Name Change

This was a great week!

We were so busy this week! We had a hard time working in our area because so much happened... Goodness.

On Tuesday, the AP's called and said that we would be going on exchanges the next day. I ended up going to Bacolod and was with Elder Cicon while Elder Derecho went with Elder Rabila in Ma-ao. It was a fun exchanges! It's always fun being with Elder Cicon. Good missionary. It was great to see the area that they have been resurrecting since January. Great progress! We went to eat after work and we ate at this cool restaurant that you sit on the floor at. It was like korean style, but I ended up getting a burger... I don't regret it at all! Super good burger! I mostly just liked sitting on the floor around the small tables though.

We had a baptism this week! We baptized James R-------, someone we actually met while looking for a house our first week. Their house was the first one that we looked at, but when we realized that they would be kicking out the current residents for us to go there, we just decided to keep looking. We met his mother there when we looked for just a few short minutes and then we kept waving to her whenever we would go by their house. A few days later, we decided to go talk to them. Long story short, she listened to LDS missionaries over 20 years ago and was very willing to listen again. After we taught her family, James was the first to be prepared and baptized. There's actually a super funny story behind all of this though! The birthday on James' birth certificate has been wrong for years; 2012 instead of 2002. His mother went and talked to the registrar office in Bago and they told her that they could fix it, but they would need to create an entirely new record for him. In order to prevent issues, they told her she needed to add something to his name to make it unique. A few days later, while I was on exchanges in Bacolod, she found out that Elder Rabila

's first name was James and so she said, "we'll just put 'Welton' as his middle name so that he can remember you guys!" Hahaha! When I got back, we ended up telling her that she should just put "Tanner" so that it would be two first names. SO... His name is now James Tanner Bacornay R-------! What a good way to be remembered! I don't think many people can say they renamed someone and then baptized them with their own name haha. Successful week!

We had a great lesson with James about obedience after his confirmation. I always find it so frustrating that I have learned so much about obedience and yet lack so much in that area. I think we all feel that sometimes; we know that the commandments are there for us to be blessed and to be MORE free, and yet we still get distracted and think that we can do things our own way and be more free than God can give us. About a month ago, I was singing some hymns and started singing "Keep the Commandments". For such a simple song, I was impressed so much. The words, "In this there is safety, in this there is peace," really made me feel that that promise was 100% true. Often times, if not all of the time, there is nothing too exciting when we follow the commandments. The commandments and the teachings of the prophets and apostles are often rather conservative compared to our world's standards. But when we follow the commandments, we are promised two things that are SO rare in today's world: Safety and Peace. Those are things that can ONLY be had through the gospel and living principles therein. I hope that I can not only know these things and be able to teach these things, but to also be able to apply them in my own life and to be content with the safety and peace that is being offered to us all.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton

A picture of our azwesome baptism of Brother James (Tanner) R-------

This sign is super funny to me hahaha! There was an english version somewhere on the road but I missed it. It basically translates to "Segregation is needed for a clean living area" There was another that said, "Segregation starts in the family" I think that's probably the most correct word for talking about separating your garbage, but it sounds a little like we are teaching racism, right..?

Here are some pictures of us working out on the mountain.  We had the only Melchizedek Priesthood holder in our group working with us.  Great guy!