Emergency Transfers Liwat?? Palagpat gid

Hello Family and Friends!

This has been a crazy week! Lots of awesome...things happened!

We got a surprise call last night around seven o'clock that Elder Averion would be transferring the next day. Luckily, we had been put in one of the farthest areas from the mission office haha. We were told to be there at nine in the morning. SOOO he packed, we slept for about 2 or 3 hours and then left in the middle of the night! So now I am really really tired. I'm going to miss Elder Averion. He was fun. I am really excited about my companion right now, though. Elder Sabio is two transfers behind me and we were in the same district during our training. We were way cloase and always joking about being companions eventually and, lo and behold, now we are! I was so surprised because he had already stepped up to senior companion and then he's my junior now. So there is a chance that I could be transferring really soon again because we are getting a new mission president. I don't want to transfer. Pray for me.

About the language, mom; yes my mouth gets really tired sometimes. I try my best to have a good accent and to speak at a normal conversation pace, so sometimes my mouth gets really tired because it's not my natural language. If I were to get lazy with my accent, I wouldn't get worn out as fast, but then I wouldn't be understood as much. I am super quick in the language if I mix English root words a lot, which can work when I am talking to most people, but I still put an accent on my English words for it to flow better. Something interesting earlier, I was in McDonald's (yes!) early this morning and I was listening to a group of people talk behind me. So was Cherryl, one of the members that rode up with us because she had a meeting in Bacolod. I had been listening for a while, not quite able to pick out what they were talking about or even the main idea at all. The sound of the words counded familiar, but I couldn't put them together in my head! I figured it was just a different dialect that I had never hear before, but then Cherryl said, "Oh! I was wondering why I couldn't understand them! They're speaking Chinese!!" I was so shocked! It sounded so similar! I remember how weird Chinese sounded before my mission, but now it sounds so normal. It just couldn't make sense of what they were saying! Super weird. Hard to explain.

You're probably wondering about the special sacrament! It was AWESOME! We had about fifty people all together. I was surprised. We had about 20 investigators too! Awesome. I attached a picture of the place. It's so cool haha. There are actually not a ton of members in the area. We are basing the group on our recent convert family that was just baptized. We have met a few less-active members and we are hoping to help them return to activity. All of the people who attended yesterday were actually investigators that we have been finding and teaching for the past few weeks. And we even had some of the members that came with us go invite some of their friends! A few of them actually came! It was a really cool experience.

My memorable experience from this week was during the Sister's baptism. They asked us to baptize their investigators and they were so funny. They reactivated a less-active family and then baptized the children who had not yet been baptized. Elder Averion baptized the little girl in the family and it was so funny. She was tiny and the water was deep, so she was basically 80% baptized before he even started speaking. It was up to her shoulders, near her neck. After he dunked her (yes, "dunked" because it was rather forceful) she proceeded to "swim to the edge" frog-stroke. I'm not sure if that's a stroke, but that's what it looked like hahaha. It was great. Then they all gave their cute testimonies. Very good baptism.

A quick thought on what you said about Isaiah, mom. A few months ago I read in 3 Nephi where Jesus commands us to read the words of Isaiah. His reason was that his words are "great". "And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah." I don't know why we need to, because I think it's so hard to understand! We have also been told that the Book of Revelations is the most simple book of scripture we have. If we don't understand it, that means we "lack the spirit of revelation," as stated by Joseph Smith. I imagine that's probably the same with Isaiah. I do remember one missionary said to me at the beginning of my mission, in effect, "you will not understand the book of Isaiah or Revelations if you are simply seeking to know the future or to understand for the sake of simply understanding them. It takes a lot of work and revelation from the Spirit and it won't come all at once." So that's what I have for you, mom. I don't understand it yet. Let's both try to get it!

Thanks for all of the prayers and the support everyone. I see miracles every day and I know it's because of those praying for me.

Elder Welton

special sacrament meeting

Hiding under a tarp during storm on the way home from sacrament meeting.  Our clothes were super dirty.

Language Craziness

Well. Another week. The time honestly goes so fast. I feel like nothing has happened since I last talked to you. BUT, I'm sure it was a great week! I just can't remember what happened haha.

We got rained on a whole lot, that's for sure! Yesterday, as we were headed up to Manlucahoc, we got ABSOLUTELY drenched sitting in the back of the truck of one of the councilors. It was actually kind of fun! But, boy were we drenched! So, yeah :)

This week has been a lot of preparation for the special sacrament we have been planning. Things are looking good! Earlier this morning we worked on the little canopy-thing that is next to Bro. Dellera's house, which will become our meetinghouse for the sacrament. We had to finish the rest of the roof and started making chairs on each of the walls made of bamboo. The whole time I was thinking, "man, I could make SO many longboards out of all this bamboo!" I am sure dad would have been thinking the same thing. They just have bamboo SITTING around here... It's one of the cheapest materials to build with here, so that's what we used. It's not finished yet, but it's coming along. I will be sure to try and take a picture next week for you all. It's really a must see.

So, I haven't told you much about my companion yet! Elder Averion is from Tarlac, which is in the northern part of the Philippines. The language there is Ilocano and it sounds like aliens talking. Even Elder Averion says that. He says when he's out in public, he speaks Ilocano with people, but when he's at home with friends or just his family, he speaks Tagalog because he doesn't like speaking Ilocano. That's basically how things work here. It seems so weird to me, but that's how it is here. I was talking with a member the other day and she said, "Yeah, even I sometimes can't understand everything people are saying in Ilonggo, even though I grew up here." The only studied languages here are English and Tagalog, so most often, Tagalog is the most "clear" language for people to understand, but not necessarily speak. Elder Averion can understand a little bit of English, but we just speak Ilonggo all the time. Sometimes my mouth gets a little tired, but that's okay. I am also learning Tagalog from him because it will help me out the rest of my mission, probably. If people talk at a normal pace, I can get the basic idea of what they are saying in Tagalog, but it's like I'm lagging behind a bit still. I'm still translating Tagalog to Ilonggo to English because Ilonggo is a lot closer than English. This area is basically the same as my first area because there is a lot of Cebuano here, except I can't get away with mixing as much English because I'm way out here in the mountains, so I have to learn a lot more of the vocabulary. Amat-amat lang ah. :) Elder Averion and most all of my companions read the Book of Mormon in English, but he still looks back and forth to his Tagalog copy for the words he doesn't understand and then writes them in or looks them up in his dictionary. If our investigators can understand English well enough to read, we just give them an English copy because all of the Filipinos say it's easier to understand. If they can't we recommend the Tagalog version over the Ilonggo version because it's a more studied language. If they are pretty old or live way far out in the mountains, we just give them the Ilonggo because that's usually all they will understand.

Talking about all of this language craziness here makes me so grateful to speak English. We are so fortunate to speak a language that is so established around the world, especially because we can understand the restoration so much easier. It's so hard to get people to have personal experiences with the scriptures here because they can't fully understand it all the time! It really takes a lot on our part, as missionaries, to explain things so simply that they can't be misunderstood. It's a great experience because it teaches me how to become a much better teacher.

I finally got to see Meet the Mormons, I forgot to tell you about that! It was WONDERFUL. What kind of reaction was there after the movie was released? That's something I'm curious about.

Well, that's all! Have a great week!

Elder Welton

P.S. Sorry, no pictures... Nothing too noteworthy this week...

June

Hello sa tanan!

Well. It's been another week! I honestly don't know what to tell you about. I feel like I was just barely sitting here writing yesterday! It's also really crazy that it's June already... I still have memories from the weeks before I left FRESH in my mind. I still remember conversations like they were yesterday! Crazy how that works. Time has really flown.

This was a really good week! It was a little difficult because everyone started school again, but it was all okay. We have started working out in one of the far parts of our area, Manlucahoc, and we are seeing some really good potential. We are starting a special sacrament there one June 21st, so for the next two weeks we are going to just be finding there so we can get people to attend. We have already met some great families there and are super excited about the work. The key to this area has really been the D------  Family that was baptized last last week. I really feel that they were prepared by Heavenly Father to further to work in this area. Before they were baptized, there was almost no way to start a sacrament there because we had no members in the area! All of our investigators there couldn't come to church because they couldn't afford the tricycle ride there and back for their families. This family, however has a daughter working in Manila who was actually a contractor on one of the chapels built in Manila. Her boss was LDS and he referred her to the missionaries. Long story short, she was baptized and then referred her family to the missionaries here. She was then sending them the money for their ride to the church every week so the whole family could attend. Their family meets the correct requirement for starting a group, seeing as we need three priesthood holders, one being a Melchizedek Priesthood holder. The father will be advanced in the next District Priesthood Meeting and then be set apart, probably, as the group leader. The timing is incredible, really! There just so happens to be a Priesthood meeting this month! It's truly amazing to see how the Lord is hastening his work with just the right timing.

We had some good picture moments this week! One day, we decided to go to the top of a mountain to teach an investigator. Lucky for us, after our 20 minute hike up a muddy, steep incline, they weren't home. But it was definitely not a waste. You could see the entire valley! So pretty. The picture doesn't do it justice. I also tried to take a selfie while we had five people riding on one motorcycle in our area. We went exploring/finding in our area and ended up really far away. That was the only way back. So we went for it. it was awesome. One of the members that worked with us had to side-sadle the gas tank in front of the driver hahaha. And then finally, we took a picture overlooking a nice valley. I'm not sure what happened in this picture, or why Elder Averion is flexing his muscles, but I liked it :)

That's about it for this week! Have a good week everyone!

Elder Welton

 

Sipalay - a beautiful place!

Hello Everyone!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!! You're 14 now! Tigulang ba! 

This week was crazy... I don't even know how to describe it. This area is one of THE most beautiful places I have ever been in. Goodness... I have tried to take some pictures, but it really does no justice. The area is probably 20 to 30 times larger than my last area, no joke. We have one part of our area that takes about 30 to 45 minutes to travel to and costs 30 pesos each way, whereas in my last area, the charge was always 7 pesos because that's the minimum cost for any ride. This place is like a video game. I am trying to think of a good game to compare it to, but I can't think of it. It's almost like Skyrim because it's so big. The only problem is you can't "fast travel", which would be nice. It has all these mountains and hills and a beach and rice fields and forests and everything! Wow. I'll try to send pictures, but the internet is pretty slow, so I'll try my best.

We had a family baptized on Saturday!! They are awesome! I wish I could have been more involved in the teaching, because they are so fun and nice.The D------ family lives in the fa

rthest part of our area and was referred by her sister who got baptized recently in Manila. She even flew down here to see their baptism, which was AWESOME! It was such a cool baptism.

Elder Cicon and Elder Slater from my MTC group are now my Zone Leaders, which is super fun. They are the only ZL's that have a truck because their area is out in the middle of NOWHERE. We actually got to ride down with them because Elder Cicon just barely became his companion, so that was super nice. Otherwise you have to take the Ceres buses......... Those are dreadful. It's about a 6 hours drive down there and you are cramped... We were super tight in their truck with 6 of us, but it was much much better than riding that bus. #Blessings.

We are planning on opening a special sacrament in the far part of our area and then opening it up out there because it's hardly been touched, from what we know. So hopefully that will go through! I would love to attend a special sacrament and stuff! That sounds awesome. Elder Averion is actually staying here, which is a big help. I though I was gonna train, but I guess not! I love Elder Averion, he's so funny and likes to work. I think this will be a good companionship!

I have a wonderful story to share with you.

My first day in this area was awesome. It was so refreshing to be in a new area, new environment, new people and new everything. I was so pumped for the first lesson. The whole ride up there I was thinking, "Okay... New area. New Stuff. New attitude. Here we go. Energy. Enthusiasm. You got this! First impressions are so important!" So I was trying to get myself pumped up and everything. They live in the "bukid" as we call it, which basically means it's all mountain-y. I noticed the mud was a little slippery because it had just rained, but that wasn't going to stop my Rockport shoes from powering through. As we approached the first house, I saw the mother outside cleaning, but she hadn't yet seen us. She was surely distracted by the miscellaneous pieces of trash that she was sweeping into a pile. I thought, "alright, here we go!" When I was within about twenty feet of the house, she turned around and I went to wave my hand to say hi. When my hand raised to about a 70 degree angle, my Rockports failed me. I'm not sure if a tire blew or what, but traction was lost completely in just milliseconds. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, there was a slight pain in my hand and there was mud all over my shirt... What hurt the most, however, was my pride... I then spent the entire lesson in a different shirt while mine was being washed by Anton, a member who worked with us. The best part was that this shirt had some guys face on it and it was a nice melon color. Very cute. So that was my first day.

What I learned from this was very interesting. The way I took to get to their house was one of the two possible options. Unfortunately, I picked the less safe route. It's not to say I took the WRONG way, it just wasn't the BEST way. You could clearly see that both paths had been being used quite regularly, I just happened to take the slightly more risky path. Both paths would have resulted in the same thing: I would get to their house. But only one of those would result in my arrival without mud all over my clothes. I made a mistake and got mud all over me. But I was lucky because there was someone there to wash my shirt and make it clean again. See where I am going? Often times there are two paths that we can take, and both of them will often seem fine. But perhaps if we were a little less worried about ourselves and our own pride and making those great impressions like I was, perhaps we would be able to notice the danger that's just a few feet in front of us. Sometimes that danger is so little that even if we are paying close attention, we won't recognize it. That's why we need to learn to tell the difference between better and best, because often times that is all that will confront us: better or best. Luckily, Jesus is there to wash our shirt if we happen to slip or get dirty. Yes we will be humbled, and even sometimes we will have to wear a shirt with someone's face on it while we teach. But that's okay, because I got to the house. We will all get to the Lord's house IF we are seeking it. It just depends on us whether we arrive covered in mud or clean and tidy.

That's all I have for this week!

Love,
Elder Welton

Emergency Transfer

So I got transferred today! They called me last night around 6pm and said "Elder Welton, you're transferring tomorrow. Be here at 9." So, now I am here and about to go to my area. I met my companion when we were in Sagay, but I haven't ever really talked to him... I have a prediction that I might train this transfer. SO... that means that I have one week to learn the area and then my companion will transfer. BUT, that's not for sure yet. We will see. I haven't been to my area yet, but it's basically the farthest zone of the mission south. I have actually always wanted to be assigned down there, so I am excited! This means I will have been from the farthest area north to the farthest south! That's pretty cool, I think. I have heard the areas are beautiful down there. Yes!

So about that miracle family--

One day, Elder Domantay were just walking down the rode, you know, like missionaries do. All of the sudden someone said "Elders!" Now, we here this about 45 times a day, so I didn't really think anything of it. I kind of just gave the glance, smile, and wave in the general direction of the voice kind of thing. But, then I heard it again! "Elders! Wait!" Then I saw someone getting of of a motorcycle, taking his helmet off, and then he walked towards us. "Elders! I have someone I want you to teach!" Of course we were a little confused... We found out that he was a less active member that was baptized in the 80's or something and he wanted us to teach his daughter, J------. We wrote down the information and visited them later. It was weird because they weren't expecting us, but they welcomed us in right away and everything. As we started teaching them over the weeks, we realized how prepared they were. We gradually ended up teaching all of his kids, the oldest of which is 21. They showed up to church the first week we started teaching them. They understood everything we taught and were fully willing to live all of the commandments we taught. It was so awesome spending time with this family. From the day we met them, we gave them a baptismal date that was only a month later, the soonest possible date that they could be baptized. Man, were they prepared. Now... the best ending to this story would be to hear about their baptism. I would love to say that it was the most sacred experience ever.  That's not quite what happened. BUT it was still amazing. What ended up happening is that the DAY BEFORE the baptism, the youngest of the siblings, Jose, got... um... well he got circumcised... So, you know... he couldn't really walk too comfortably... Poor little guy.  So he and his oldest sister decided to wait till the next week to be baptized together. I wish I could have attended their baptism too, but I got transferred. J---- and W----, teenagers, were baptized on Saturday. And their baptism was great. It was so neat to see their reaction as they came out of the water. They seemed so happy! I am so glad I was able to witness their conversion. I wish I could say that I had a part in their conversion, but I honestly didn't do a thing. This family has been prepared for a while now... I just got the chance of witnessing the final steps towards baptism. Great experience.

Well... I don't really have much more to tell you this week! I am quite certain I will have a LOT to tell you about next week. I am super excited.

Have a great week!

Elder Welton

Be a "DO'er"

Hello Family and Friends!

This was a very good week! We were able to have some amazing trainings and it was just a really good week over all. It was a fairly normal week in terms of work, but we are seeing miracles every day. It's an amazing experience.

I am super excited for this coming week because we have the baptism of the "miracle family" I mentioned a few weeks ago. I am not going to tell the story quite yet, because I want some good pictures to go with it. BUT, now you have something to look forward too! Tune in next week to find out :)

Something I have been really pondering in my mission lately is about "living what you know." There is a section in Preach My Gospel that talks about that very subject and I actually find it to be my favorite. I realized the other day while reading the experience of Joseph Smith's first vision, that we all, to a point, are so very similar to the people in the time of his youth. With so many churches claiming truth at the time, it's no wonder the young boy was confused. But what Jesus said to him was, "They draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." We often do that same thing in our life. We think, "hey, I have all these good beliefs and opinions in my head," but then never do anything about it. I wrote someone earlier and gave this advice. "Be a DO'er. It's easy to know stuff. It's easy to believe in things. But it's another thing to show it. And it's an entirely different thing to LIVE IT." Something my mom always said to me, "Be a Do'er," is something I never FULLY understood until I got here on my mission. It's great to know a lot of gospel truths, but it's better to live them, apply them, and make them part of you. "At all times we must teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when necessary; use words." There is so much power in being a good example.

I apologize for now having much to say today. My mind is very busy with all of the things we are doing right now! But I hope I said something that might help someone. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Welton

Another cat....

I have a lot of cat stories on this mission, I'm not sure why, but I will talk about that later. :)

This was a good week! It was also a really wet week. Lots of rain. I mean, TONS of rain... Goodness. I really liked it though because it's been a while since I have worked in the rain. It reminds me of my last area. And it also smells like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland whenever it rains. That combined with the bamboo and island "stuff" brings all sorts of nostalgic feelings to my mind. Man, that's such a good ride...

I am also super stoked because next week is MOTHER'S DAY. I will be Skyping, that is a must. I should be calling on Sunday night for you, Monday morning here. So yay! Be ready. Also, maybe you could put Sarah on a conference call or something. Her phone has Skype. Look into that for me. It would be a lot better if it were just a group call!

We have some families that we are teaching right now and they are amazing. They never cease to surprise Elder Domantay and I. We have some of them that want to come around and work with us and to become missionaries. We had one investigator ask the question the other day, "Elders, do you think that after I am baptized and am involved in the church for a while, that I might be able to become a missionary like you two?" We were so amazed! We had just barely finished introducing the Book of Mormon and suddenly we had this question! It's really amazing to see the preparation that God has done in the lives of those we are teaching right now. I wish I could claim these investigators as "my convert" or "the one I taught", but I really can't do that. The faith and conversion that I see in these people could not have come from me or even Elder Domantay. These people have been being prepared their whole lives. I just got the opportunity to be a part of their journey for a little bit. And I also realized that we aren't called here to prepare people from absolute scratch; the very beginning. We are simply here to jump in midstream to the preparation that is ALREADY happening in their lives. We are here to build upon what Christ himself has already built. That's something I learned this week.

Now, about that cat:

Last night, after we had just finished a quick lesson with a new investigator we had just met, we were headed to go eat dinner. It was raining. It was pouring. I'm not sure if anyone was snoring, but probably not because the rain was so loud! It was really one of those - "I'm half-way around the world, tromping around in the mud and rain, what am I doing here?" - type of moments. But all of the sudden, I hear this small little whining sound. From my previous adventures with cats in my mission, I recognized it immediately as the call of a feline in peril. I found, next to some garbage, a little tiny kitten who looked like he had just been born only a few hours ago. Maybe a day. I don't know. But he was so tiny, his eyes still aren't even open yet, and he was just squirming around in the mud. I said, "Elder! Look at this!" His response, "Ay kalu-oy saiya!" In English that's like "ah, poor guy!" We put him in a small plastic bag and carried the little guy home. Then we thought, "Okay, now what do we do??" We made him a little bed in a box and then I tried to feed him some milk. (that's the only thing I could think of) I was trying to feed him the milk and he just wouldn't take it! Elder Domantay said, "Hey he probably doesn't want cold milk." So now I'm thinking, "Oh great. So you're telling me this guy's a picky-eater. I see how this is gonna be..." So I heated up some water, mixed it with the cold milk and got a nice "lukewarm" temperature. I then tried to put it in a straw and feed him. Even though I literally had the straw INSIDE of his mouth, he still was trying to push it away. The whole time I kept saying, "Hey, this isn't fun for both of us, but I'm trying to HELP you! Come on little guy, just drink this. I know what's good for you!" Eventually he drank the milk and then fell asleep. I was worried that I might have killed him, but he was still alive this morning, so I guess I did the right thing :) If I am doing the wrong thing, please let me know.

But as I was watching this little guy struggle for life, I really started to think about life here on earth and everything. It was so intriguing to watch that little cat wiggle around, no control of his little body, not being able to see anything, and just struggling to live. We are all a lot like that in so many ways. We came here to earth, not knowing what in the world is going on, expected to learn and grow and contribute to this world, without even knowing where we came from our what our goal is. Luckily, we have so much help from God in our lives. I got just a LITTLE taste of what it must be like to be our Heavenly Father. In the moment that I had the straw in my hand, trying to feed that cat, I realized how similar that is to God. Here he has given us an example, his son, Jesus Christ, for us to follow. He has given us this gospel, our leaders, and everything we need, yet we all still reject it. If Heavenly Father weren't perfect in his judgement and thinking, I imagine he would probably be saying the exact same thing that I was saying last night: "Hey, this isn't fun for both of us, but I'm trying to HELP you! Come on little guy, just drink this. I know what's good for you!" Even when the straw is already in our mouth, or the gospel is already in our lives, we still try and fight against it. Why? I don't know. But perhaps the only thing we need to learn to do is: Learn to recognize the straw.

That's all I have for today! Hope everyone had a good week! I look forward to Skyping you on next Sunday!

Love,

Elder Welton

The included pictures are;

A picture of the cat in his little bed. We have since remodeled his house. Also, we are trying to find an owner for the poor guy because we aren't supposed to have any pets.

A picture of me using the primary cut-outs that you sent me, mother. :) It is super effective! Thank you.