This may be the end....

Hello Family!!

Right now, we are in the mission office cranking out trainings for my last MLC tomorrow! It is 3 am, I am running on 4 hours of sleep from the night before and we are loving life. Amidst all of this craziness, I remembered that I hadn't had time to send out an email yet! So here we go!

This week was CRAZY. We set some crazy goals this week to try and push ourselves to find new investigators and to rise to a new sense of responsibility. We pushed ourselves so hard, and we were able to reach our goal. It was great to see so many other Elders an Sisters to reach that same level of dedication and determination that we learned.

This starts the last week of my mission now... It's so sad.

I'm sorry this is yet another short letter, but right now I can't finish a sentence without nodding off in the middle of it. Just know that I am alive. Rest will come soon.

I love this work!!

Elder Welton

Rain pa more

Hello Family!

This will be the shortest email I have sent you!

Last week was good! We got rained on, worked, taught people, and attended Zone Conferences.

This will be my last week of uninterrupted work for the rest of my mission, so we are going to teach EVERYONE.

Take Care! See you soon.

Elder Welton

Hello Family and Friends!

We were able to get in a solid week of work here in Minoyan! So great! Miracles. This may have possibly been the last straight week of work that I will have the rest of my time here. We have Zone Conference and then MLC coming up in the next few weeks and then I'll be home. That's so crazy.

Working was really good this week. One of my biggest weaknesses as a missionary for my whole mission has been talking to people everywhere; OYM'ing, as they call it (open your mouth). I have always just been to afraid to talk to random people. I feel as though I am "inconveniencing" them by stopping them to share this message. But lately, in the words of one of the sister missionaries here, "If you were bringing around free gold to people, would you hesitate to offer it to them because you thought it would inconvenience them?" I pondered that and realized that I AM offering gold! I got so much more bold in talking to everyone this last week. I realized that if I don't open my mouth right now, I can never know if someone else ever will! As we were more diligent and dedicated about OYM'ing this week, we were blessed with great new people and contacts. We hope to see them progress.

I have been reflecting a lot on myself and trying to figure out what exactly I have become on my mission. I feel like I still lack a lot of attributes that missionaries usually have, but when I read a friend's letter the other day, I realized that I feel the same thing! I will now quote Kimber Young's email.

--

"I realized how bold I am getting as a missionary/person in general. I was kind of bummed about it. Before my mission, I always pictured myself returning home as a quiet, kind, gentle, meek, submissive, sweet, and humble girl (. So on my mission I have tried hard to be like that person I wanted to become and it wasn't working!! Instead I have found myself being more bold, strict, diligent, organized, and always speaking my mind. I was so confused and frustrated by this because I have been learning all these things and feel closer to God than ever before but I wasn't becoming the person I wanted to become! But my "a-ha!" moment this week was this: it's not about becoming the person I want to become, it is about becoming the person He wants me to become. Maybe He wants me to be bold and loud and organized and obedient. My strengths now are not the same strengths I had before my mission. I am becoming a different person on my mission but not in the same way as I expected myself to. And that is a good thing because it is not about changing myself but allowing God to change me."

--

Now, I don't desire to become a "sweet, and humble girl," like she said in her email, but I have always hoped to obtain those attributes. She took the words right out of my mouth. The biggest thing that has been on my mind lately is: "Have I reached the level of potential that God had in mind for me by the end of my mission?" I really hope so. I have realized how much we need to improve all the time. And I realized, as it explains in Doctrine and Covenants, that our rate of improvement in the next life will probably be the same as our rate of improvement before we died on earth. If we die unprogressive, we will remain unprogressive in the life to come. And if we are improving at a slow rate, we will STILL be moving slowly in the next life. So I guess we really only have right now to build up that pace and to maintain a high pace for the rest of our lives.

That's all for this week!

Elder Welton

Here's a picture of our area. We went up further than we had been going to see if there was potential. This area is the prettiest one I have been in my whole mission!

P.S.:  Here's a fun description from a message Tanner sent to his dad:   

"I know you love the small details of missionary life -- We came down from the mountain yesterday wearing our long sleeve shirt (for church meetings) to go to a meeting with president and we haven't had time to go back to our area all day because of errands. We went to sleep at 2 last night because we were getting numbers and making reports. We don't have any clean laundry or food left at the house and we have to wake up at 4 to get on a bus and then get to Cadiz for a Zone Conference at 9. I have to hand wash my long sleeve shirt tonight in hopes that it will be dried by the morning. If it isn't I will hang it in front of our standing fans in our house to get it as dry as possible.

 I figured some of this might just bring back some fond memories of yours to remembrance. Such a great time."

Minoyan 1E1

Hello!!

Things are going great!

For those who don't know, I was transferred last week! NOOOOO! I loved Ma-ao. It was so great... But now I am in the area right next to it! It's the same mountain, but facing a different direction. This area is even PRETTIER than my last! It's incredible! Wow... What a blessing to be able to finish my mission up in this place.

Elder Warnick is my companion (he's from Payson) and we were both assigned as APs, which is weird because we don't live in Bacolod! It's actually a super awesome setup. President actually has four APs for this transfer, like he did in January. The other set is split up with two different areas with different companions. Elder Duero is one and Elder Wade is the other. They are great. They take care of most of the office work that President needs, and we are just focusing on making a model area that we can take other Zone Leaders into to learn and to develop their skills and give them feedback. It's so cool! So right now, we are just focusing on finding and doing all that we can to try and set a good example. It's hard..!

I am practicing my English right now. It's pretty bad. I mumble when I speak and it's hard to speak properly. My written English is still fine, but my spoken English is still just conversational and casual, unless I am giving a training or in a teaching situation; it's normal then. Hopefully I can practice refining my communication skills before I get home so that I don't sound like some high school student... Pray for me!

Something interesting about this week is that I go home in four weeks, which means that all of the investigators that began their four weeks of church attendance required for baptism this week, then everyone else I find after this will be baptized after I leave. I'm not sure how clear that sentence was, (probably pretty bad english) but basically what happens now is that I am now finding people that I will not get to see enter the waters of baptism... In preparation for this, I have been reflecting upon my desire to help others and trying to determine whether that desire was centered on self-achievement or on the salvation of others. I have seen so many missionaries just kind of give up on the last month because they know that they can no longer baptize anyone else that may begin progressing. Proud to say, I still have the same desire I did last week to teach repentance and baptize converts. It hasn't dwindled in the slightest. I love this message and the happiness it brings. It makes me sad when people choose not to accept it, and makes me delight when people chose to humble themselves and follow Jesus Christ. What a great thing. I wish everyone could understand what I know. And I wish they could understand how many better doors will open for them when the decide to close the ones that they think will make them the happiest and then seek to understand what God has in store for them. I hope to help as many people as possible to understand this message as I have done so myself.

Have a great week!!

Elder Welton

Build People

Hello Family and Friends!

Good week! Busy week!

This week was another week of growth and work! I am so grateful for the experiences that God has been providing me with during my last few strides towards the finish line. It's been so interesting lately as I have pondered my progress as a missionary. This has been such an interesting time because I feel like I am back in my training again. Everything seems to have the same feel as when I was in my training, but in reverse in some ways. I'm not 2 months into the field anymore, but rather 2 months left in the field. My email has seemed to populate itself with messages of excitement and anticipation of return, rather than messages of well-wishing and farewell. I now reflect on the memories of my current home for the past 22 months, rather than the memories from my old home of 18 years. I don't understand why I have been blessed as much, but I feel as though I have had a lifetime of experiences in just two years.

This week has been full of a lot of work, as usual, but personally, I have been seeking to know my Savior better. I feel the same desire right now to come ever nearer unto Him that I felt when I was in my training, striving to overcome the pride that kept me from progressing. I have been pondering His life and ministry and the way that He called His Apostles and it made me wonder what He did during those 30 or so years before he actually began His ministry. We know so much about is ministry and his life during that time, but how did Jesus influence those people around Him before he revealed himself as the Son of God?

I have been reading a lot about leadership and building people and I read one book called "The Servant Leader," which bases it's leadership principles upon the characteristics of Jesus Christ. At one point, it talked about how Jesus called is Apostles and they followed Him. After reading the short section, it made me think, "Why did His soon-to-be-Apostles follow him so quickly, without hesitation?" One of the simplest answers to this question would probably be: they knew Him. I would love to see how Jesus had built relationships with these people before he called them. I imagine it must have been years of preparation. What I learned overall from this book is that we need to put time into building relationships with people. We really can do a lot to influence people around us, we just need to take the time to be willing to share what we know.

Sorry to cut this email short, but I'm almost out of time! Hope everyone as a great week!

Elder Welton

Dalagan

Hello!

Man. This week was nuts - so many people taught, ENDLESS hours on the bus, and so much more. We worked SO hard this week and we have been finding many new quality investigators! It's so amazing how much we have been blessed recently. This work is truly a joy!

This Saturday was such a crazy day. We had been working so fast and traveling around so much the whole week that we weren't able to visit our investigators as much as we had planned. Our schedule for Saturday involved visiting all of our investigators on the mountain, the farthest part of our area, and then attending a wedding/baptism in Bago City for the Sister's baptismal candidate. We had missed so much sleep this week because of our travel and fitting in teaching appointments that when it came time to plan on Friday night, it was already 10:45pm, we hadn't eaten dinner, and we were sweating buckets because of the Summer heat right now. As we looked at the time constraints for the following day, we said, "Well... It looks like we are gonna have to run tomorrow if we want to visit all those people....." So that's what we did. We traveled up to the mountain, got off the tricycle, and just started speed-walking/jogging. We made a 30 minute fast-walk through the field into a 15 minute jog. We got to the first appointment, tried to let our clothes dry out, taught a lesson, and then started running to the next one, which was about a 30 minute jog through the fields again. After all that, it started DUMPING rain, so we had to hide inside the only member's house in the area. Because of the time restraints, we had no choice but to run through the rain when it didn't let up. The rain was actually quite nice, seeing as it made the intense heat cool down. It guess that's a blessing.

We did our best to dry off on the ride down the mountain, and then grabbed Elder Rabila's clothes from the apartment and got on the bus. We made it JUST in time for the wedding. I then assumed my place at the front and conducted the opening part of the wedding ceremony, picked whatever hymn that came to my mind, introduced the speakers, and then gave the time to the solemnizer. I then assumed my position as wedding photographer, just like the good ole days, and documented the entire wedding. It was a WONDERFUL wedding. Sisters are so much better at setting up weddings than Elders, that's for sure!

We are teaching one young man right now that is about 14 years old. Last night, we looked for him at his house but couldn't find him. We then went to the basketball court that we always see him at and, lo and behold, he was there! Elder Rabila said, "Hey, look at him right now. He's a big fish now," observing that he had somehow managed to join in with guys a bit older than him. That's such a big deal growing up, I totally forgot about that! I said, "I don't think he's gonna want to listen right now; he's with the 'big fish'." He then replied, "Oh yes he will. Especially if a bigger fish calls HIM," referring to us. I realized he had a point! We asked him if we could teach him when he was done playing and he was fine with it! We ended up just standing by and watching them for a while. As I watched this group of somewhat rambunctious young men, the words from Joseph Smith History came to my mind. He said, "I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God," very similar to what I was witnessing on this basketball court. I realized in the moment, that this investigator that we had been teaching seemed to parallel the life of Joseph Smith. As we taught him, we asked how he was doing following the Word of Wisdom, to which he responded, "I haven't had any problems! I don't drink coffee anymore, and I don't do any of the other things. I stopped after you taught me about it last time." We asked him if his mom had said anything, to which he replied, "I told her that I want to follow whatever the Elders teach me because I know that it's true and that it's for my own good. Then she just said, 'alright, whatever you want to do as long as you are being good.'" We were so impressed by his desire to follow Christ. I reflected upon it as we walked home and talked to Elder Rabila about it. God must really know his children if he knew he could trust a 14 year old boy with such a great calling. Just like this young man we were teaching, I think Joseph Smith must have had the same attitude of, "I'm gonna follow this because I know it's true and that it's for my own good."

What cool experiences. I am so blessed to be in this area. I hope that things continue to improve and that these people come to know Jesus Christ even better. I have recently realized that EVERYBODY here in the Philippines loves Christ, but very few of them actually KNOW him the way that we do in this church. They don't understand his compassion, his sternness, his loving voice, and his call to obedience. I had always figured that they already knew Christ, but have recently learned that the Christ I know is much different than theirs. I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the testimony it gives of Jesus Christ. We need this second witness if we want to be able to recognize his voice when he comes.

What a marvelous work. I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Welton

Saved by Grace

Maayong hapon sa akong mga abyan!

This was a GREAT. WEEK. What a great opportunity to be a missionary.

We had a baptism this week! Angel Y-------, the grandchild of Sister P------- we baptized in March, was finally baptized! She is great. She was SO SO SO excited to get baptized and has been waiting for a long time. She has actually been an investigator for a long time, but was lost when the Elders were pulled out of one of the proselyting areas that we are now covering. We were able to recontact her and start teaching her again. On our first visit with her back in February, we found her house and then taught them. When we were talking about their religion, her friend said, "I'm Baptist" and then Angel said, "I'm Mormon!" quickly following it up with a, "ah, well I guess not QUITE yet..." She is great. The baptismal service was wonderful, and it was just great.

This week was full of a lot of learning for me. I finally decided to finish the book that you sent me, Mom, titled "Believing Christ" I think my procrastination of actually reading this book must have been part of God's plan for me because it couldn't have been more timely. I shared last week about Elder Holland's talk about TRYING and being found "spotless before God at the last day," and I thought about how HARD it must be to be spotless. I guess I didn't quite understand the concept of grace last week. This book described the principle of grace so clearly. I have only recently started to understand the doctrine of Grace in the LDS context. I had always kind of ignored the idea of grace, thinking it to be more of a Baptist doctrine that provided a "free ticket" to heaven if we just "received Christ." I have recently come to understand that it is nothing like that. We don't get a free ticket to heaven just by believing, but through this grace we can become perfect. WE ourselves won't become perfect, but because of the covenant relationship we have with Christ, we can be CONSIDERED perfect when we face our God at judgment because of our flawless partner which has paid for those imperfections we have. In the book, it explained how Christ knows that we will not be able to keep all of the commandments all of the time, but that he expects us to TRY. He ASKS for us to be obedient exactly obedient all the time, but doesn't EXPECT that we will be able to meet that commitment all at once. 

When I think of all the mistakes I have made and am currently making, it makes me realized how BADLY I need that saving grace in my life. It also made me more fully understand this work that I am a part of. I am beginning to understand exactly WHY I need to help people to be baptized. If only I had learned and understood that doctrine more fully a bit earlier, you know? What an important thing for missionaries to understand. If you don't yet understand grace or haven't even begun to understand it, you are missing a BIG piece of the puzzle. I hope to learn even MORE about it in an effort to believe Christ's promises a little bit more.

As I have tried to come closer to Christ, I have started having so many feelings of inadequacy, disappointment, and many other things that make me feel like I can NEVER make it closer to him. Perhaps Satan was trying to hinder my progress and keep me from coming closer - I have no idea! But as I started reading the scriptures, I came across a classic verse that I have read MANY times, but had not yet understood it in this context; Ether 12:27.

--

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

--

So, apparently those feelings of inadequacy I had were NOT from an enemy, but rather from a caring friend that wants me to be better. Those feelings I had were not a sign of me distancing myself from Christ, but rather of me drawing nearer to him. I guess we sometimes think that coming unto Christ is like getting a big old giant warm hug from a good friend, but I guess once a solid relationship has been built with Christ, been neglected, and then picked up again, He makes sure to let us know what we have neglected in our absence. It's not because He doesn't love us, but rather that He DOES love us and wants to make sure we make the right choices and become what the Father needs to accomplish his plans. What an interesting thing. So perhaps when we feel inadequate despite our best efforts to draw nearer to Christ, that is his way of telling us we are doing what he wants. I hope that all of my "weak things become strong."

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton