It's Lonely at the Top

Hello Everyone!

Hope you're all excited for some Thanksgiving!! As we always say here, "Kaon damo, tulog maayo," meaning "eat a lot, sleep well."(doesn't sound good in english) But it really is such a wonderful season full of gratitude! I can't wait to be able to have another thanksgiving where I can just spend time with family and eat a lot of good food. That sounds like heaven!

We had some great experiences this week! We were able to move another house out in La Carlota and it was quite a joy. When we got there, they already had all of the stuff sitting out, ready to be loaded into the car. Of course we were thinking, "YES, thank goodness they already pulled it out!" That's usually one of the hardest parts. We began taking mental inventory of everything laying out and planning our packing. After getting a good look at the challenge ahead of us, I went to the car, opened the trunk, and just stared at it for a long time. To the unaware onlooker, it must have seemed as though I was entranced by this cargo space, but in reality, I was playing a game of 3D Tetris. It took a few "restarts" before I was able to stack all of the things correctly, but I got it! I turned to Elder Cicon and said, "We can one-trip it again!" He quickly countered, "NO way we can do it again. Last time we had that neighbor that carried their luggage, that's the ONLY reason we were able to pull it off last time!" I looked him in the eyes and said, "No. You're wrong. We can do it." We were met with a few moments of silence and eye contact. He eventually gave his nod of agreeance, signalling "let's do it." Then began one of the most sweaty, dirty, and tiring packing jobs of our lives, very reminiscent of our previous endeavor in Tabugon. Towards the end of our packing, after the beds had been thrown up on top of the cab, we realized, "We only have one piece of rope for two beds and a fridge on the back......" We ended up finding a short length of thick rope that used to hold up a hammock from previous Elders who lived there. It wasn't long enough to wrap around the fridge and be tied down, so we decided to unravel the rope so we could have three thinner lengths of rope! We then tied together each strand until we had one long enough to reach around. How safe, right?? But it worked! It was funny seeing the other Elders sit there, watching us go for it, not knowing how they could possibly help us. When we finished, we took a picture and off we went! We drove about 20 minutes on the highway to where they were moving in - a shared apartment with another set of Elders. We dropped the stuff off, helped them get the majority of it into the house, and then left in triumph yet again. It was hard work.

In response to your email, Dad, about what advice I would give to people preparing for missionaries -- I'm not really sure what I would recommend... There really are so many things that I was told before I was a missionary that I just never did. Everyone told me to read your scriptures, attend the temple, and study Preach My Gospel so you are familiar with the lessons. These are all great, and obviously we should all be doing these things, but the biggest issue I have seen in my mission is a lack of TRUE leaders. I have realized how truly hard it is to be a leader, not just leading from the front of the pack, but even the type of leader that leads from within a group of people. Right now in the Lord's work, I don't think we have too many youth that don't know the doctrines of the church. Even if they don't, they will be able to catch up to the game quickly in their mission through their studies. I think what the Lord is really in need of is people who can APPLY what they are learning and just DO something about it. The Lord needs youth who have ALREADY been a voice and example of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord needs youth who aren't afraid to be the voice of truth when it's the hardest option facing them. And the Lord certainly needs youth who have practiced being a leader and a missionary and an example of Jesus Christ long before they went on their mission. Through reading the scriptures, we can see which attributes of a leader are desirable; we can learn these qualities, we can develop them in ourselves, and after that, we need to help other people desire to make them a part of their own character.

Being a missionary is EASILY the best thing I have done so far in my life. That being said, I can't say that I wasn't a little disappointed to see that many others were not treasuring this opportunity as much as I was. In reality, there are missionaries that seem to have never fully ARRIVED in their mission. Part of their mind is still back at home, some don't really want to serve with all their might mind and strength; even I have been guilty of this. But what I have learned out of all of this is that if you want to be better than what you are seeing around you, you will often have to make that journey seemingly alone. Being a leader and choosing to do what is RIGHT, not just what everyone else is doing, doesn't necessarily mean that you will make friends out of everyone. Most often, you will feel as though nobody is following you. But I can promise that the fruits of our labors will come forth. I found a quote earlier that said to the effect of, "I work one week, people love me. I work another week, people hate me. But every week, I still get paid."

I think the life of Jesus Christ portrays that concept PERFECTLY. While pondering about Christ's life here on earth I realized how truly alone he must have felt. He surely had the Father's guidance through it all, but I don't doubt that there weren't moments that he felt completely alone. We know for a fact that he felt that on the cross when he said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Even though he felt alone through this all, he did the Father's will. Jesus was the best leader that has lived here on earth, and if we want to become like him, we must be willing to step out from the crowd and be alone. Even still, we can rest assured that we will never be truly alone, for he will always be at our side. He has been through true abandonment so that we won't have to. What a great thing we have been given to be grateful for in this time of Thanksgiving!

That's all I have for today! Have a great week!

Elder Welton

Learning Heaven, Big Spider

Hello sa tanan!

I apologize for not writing last week. Last Monday was SO busy, but everything is great!

We had a good last week. We had a transfer two weeks early because of our President's meeting schedule, and so we had to send some people home early. It's always hard saying goodbye to the missionaries. I have come to know some of them so well and there are many that I will never see again. It's amazing how influential someone can be on you, even for just a short amount of time. This group of departing missionaries was actually a very weird one for me because there were two sisters in my MTC group who actually went home this transfer. Next transfer is when they will all go home. It's SO weird! Time flies! I don't know how I will feel when my time comes. I saw Sister Schimbeck the other day(probably a few weeks ago?) and said, "Hey! Last transfer!" and she just glared at me and said, "You stop that right now! I don't want to talk about it." So, we didn't talk about it. But, man, that must be so weird to be in that situation.

Elder Cicon and I were very blessed proselyting this week. We were only able to get out to work for our standard amount of time, probably a total of 8 hours this week, but we were able to meet some new people that show a good interest! We are hoping to start planning baptisms for December, but we will see how things go. We also have a possiblity of a wedding, but we are still working out the details on that one. Goodness... Such a complicated process.

Last Monday, as a reward for us managing transfers along with some other big events, President took us to this new buffet place that we had seen ads for. Our previous President, President Ferrin, said that, "Vikings is the best buffet I have ever been to. Not just in the Philippines... The BEST I have ever been to. In my life." So, naturally we were quite excited when one opened here. You should have seen all of us in there. It was like children in a candy shop. I had to get after some of the Filipino elders for getting rice. I explained to them that, "Eating rice is a rookie mistake... If you eat rice, you won't have any room for all of the good stuff! The two rules are (1) avoid any heavily breaded or 'filling' foods. and (2) DO NOT eat eat rice or bread alone - it will take up too much space." President laughed as I explained this concept. It was a very fun experience, and much needed at that. I was able to fill my sushi craving that I have had for the past year and a half.

Yesterday, Elder Cicon and I fought the biggest spider of my life. We got an awesome video. I have basically mastered the flip-flop toss. I can sling those things from across the room and it's right on target. No targetting computer or anything. But seriously, this thing was like ready to eat a small animal. The way we found it was that Elder Cicon was about to sit down at his study desk to take his socks off, but right as he did so, he saw a spider right where he was about to put his hand behind him on the wall. He let out the loudest, "Holy!!!!!" as he near ran me over. After eyeballing his dimensions, I knew I had to practice; after all, it had been quite a while since my last encounter with a species of this size. I practiced my flip-flop tossing on the wall, ensuring my ability to throw accurately even despite the awkwardness of his position on the wall. I found the "back-facing, downward-hammer-throw" technique to be the best, seeing as he was just a little under waist high on me. The first throw, fearful, was a complete failure. He was on the move! Fortunately I had planned wisely and had my left flip-flop sitting conveniently in my left hand just in case a situation of this nature should arise. Using my last round, I fired. Missed again. We noticed that, because of his size and the gauge of his legs, he was a little slower than normal, thus giving us time to recoup for a second attack. As he continued scaling the walls, climbing under our desk, all the while being lit-up with our barrage of flip-flop attacks and eventually losing a limb -- he was slowed. Elder Cicon then took the cockroach killer to him to give him a little spice. It did the trick. Long story short, he eventually passed away and is no longer there to cause trouble.

I have been studying about repentance this past week and I really loved what I learned. I read a few talks about how repentance is all about CHANGE and COMMITMENT. It basically said that repentance is not just about confessing guilt and then being forgiven; it's about committing to obedience. Jesus Christ can wipe away our guilt fairly easily, but I think he leaves the changing up to us. Committing to obedience does not come as a one time choice, but rather a CONTINUAL choice. There was a talk given by Brad Wilcox at BYU and he said some very memorable things. I have listened to his talk multiple times on my mission and I just love it. But one of the things he talked about was "learning heaven" while we are still here on earth. He said that, "heaven will not be heaven for those who have not chosen to be heavenly." As we repent, we are learning heaven. We may have to go through some pain and bitterness, but through that we will "learn heaven." Our Savior truly can help us to overcome those things in our lives. He lives to do that. He wants us to ask him for help so that we can learn how to live with him after this life. He is merciful, forgiving, and wants us to be happy. Depende lang sa aton kung batonon naton ang ginapaambit nya sa aton. Gusto nya gid nga magbulig sa aton sa mga pagtilaw naton kag gusto nya man gid nga kuhaon ang mga kabugat nga ara sa aton. Kis-a, daw ginapaminsar ta nga wa'ay na gid kita chansa nga maghinulshol o nga permanente na gid ang aton nga sala, pero indi gid sia amo na. Wa'ay gid di sala sa kalibutan nga indi naton kaya nga hinulsolon. Repentance is available to everyone. Always.

Sorry about all the Ilonggo. I didn't have enough brain power to try and say what I wanted to say in English. My teaching brain speaks Ilonggo now so it just kinda came out that way.

That's all I have for this week! I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton

Pictures - 

One is of me in a hammock. I completely doubted that this thing could hold me, but our recent convert, Jeffrey, said that it wouldn't break. He was right. It was quite peaceful.

Here is a picture of the spider we killed. The picture doesn't do it justice.