Bunyag sa Suba

Hello Everyone!

This was a GREAT week.

The biggest highlight of this week was our baptism! We have been teaching the Y------- Family since my first week here. They are awesome! Sister P------- has been raising her grandson Kyle since he was little. I guess it must have just been part of God's plan for them because Kyle was actually the first one to talk to the missionaries. He's only ten, but he started listening and eventually led his grandmother, Sister P---------, to the missionaries. She is SO funny and has such strong faith! She has had a lot of her family and friends say, "Why are you joining this church?? It's just like the Catholic Church!" She has gotten that so many times that she finally just started saying, "Eh! I just want to!" It's funnier in Ilonggo, but that's the idea. She wants to bring her whole family with her, so we are going to start teaching them too. Hopefully!

The baptism was AMAZING. This was my first time baptizing in a river, so it was super cool. The day before, we went and scouted out a good area to hold the service and we found to PERFECT spot. The water was deep enough and it was quiet and the large rocks off the riverside were arranged as if they were situated specifically for a sermon. Wonderful. The Sisters actually came up with the bishop to see the baptism for their first time as well. They got some AWESOME pictures that I will try to get from them.

This week was really tiring and it really tested our faith. I am always amazed at how DIFFICULT it is to actually make a baptism happen. SO many things go wrong right before the baptism that make it seem like it will be impossible. Satan really does try to keep God's children from following the commandments. We were blessed to be able to overcome the problems that arose, and we are so grateful for that. It's so crazy how hard things get these days. Evil is all around us. Sometimes I think, "How are we expected to make it through all of this evil when these temptations around us are becoming bigger and bigger for each generation??" I guess it really requires a lot of faith. We can't afford to lose focus! I look forward to the days of Zion being established on earth once again!

Sorry for not sending pictures in a while. I can't use the USB drive on this computer so I can't even send pictures! Hopefully I'll find a good computer sometime to send some good pictures!

Take Care!

Elder Welton

Moved

Hello Everyone!

This was a great week!

We have been having some MIRACLES this last week with our work. It's so great to see the Lord support our desire to help strengthen a barely beginning group and to find new people to teach. We were able to have an total attendance of 31 at church this week and it was great! Things are really progressing here in Ma-ao. We are really excited about the progress being made.

We had an AWESOME time at our Mission Leadership Council on Tuesday. We had some great trainings given by the APs and President. We have noticed a lot of issues with finding lately and want to try and improve it. It's always so cool to go to those MLC trainings because you get to sit in a room of some of the most powerful servants of the Lord in our mission. There really is so much wisdom and experience in such a young group of people. It's actually really sad to think that it's all coming to an end for me. Things right now are finally starting to "click", just as many RM's have described to me when they too started approaching that final stretch of their missions... It's going quick, so I hope that I can make the best of it!

Our Zone Training on Thursday was awesome. Elder Rabila and I have never given a Zone Training before, so both of us were kind of curious as to what exactly needed to be taught at the meeting. We had already given an impromptu training two weeks before about all the topics discussed at MLC, so we felt that we would only be repeating it! As we sat the night before, we were super tired and couldn't think too well. We got some good ideas down, but we couldn't really come up with anything concrete and hit a dead spot. I can't remember exactly what happened, but we were just sitting there and then Elder Rabila said something about the ironing board that was sitting right behind me... It struck me like a bolt of lightning! "YES!! That's it!" He obviously was pretty confused with this outburst of excitement towards his ironing comment. I explained to him that we could relate everything we had talked about to an IRON. We had all these great ideas that would help our areas improve and everything like that, but in the end, it really just comes down to our Zone having the Spirit with them in their work; that's the only effective way to do anything. We then broke the forming analogy down into one sentence: "Keep your iron plugged in"

So many times in our life, we unplug the iron. We see ourselves straightening out the wrinkles in our clothing, almost effortless sometimes. The question, though, is, "have you ever tried ironing without the iron plugged in?" I have. It's hard. Yesterday, actually, the power went out before my companion ironed his shirt. I said, "hey let's try to iron it! Maybe if you do it fast enough, it will get the wrinkles out using the friction." ... It totally didn't work... "I guess our training was true, Elder..." No matter how hard you work to get those wrinkles out, with only a cold iron you will never be able to get them out. This is what we shared with our Zone. We can work as HARD and as LONG as possible, but without our "iron" being "plugged in" to the Spirit, our efforts will be quite a waste. With the Spirit in our lives, we can get things done SO much quicker than without. So the only question that we have to ask ourselves every now and then is, "Is my iron plugged in?"

I hope everyone has an awesome week! I am still growing and learning a lot, even in these last few months of my mission. I hope to be even further refined as I continue.

Elder Welton

Workin

Hello Friends and Family!

I apologize for this email, but it is going to be a short one. We have been working hard this week and that's really all I have to share! We work, work, work, and work. We are super excited this week because we will finally be able to move up to our area! That should allow us to teach for another 3 hours in the evening and not have to leave so early in the morning. We should hopefully be able to start teaching more families and focusing on finding people to build up the church!

I have been reading the Bible lately to try and refresh myself on all of the proselyting skills I've kinda lost lately. I really enjoy it because I realized that I have been taught so much doctrine over the years as I have gone to church, but never know where to find it. I keep coming across things in the Bible that ring a bell in my mind and connect that doctrine to the verses I am reading. It's so cool! It's actually really hard for me to study lately, most likely a mix of me just wanting to go out and talk to people and because of all the little tasks buzzing around in my head; but every time I can get my mind isolated enough to learn from the scriptures, I feel that the "eyes of my understanding were opened," and I can understand the things of God so clearly. I get a very similar feeling when I can write and explain my thoughts on paper and share those things that are in my mind, but it is slightly different when we are partaking of the words that someone else has written with that same Spirit. It's so wonderful that we have these things available to us.

I read a few verses in Mormon the other day that really interested me. In the last chapter of Mormon, chapter 9, Mormon finishes his record by explaining the way they wrote their records.

--

30 Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words.

 31 Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been.

 32 And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech.

 33 And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.

 34 But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.

--

Having learned a second language, I can understand exactly what Mormon is concerned about. Seeing how things work here, many people write in English rather than write in lengthy Ilonggo or Tagalog. So as the language of Lehi and his family developed, they started using that shorter language, egyptian, to write easier. He probably wasn't confident in his Egyptian writing, seeing as they spoke mostly Hebrew. It's so wonderful to know that even these great men had their insecurities and difficulties, just like us. And I think it's more amazing that, just as Mormon said, "he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof." God know what he meant when he wrote and allowed that spirit to be preserved across translations. I am so grateful that they wrote for us even though he wasn't confident.

I invite you all to read that passage! I don't have any more time so I hope you all learn what I learned!

Take care!

Elder Welton

President Nelson

Hello sa akong mga kaibigan!

This week was so great! So much is being done in the Lord's Work here in Bacolod. We were able to finish up the house contract at the beginning of the week and will be moving up at the beginning of March! This should help us to be able to work better and to teach more families all together. It should also help us to be able to actually work on a normal missionary schedule, rather than the crazy one we have right now trying to make things work with the travel schedule. Despite the difficulties with travel, I really enjoy it a lot. We get to travel up there early every morning and then we get to catch the sunset on the way back most of the time. I have been increasingly grateful everyday for the awesome chance I have to be a missionary here. Great place.

The work here has been progressing well! We were blessed to have 8 investigators at church this Sunday! That's up from zero the week before I arrived, up to two the next week, and then eight this week. So we are really, really excited for the work to continue. We are praying for these investigators to continue to progress and to be baptized within the next few months. Please pray for us to keep finding more people these next few weeks. That's our focus!

We had the awesome experience of having President Nelson visit our mission this week! I was part of the choir and we were able to perform a lovely rendition of "I'll go where you want me to go"; one verse being the Ilonggo translation and the rest in Engish. It was so good! We got to sit on the front row and see him real close. I shook his hand!! I'll make sure to include a picture of the entire mission. It was also really awesome because I prepared the booklet with program, the Mission Vision that I sent to you, conversion stories, and other stuff which we gave to them. They ended up using parts of the vision I designed as points in their talks! I was so happy! So now the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has seen my design work. Awesome!

They talked a lot about exact obedience and how it will truly form us in our lives. It was so great to listen to Sister Nelson.  She had such a strong presence and spoke so plainly that you could really see how she has supported her husband in his sacred calling. It was just as interesting to observe President Nelson and see how reverent and closely he seemed to observe us and listen to the Spirit. It was so powerful to hear from someone who has obviously been seeking truth for his entire life. As he spoke, you could feel that the spiritual, intangible things that he spoke of had become clear and simple facts to him in his search for the truth. He gave his entire sermon based on a single question that caused an outpouring of life experience and spiritual confirmation that this Gospel is true. It was so interesting to listen to him speak. He said a lot of things, taught a lot of amazing principles, but what I really remember most was just the power that came from him as he spoke. One thought that specifically came to my mind was, "God's glory is knowledge." The knowledge that backed President Nelson's words seemed glorious. His carefully picked words and sentences, his transition from principle to principle -- all of it seemed rehearsed! But you can see that he really has just spent a lifetime of study and pondering. The Spirit has continued to refine the knowledge that has been given him to the point where he is simply sharing what comes natural to him. Although I felt all of these things, it was so comforting of a feeling to feel that "he is an ordinary man, just like me." It made me realize that this type of power and humility is NOT out of reach. Although he spoke greatly, I could feel that he once came from something as unrefined as all of us are. It's frustrating to know that we can't achieve perfection in this life, but it's more comforting to know that there are people leading us that have gotten closer and closer to it than most others have as their lives go on. Amazing experience.

Things are just gonna keep going forward here in Bacolod! Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Welton

President Nelson's visit!  I am two rows behind him - right behind the sister in white who is behind President Nelson.

                                      A picture of our pretty area.  This is what we call the "bukid"

This is a picture of our little meetinghouse. It's a work in progress, that's for sure... We area actually gonna look for another one. Attendance has gone up, though! we had 29 yesterday! Slowly, but surely!

Here's a wonderful picture of a guy with a cigarette in his ear. I was hoping to get the mountain, but that's a nice addition!

Infinite Noodles

Hello!

This was such a good week! I feel so happy being out in the field again! I got pretty sunburned this week, I guess because I spent a while in that office haha. But it's great to be out here trompin' around in the mountains. Ma-ao is so pretty! Wow. I love this area. Part of our area is RIGHT on Canlaon Volcano. So cool. I got some good pictures, but I couldn't find my SD card reader earlier. I'll try to make sure and find it next week so I can send some.

We looked for a house all week while we were working, and we actually found one! We needed to find one by the end of the week, but we had no success the whole week. We ended up looking at a house on Friday, but it was not a good house at all. As we were leaving, a man who we had talked to the week before when Elder Wade and I came to look for a house came up and said, "Hey, any luck finding a house?" So far it had been pretty poor findings. We told him no and he said, "hey, well I asked around like I told you I would and I know some people that have a house here that they might be willing to rent to you. You can go talk to them if you want!" He didn't have a contact number, so he just wrote down the general area she lived in and her first name and then waved a tricycle down and told him where to take us. We asked if it was close because we needed to catch the last bus going home, and he said, "Ah, of course! It's just right down the road a few minutes! It's still early, you have plenty of time!" So we got on and went up the mountain... About 30 minutes later, we got to the place! We found her house! We talked to her and set up an appointment to meet with her the next morning. We looked at the house and it was perfect. Quite an answer to our prayers. We really need the house because right now, we have to take a 1 hour bus right every time we go up and then every time we go back to our house because we don't even live in our area. We're hoping that by having a house up there, we can focus on teach more and actually being up there when every one gets home at night. So exciting!

We had a miracle this week! Elder Rabila and I had absolutely NO money this week because of transfers and then having to pay double bills. I had 1000 pesos left and we were able to buy a small amount of food at the store at the beginning of the week, but we had to save most of the money to use for traveling around our area. We got a few packs of Pancit Canton, the Philippines version of Top Ramen, and then a few cans of pork sisig with a carton of eggs and hoped for the best. We tried to withdraw personal money, but literally every ATM in the city was BROKEN. So, around the middle of the week, we were down to a can of sisig and four packs of Pancit Canton. We had been working SO hard the entire week, and we were just so hungry. We said, "okay, we can only eat two packs of those noodles tonight because we won't last the rest of the week if we eat more than that. Normally, two packs each will get you decently satisfied, but one pack was a little bit lacking. We decided to just eat a lot of bread with it to make it go further. Elder Rabila went outside and did laundry while I put the noodles in the pot and then took a shower. After I got out, I pulled the pan of the burned and then set it down and started dishing it out. As I started dishing it out, I realized that the amount of noodles left in the pot as I scooped, seemed like it had no end! There was SO much in that pot! I was confused, because by the time I had finished dishing it out, we had two bowls with a mountain of noodles in each one. I thought for sure that Elder Rabila must have thrown the other two packs in while I was in the shower, but was surprised to see the two packs still sitting on the shelf. As I looked at it, as simple as it was, I began to feel so much gratitude for a Heavenly Father that watches over his servants. He knows how hard we had worked that week and how tired and hungry we had been. I brought the bowl outside and showed Elder Rabila how much it was and he two was just as surprised as I was. We happily ate it, feeling grateful for the small miracle that had been given to us.

I hope everyone has enough to eat this week! Don't eat food like I eat, it's not healthy. Take care!

Elder Welton

Transfers

Hello Family and Friends!

TRANSFER DAY. I am no longer in the office! I learned SO much being in the office and was able to take part in a lot of wonderful things. That, so far, has been the most demanding part of my mission. I am really excited to be back out proselyting and being with the people of Negros.

I am now assigned in Bago 1st ward, but we will be focusing out in the mountains on a special sacrament in an effort to open a new area. I am really excited to be back in the mountains again. I am probably gonna start losing a little bit of weight soon and I'm probably gonna have to walk off my "office legs" hahaha. It will all be good. Elder Rabila is my new companion and he is SO nice and so funny. He's from Fiji, near Suva (he says he can't remember if he met you two, Sarah and Dad) and we are both newly called Zone Leaders. And the District Leader(s) as well. So excited!

I am so excited to get back into proselyting full-time. Sharing the gospel is just such a wonderful experience.

We are SUPER excited because next week, we will be having President Nelson come visit our mission! That's going to be so cool. I was able to prepare all of the programs and stuff that would be given to him before I left the office, so that will be really cool to know that he is going to see something that I designed! We will get to spend just a few hours with him and get to hear his counsel. So excited.

Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday. I am now 20 and I sure hope I got a little bit wiser too, but I'm not really sure about that. Hopefully I've learned something!

I don't have a whole lot to talk about today; things are a little bit crazy for me right now, but it should be good!

Take Care!

Elder Welton

Lay not this sin to their charge

Hello!

Great week!

It has been a bit of a rush trying to get all of our work done before the end of this transfer. We have some big events coming up including Mission Tour and a bunch of houses being moved or closed that will squeeze us a bit. But we are excited and are planning to make it as smooth as possible. How exciting!

I was assigned to create the Mission History starting from July when President Barredo arrived in the mission. It has been really interesting to learn the history of the mission as I have looked through the past histories created by past mission Presidents' office staff members. The Lord's Work is constantly evolving; realigning, shrinking, expanding, and spreading depending on the needs of God's children. I actually learned about some of the things that happened when Brother Sturgill (that former AP that sent a picture of me to you, mom) was serving here. History really is a cool thing and I have started learning about how important it is to keep those kinds of records. We always need to know where we have been and where others have been so that we can apply their success and learn from their mistakes.

I actually bought a new set of nice scriptures off of the LDS store a few weeks ago and it finally got here! It's a quadruple set with a little button snap and I got it so that I could get this clay design put on it. They are SO cool. I am so excited to get it. It's expensive and I don't want to talk about the price and stuff, but I came to the decision that "I can't get this done in America, so I'm just gonna do it while I can!" In the meantime, I have been reading it a ton because it's NEW and EXCITING for some reason!

I have been focusing more on the Bible lately because I haven't given it much time during my mission. I have been more focused on the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel, so I haven't been able to fully dive into it. I have read a lot of Matthew and Mark and started Luke, but then decided that I wanted to finally get to Acts since a lot of the events in the four Gospels are fairly similar. I got to chapter 7 of Acts and some verses there really stuck out to me. It starts in verse 54 after the Apostle Stephen has just preached repentance unto the people:

--

 54 ¶When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

 55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

 56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

 58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

 59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

 60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

--

I find many things fascinating about this passage. First, we see how CLEAR the doctrine of the Godhead is! I have been realizing lately how unfortunate it is for those who do not clearly understand that we have a Heavenly Father who gave His Son, Jesus Christ to us. We see in this passage that Jesus was able to return to our Father and stand on His right hand, just as many of us will be able to return to Him as well. So many people DON'T have that simple truth!

The second thing I liked was what Stephen says as he is dying. Stephen's dying wish parallels our Savior's dying wish for the people that crucified him on Calvary. Just as the Savior said, "forgive them; for they know not what they do," Stephen similarly pleaded for mercy upon his attackers by saying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Stephen must have understood the Atonement of Jesus Christ SO WELL that he had been able to feel a love similar to Jesus Christ for those who persecuted him. He desired their salvation so much that he asked for their forgiveness as his last words. If only we all could have such great a desire to see those around us receive the same treasures that await us in heaven.

I hope everyone is doing well at home!

Halong Kamo!

-Elder Welton