Have I learned all that I need to?

Maayong Hapon Pamilya! (Good afternoon family)

Good week! Fast week, really. It's weird how quick time goes now, even though it seems long in the moment.

So you asked how I was feeling and how things are here, so I will my best to answer! I'm way tired all of the time, that's just how it works though! I haven't really been able to sleep without waking up at night, that's the reason why. I'm nervous a little bit about going to the Philippines, but I am way more excited than nervous. I am basically planning on being totally lost when I get there, but I have a good understanding of the structure of the language, and my teach tells me that everything will start to click once I'm immersed in the language. He says Elder McWhorter and I are the best in our district at the language, so that's pretty cool! Also, I feel pretty fat. So it will be nice to get out of the MTC probably for that reason alone. The food is really good for buffet food, but it gets old. We are pretty sure it is all the same thing just shaped differently. "Oh look, it's shaped like mashed potatoes today!"

 

I definitely am ready to go, but at the same time, I worry that I haven't learned all that I need to before I go... I could definitely get better at the language, but I know it will probably be better to just get there and learn. But I hope I have learned the doctrine well enough to be a good teacher and everything. And just to make sure I have prepared myself spiritually. I guess I will find out! I feel like I have done a good job here!

Here is my schedule, just so you can have a rough idea what I'm doing.

 

Shaving Elder Mackintosh's neck 

Our branch president was released on Sunday. I imagine it was probably hard for him after 4 years serving as the president. I liked President Capik. I learned a lot from him. Brother Pearce was the first councilor and is now President. He's a really nice guy. He always comes to give us hugs in our residence when we are here. That's kind of weird. But also it's nice of him haha.

Elder Michael Bluth, Elder Trevor Miles, Elder Jayden White, and Elder Spencer Bauman showed up recently! I was so excited to see Elder White the first time. Same with Elder Bauman, just the other day. I jumped way high in the air and gave both of them a big hug.

Elder Miles

Elder Driggs

I dropped my tray during breakfast the other day. Pretty much like 10 seconds after I got it. I got ketchup on my pants, that was THE worst because I didn't realize it until I was in class and I saw it dried on my pants. It was a pleasure to clean it off at the residence.

I absolutely DIED when Dad sent me that Missionary bank full of jelly beans. I got the package and thought, "...Legos?" I opened it, set it on my desk in front of my companion and I, and we just stared at it for probably 15 seconds. Silence. We had no idea what to think. Dumbfounded. Then I just busted up. I thought it was the funniest thing. I could picture Dad at the junk store, "That would be so funny!" and then taking it home and drilling a hole in the back of the head. We ended up using the jelly beans to teach tithing. It was hilarious. Everyone loves me because I give them jelly beans.

Missionary bank full of jelly beans -  from my (crazy) dad

My teacher used the jelly beans to teach tithing

A spoon that Elder Kim made into a fork with scissors.  We are desperate here.

It would be way awesome if you could find some cool cheap toy that I can hand out to the kids there. Bouncy balls would be good, or like those flying shooty things we gave out for Halloween. I just want to be able to give them something because our teacher has told us stories and he talked about how he loved giving things to the kids. If you find anything cool, send them!

I get my travel plans in like an hour, I will send you the schedule sometime this week. But I get to call you from the airport! I'm way excited for that, so be prepared with questions! I would love to answer anything I can!

I've been learning a lot about exact obedience and the blessings that come with that. Our teacher, Brother Waggoner, taught us about how important it is not to waste time on your mission. He was really passionate about not having regrets and I really loved what he said. That's always been something that is really important to me, not having regrets. My focus is to be as obedient as I can so that I will be able to feel the spirit stronger and to do the Lord's work on his time.

Hope everything is going well, I love hearing from you! Hope you are having fun in McCall, I sure wish I could be there. I was actually just talking about it the other day. Tell everyone hi for me!

Palangga ta kamo! (I love you guys)

Elder Welton

The MTC - "longest days of your life - shortest weeks of your life"

Time is a WEIRD thing here. That three weeks has seemed like I got here FOREVER ago, but it feels like the time has flown by at the same time. The saying, "Longest days of your life - Shortest weeks of your life," is definitely true. We were just saying the other day (could have been this morning for all I know) that we've slept in the same bed 20 times, but it has only felt like 7 at the most... Don't know how to explain it. It sounds like we will be leaving either somewhere from August 4th to the 7th. Not quite sure yet, but I think August 4th would make the most sense seeing as we have about 24 hours travel time plus a 14 hour difference. That would put us there on a Wednesday which seems pretty standard. We should get our travel itinerary hopefully next week, if not the week after for sure. Getting pretty weird to think about being in the Philippines so soon.

So to answer your questions, mom; First, my district is composed of people entirely from Utah and Idaho. All of the Polynesians, Australians, and Samoans are in the districts ahead of us. One sister is from Kiribati(?), so that's pretty cool I guess! Next question - things are pretty good for the most part! I can't really think of things that are like "Oh, this is so hard," but maybe other people have those things here. I'm just happy to be here! And it's hard to complain about things because I know who I'm doing all of this for. I guess the hardest thing is staying awake and waking up in the morning. I actually haven't slept through the night here yet, so I guess that's kind of hard. If you could send me some sleeping meds like melatonin (it's all sold out at the bookstore, I guess I'm not the only one with the problem haha) or something better. It would be nice to sleep on the plane. And about classes, we only have class with our district. Everything we do is in our classroom, we are probably in there for about 10 hours every day. The other districts are in the classrooms on the same hallway. The entire floor is entirely Filipino language classes. The districts ahead of use are learning Cebuano and Tagalog and it's interesting to hear the similarities in the languages. They are very different, but similar in structure to a point. We did initiatories at the temple today. That was pretty cool since I haven't done that other than for myself. We get to see the movie next week, I've heard it's pretty good.

Tell Dad sorry about the phone thing. I told him in the car that he would need to restore it when he got home. I guess he missed that part haha. It was on the iOS 8 beta and it expires if you don't update to the newer betas. Glad you got it all figured out!

The other day I started missing Jaz. Like, a lot. Which is weird. It's weird to think that she might not be alive when I come back. Tell her I say hi, even though she's just a dog. I think it will mean a lot to her.

I would like to formalyl apologize to anyone who I've written and ended it wih "Palanga ako mo"... I was completely incorrect. It is "Palanga ta ka." You can send any negative responses to my email address. The church is still true, even despite my mistake. Thank you for you understanding.

I can't even get close to finishing these letters every week. There is so much I want to tell you about that I can't get all written down. I wish you could be here to experience it with me! I should get to call you from the airport when I leave, hopefully I can answer your questions then!

Palanga ta ka!

Elder Welton

600 New Missionaries Arrived This Week!

(part of yesterday's letter)

We got a bunch of new missionaries on Wednseday, 600 more in addition to the 2500 that were already here. All the lines at meals are getting long. It's kind of depressing to walk in and see the lines after not having them before. But I have started seeing people from Riverton!! I saw Elder Brandon Walker, Elder Brady Earley, Elder Tanner Driggs, and Elder Chandler Crockett. Seeing Elder Driggs was actually WAY funny haha. We were walking out to the field for gym time and as Elder McCleary and I were waiting at the crosswalk, we said "Hey, wouldn't it be hilarious if we saw Driggs being dropped off right now?? His time should be about right now." Not even TWO seconds later, as we were walking across the street we see him waving out the window from his car, "Hey Elder Welton. Hey Elder McCleary!!" We were dying. It was funny.

Week #3

Hello Family!

Not quite sure where to start this week! 

It's interesting that you mentioned Elder Anderson's challenge, we actually just had him come give our tuesday night devotional! It was so cool when he walked in. Everyone went silent and stood up. It was a different feeling when he walked in. Really neat! His wife bore her testimony too, I have never met a more reserved lady in my life. She spoke so calmly, it was interesting!

For some reason I've started to enjoy ironing a lot hahaha. It is kind of my new thinking time like how my car used to be. I'm getting really good at getting a solid crease in my pants, everyone is kind of jealous. Elder Webster and I (he's part of the other district) started ironing everything we can think of! He is honestly hilarious, we try to iron whatever we can find. We started ironing our tee shirts and socks and money. And I heated up one of those cookies you sent me. We get pretty adventurous here.

Elder Webster is the one smiling.

This is a picture of Elder Kim and I at the fireworks. I can't remember if I told you about the Fourth of July! They canceled our last class and we had a devotional! It was super fun! This really good piano guy came and played for us and we had a lot of American songs that were played. Then they gave us ice cream bars and let us watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks! Cool stuff! 

Right here, we decided to build a basketball hoop out of our trashcan. There are things called "Narnia Holes" on top of the dresser that are behind the mirror. People hide stuff in them. We found some candybars in ours. But we decided to put the trash can in it, so now we just shoot our garbage up there!

Thank you for the package you sent me! That "magic button" saved my life. I can finally breathe now that my neck has a little space!

Good luck on your talk Hayden! You'll do a great job! Just remember that talking to a crowd doesn't have to be any scarier than talking to a single person. It's all in your head.

It was cool to see Brandon Shaffer! I recognized him when he came in and I got to "teach" him in the language. He told us all about the mission and stuff, which I think was not the purpose of us being there, but I loved hearing about it a ton! I'm getting excited for it, can't wait to get there!

I'm glad Ben met some girls at EFY haha. It sounds like he had fun! I remember that first year being the best!

Today we got to go clean the temple! So that's the answer to your question, mother. Instead of doing a session, we cleaned all sorts of stuff! We got to moved the altars into the sealing rooms because they had just been re-carpeted. I didn't realize they re-carpeted everything when they cleaned the temple! But the altars were SUPER heavy, it took about 5-8 of us to move them around. And then we had to ensure they were centered perfectly and everything. It was quite cool. And we got to go in to some of the "Staff Only" areas. It's cool to see all the things going on behind closed doors. The sisters got to clean one of the chandeliers(?) peace by peace. They loved it.

Our service project on Tuesday was cool! It was the same as last week. We basically show up at the back dock of the MTC where the food shipments show up. There is SO much food that we have to take to one of the 12 walk-in freezers, each one for a different type of food. And the fact that they are getting these type of shipments EVERY DAY is insane. It was interesting to see what had been used since the week before. So much eating here, it's kind of gross.

This is a picture of our little mini-mart, MTC Bookstore, thing. They have a lot of stuff here and we get a "missionary discount" which is actually quite substantial. It's really nice.

I've been studying the New Testament lately, specifically on the life of Christ. It has been kind of a goal to learn more about his life and the characteristics he had. I especially like the parts in John where Christ knows he's about to die soon and still turns outwards to those around him rather than worrying about himself. Even after suffering for our sins in Gethsemane and then being betrayed by Judas, he takes the time to heal the guard's ear that Peter cut off with a sword. I thought that was pretty cool. Also I thought it was cool that Peter had a sword, but I mostly I liked the love that Christ showed even in such a hard time for him.

I think that is probably about it for this week! I had a notebook I have been writing reminders down in that I usually have on me, but I couldn't find it today! I guess those will have to wait until next week!

Halong!

Elder Welton             

The Gift of Tongues Is Real!

Kamusta pamilya ko!

Goodness, so much to update you on this week!  I will try to fit it all in! I've been keeping a list in a little notebook so hopefully I can hit most of my week.

So on Sunday, we had sacrament meeting in a little room with our whole branch, which at that time we only had about 3 or 4 districts (we've since gotten two more and lost one). Our branch president had told us that we should prepare a talk every week because we might be called on to give a talk right in sacrament meeting right on the spot. So guess what happened? I got to give a talk! Luckily I had thought about it and read some scripture about enduring to the end that morning because I had had a feeling I would probably have to give a talk that day. I ended up fitting the time almost perfectly and didn't even get to say everything I wanted! Oh well!

Later that day, we went to a devotional, which was great, and then we got to watch some MTC film. I went to a recording of an MTC devotional that Elder Bednar gave on Christmas day a while back. I have NEVER heard a better talk in my life. I really really wish that you could listen to in somewhere online, but it's only for the missionaries. I have NEVER seen that side of Elder Bednar. He had so much fire, yet it was with so much love. It reminds me a LOT of how Bishop Woolley teaches, kind of a no nonsense attitude. He talked about the characteristics of Christ and how we can become like him and I loved it. That's all I can really say, I loved it. I'm going to try and go again to take some better notes. He did an impression of Cookie Monster, that was pretty neat.

Speaking of Bishop Woolley, I can't imagine what he and the other members of the stake presidency are thinking! I LOL'ed when I read your letter about it, probably just like you said dad did. I seriously thought it was the funniest thing. I was talking to Robert about how Bishop Murray was doing, he says he's a bit overwhelmed to say the least, but they're getting it all organized! Hope he's doing well, I totally knew it would be him, nobody is more qualified and more prepared for the responsibility. 

The language is going well! We actually have an "investigator" that we teach a few times each week and my companion and I were able to teach the whole thing in Ilonggo! I mean, we struggled a little bit, but we taught the entire first vision, restoration, plan of salvation, atonement, and everything in a few lessons. That's pretty neat. I can translate things on paper pretty well, need to work on my speaking. But I am completely amazed at how much we have learned in the past week. Nowhere else could a group of eighteen-year-olds learn a language as quickly as we are learning. The gift of tongues is real!

Mom, you'll love this. The other day, I walked in to my classroom and Elder Bond (he kinda reminds my of Kyle, just FYI) asks me, "Elder Welton, did your mom ever make you watch Anne of Green Gables?" I stared at him for a few seconds thinking "my life is over." I said yes and he said, "My mom did too! Doesn't Sister Schimbeck look like Anne??" I laughed for a while and then agreed with him. Oh! Sister Schimbeck is in our district and her companion is Sister Patillo, the one Allen  knew! she's way nice, I have some selfies of them on my camera that they took, I'll try and put them on!

Sister Schimbeck and Sister Patillo in our district

Elder McCleary showed up on Wednesday! It was way great to see him. He's right down the hall from my room, I waved to him from my door this morning because I could see into his room down the hall. Elder Farnsworth is right next to Elder McCleary's room and I have seen him for the past week. He leaves soon though, that seems so weird to me! I also saw Elder Portlock (he was in my temple session if you remember him) and also Elder Figgins (you probably don't know him though). I was the only one of his friends that he will see, I think he leaves this week, maybe he's already gone... I can't remember. But it will be good to see people as they come in!

Elder McCleary (classmate from Riverton High School - called to same mission)

I think I might have gained a little weight, pretty sure all of us have. I thought it was super funny when we all went to put our jeans on for service on Tuesday, EVERY SINGLE ONE of us were saying "Oh man, these are tighter than I remember!" hahaha. The food is kind of a carb overload.. I have probably drank about 3 gallons of apple juice and milk.

Our service project on Tuesday where we got to move and organize all of the MTC food delivery (SO much food!)

District temple trip

It is so interesting to see the different personalities of our districts. It is completely clear that we were put into our districts for a reason. I believe that I was put into the companionship and district that I would fit with the best and grow with the most. They are already some of my best friends, we all feel like we have known each other for years, even though it has only been a week! That reminds me, it turns out that our two districts that came last week were all moved up a week, it wasn't just me! I'm guessing it is because we would have had FOUR new districts coming on Wednesday had they not moved ours back. It sounds like we all might still leave on the same day, though. Speaking of which, my MTC address is no AUG07 instead of AUG08 now, just so you can update it. I don't think it's important, I'm still getting letters and your packages, mom. Thank you for the stuff you sent, I'm loving it all! I was thinking that SAME day that I wanted my purple tie, lo and behold, it showed up in the package! Also I love the little missionaries finger puppet things! I gave the brown one to Elder Kim (it matched his ethnicity) and he loves it. I always put it on my finger and say "Tag Balay!" which is what you say at someone's door.

My teacher using the missionary finger puppet as a run-through for the door approach(haha!)

That's awesome that Ben is at EFY. I loved the picture of him and Chase, they're going to love it! And tell Annie congrats! She'll do great!

I have a lot more to tell you, but I am running out of time! I'll try and send some pictures and stuff later today when I have time!

A few of the elders in my district (my companion is on the right)

Palanga ako mo!

Elder Welton

First Week!....(well, first 2 days).

Kamusta ko pamilya!

So far this week has been awesome! I am liking the MTC a lot more than I thought I would! I've been able to learn something new every day and the spirit is very strong here.

After you dropped me off, the first 10-15 minutes were nuts! They shuttled us through that front door and on the other side were a bunch of ladies standing with unstitchers(?). I guess they have done this enough to know that most missionaries forget to open their suit coat pockets when they buy the suit, which would make it so you couldn't put your tag on! I thought that was pretty funny. And then they rushed us through the line to get all of our tags and check us in. Then we dropped stuff off in my room. I am in the Rey L. Pratt building (your building dad?) with another set of missionaries. There are two districts right now with 4 sets of companions each for Hiligaynon. And we are in two separate classes, so I guess there are a lot of people speaking the language. Plus more are coming on Wednesday, including Jake McCleary, I assume. After my room, my host apparently took me to my language class, because right when I walked in the door people were standing up and someone who I found out was my teacher started saying "Elder Welton! Kamusta ka??" and all sorts of phrases that I had no idea what was going on! Then he gave me a bunch of material and opened a book that taught me how to respond back. It was really intense. We were all laughing trying to respond.

My companion's name is Elder McWhorter and we have been getting along quite well! He's a tech guy too, so that has actually been nice to have someone who gets my computer references. Elder Kim is my district leader, Elder Mackintosh is his companion, and then Elder Bond and Elder Christensen are also in our district, different room though, and they are going to Iloilo, the next island to the west(which is where all the other Hiligaynon Elders are going as well. Turns out our whole district was moved up a week just like me! We still aren't sure why. Goodness, there is still a lot I want to talk about, but I don't have time to email anymore, I will try and write a letter tonight or tomorrow and send it to you in the mail so you can hear a little more!

Anyway, my P-days are on Fridays and it has been such a nice day to relax a little bit. Thank you for the package, I loved it!

Halong,

Elder Welton