a lot of good for the area that future missionaries will be able to work on. 

Photos!!!!!

1. I thought this was really funny. I had an intercambio/division with my district leader Elder Perrins in La Paloma and we went by this really old lady who is a member cause she needed a blessing and after giving her the blessing I saw her clock and thought it was funny and the second she left the room I quickly snagged a pic of it haha. I dont want to spell out what it says, I think you guys can figure it out haha.

2. we were getting ready to go to a service and when I saw what Elder Cole was wearing it reminded me of a Liahona cover that I had seen just a few days before so I made him take a picture with it haha. 

-Elder Welker

Week 88 More Miracles in Rocha!!

So I just quickly want to say that this week was pretty good for us here in Rocha, we found a lot of new people to teach this week and things are getting a bit better for us here. 

So this past week Elder Larsen had one of the coolest experiences ever and it was really cool what happened. So we found this less active family called the Lopez family and its just a mom named Virginia and her two kids, Sharon and Yohan. So Elder Larsen had found them a week ago when he was on a division with Elder Cole and then we went by this week to get to know them a little more. Well it turns out that Virginia just recently came to Rocha like 2 years ago and before that they were living in Minas (which is a city in a different department of Uruguay). Well we were talking wit them and Virginia said that she found out about the church like 10 years ago after getting to know this senior missionary couple named Elder and Sister Crum (I think thats their name). Well Virginia and her husband back then got baptized and they were active while living in Minas but after coming to Rocha they went inactive. Well it turns out that Elder Larsen, just days before coming on the mission, was in a store with his mom doing some last minute shopping for his mission and this senior couple overheard them talking about his mission and so they asked him where he was going to serve and he told them Montevideo Uruguay and they freaked out cause thats where they had served a few years before! So he came on the mission a year ago and now he's here in Rocha and found the family that that senior couple taught and baptized! How cool is that?! 

But yeah things are going good here! We also had this Evangelical priest guy come up to us and start to bible bash us in the street and started to quote scriptures trying to fool us and started to tell us "yeah I have a Book of Mormon and you know what I found? I found it full of errors" and he just kept going off on bible quotes and was like "you know what it says in Proverbs 10:3 ?" (just an example) and were like "no" (cause I dont have the bible memorized verse for verse) and he was like "ohhh so you guys dont know what it says" (like as if to show that he knows the bible better than us). Well I asked him if he believed that revelation ended with Jesus Christ and he said that everyone knows that once Jesus died that the work was over and that everything was finished and that He saved us so we no longer needed prophets. And then just as I was about to ask him about Paul and tell him how the work really wasnt finished he took off. But yeah really interesting guy he was a total nutjob haha. Anyways thats basically the interesting things that happened this week. :)

Heres some pics I got for you guys!!!!

Last week in La Paloma and back in the Xmas conference when I was with Elder Castañares

anyways I love you guys!!!! Have a great week!!!!!!

-Elder Welker

Week 87 Back in Maldonado after 14 months!!!!!!!

Well so this week had a lot of ups and downs. The biggest down was that we couldnt get anyone to attend church this week and neither did the other 2 elders here in Rocha. Its been soo hard to get investigators to church and we have tried everything!! I dont think ive ever had such a hard time getting investigators to church until I came here to Rocha. On the bright side we had an okay week and saw a few small miracles along the way and I feel like we are making progress but its just a little slow is all. But we are making progress here! Um, so I finally got to go back to Maldonado after 14 months!! Maldonado is where I started my mission and I finally got to go back because we had a multi zone conference there and so we traveled there for the conference! I also got to eat a tortugon which is basically a giant hamburger/sandwich that is only made in Maldonado. It was so good!!! 

In other news I only have 100 days left in the mission field which is crazy but im trying not to think about it. We went to La Paloma today! It was sick! We got there last night and stayed the night with the elders there and then at 5 in the morning we went with them to the dock and watched the sunrise! It was magnificent!!!! Soo dope!!!! 

But yeah weve been working with our member list soo much here recently! Its soooo bad! The directions and addresses of people are really off and a lot dont even live here anymore or they have died and the member list just never got updated so were using it as a way to 1. clean up the member list so that missionaries and members dont have trouble in the future and 2. its also a great way to find new investigators and its been working pretty dang well for us as for now!! Im lovin it! But yeah things are really chill here in Rocha! If you guys want to know anything else be free to ask cause thats about all ive got for the week!

1. About to eat a tortugon in Maldonado

2. my plaque in La Paloma!

3. view of the sunrise in La Paloma 

-Elder Welker

Week 86 Miracle Challenge!!

Well so last Monday in President Eddy's weekly email he invited all of the missionaries in the mission to write down at least one miracle at the end of every day! And I decided to follow his invitation and write at least one miracle every day in my journal until the end of my mission and im so glad that I started doing that cause this week was super bummy! During this week we lost quite a few investigators because they told us they werent interested any more or they just didnt want to progress any more and it was a really hard week for us! We didnt have much success this week but im still glad that I did what Pres Eddy invited us to do because it helped me see through the crappy week and see some of the miracles! And some of the days it was really hard to think of a miracle but after pondering about it I would find at least one thing every day. 

One of the miracles from this week was that on Tuesday we decided to pass by this guy named Maxi who was a reference from the other two elders in Rocha. They said he was 20 and that he was a less active member. So we went by his house and after talking with him a bit he told us that he had been talking with his older brother Marcos about going back to church because they both felt like they needed to start going again. He also told us that he was a less active member and that everyone in his family was less active except for his youngest sister who wasnt baptized at all. Well then Maxi's mom came in and told us that Maxi wasnt baptized either and he was confused and said "mom im baptized too!" and she said "yeah but in the Catholic church when you were a baby! When we all got baptized in the Mormon church you werent old enough to get baptized so you never did" and so it turns out that Maxi never got baptized and he thought that he was less active. Well were gonna go by him again this week and invite him to get baptized and start teaching him. 

Well im sorry that this emails soo short but we are in Chuy again! Were gonna go to the Brazilian buffet again and so ive got to go cause we dont have a lot of time here! 

This photo is from a service we did the other day. We were just clearing out this family's backyard of all of these sticks and plants and stuff. 

Well anyways take care guys! Have a good week!!!

-Elder Welker