End of April....and miracles!

Such a creative title for this email, right? I just can't really think of anything else to put for the time being.

I have seen SO many miracles this week in our work. It has truly been a great week. The people we have met these past few weeks in our area have been so amazingly prepared; it's truly humbling to meet the people that are sincerely searching for the truth.

We had this super awesome experience, I think on Wednesday, I'm not sure though, let me check my journal... ah, nevermind, I thought I brought it here but I guess I left it at our apartment earlier. Anyway -- We finished our first lesson with a recent convert and then, because our plans had kind of gotten messed up that morning, we were standing there thinking, "Hey where should we go now? We have some empty time before our next planned appointment. We need to stay close....sooo... where do we go??" I thought of the nearby members and less-actives and thought, "Hey, let's go visit the Decena Family." When we got there, we found Sister D-------, less-active, around 60 years old, sitting under her little shaded area in front of here house. We said, "Hello nay, can we come visit with you really quick?" Her reply, "Oh, Elders! Yes, please come in!" She then explained that she hadn't been feeling very well since Sunday and wanted to get a blessing. We gave her a blessing that she would be able to recover quickly and regain her strength. After the blessing, she said, "You know, Elders, I was actually so shocked when you showed up here, my heart skipped. I have been sick since Sunday, and just last night I was praying to be forgiven of all of my sins because I know I have a lot. I was also asking God to send the Elders to come by so I could get a blessing. I have been hoping and praying that you would come, and I was so surprised when you came here. You answered my prayers. You know, I guess I can really say that this church is true." 

What a humbling experience. You never know when you will become the answer to someone's prayers. I won't even try to claim that I received some prompting or some divine revelation to go to visit her at that time. We just went and visited her. That does not mean it was by chance, though. I don't know why I had the idea to visit her when we did, I hadn't even visited her in about a month! But one thing I have learned on my mission is best summed up in a quote by Thomas S. Monson. "Remember that this is the Lord’s work, and when we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help." The word "entitled" is a very solid, and absolute word. If we are entitled to something, that means we deserve it, we have a right to it. So I thought it was interesting that he phrased it like that. The promise of receiving the Lord's help, however, is dependent. If we are doing his errand, we will receive his help. So the question is, "Am I doing his errand, or mine own?" Quoting the Prophet again, "May I always be found 'on the Lord's errand'"

We had a baptism on Saturday! Sister G------- is one of the newest members in this church. She is AWESOME. She really understands the doctrines of this church and it was so fun visiting with her and her children. Her children hahaha... I don't even know where to start with them. They have so much energy and I salute her as their mother. She has a handful. They are so funny. Her baptism, was great though! She seemed so happy when she came out of the water and when she gave her testimony. Amazing. She had been taught for almost a year by the Elders and it has been a bit of a journey for her. Glad to see her have finally made that first step!

I am super excited to Skype you guys! Try and write down some questions or something. I'll try too, we'll see what I can come up with though.

Take Care!

Elder Welton

Transfer Day

I survived another transfer! Yay! And I am also still in Handumanan for another transfer (unless something weird happens) so I am really excited about that! We have some new investigators that I am really excited about teaching and we are hoping to baptize them next month! I will tell you the story behind them after the baptism because it is already starting to be a great story.

I told everyone about the "Tricomp" (thanks for the new word, dad) that I was in last week. What ended up happening is that the next day there was a weird transfer and so the other companionship in our district became a tricomp. But it was interesting for that week of there being three of us. I love transfer days because every time it happens, people start like freaking out. The way we do our transfers is, no matter where your next area is, everyone travels to the mission office. This prevents the transfer from "breaking", as they say. You get a call on Sunday evening and they say the same thing every time, even the same questions. "Hello, who am I speaking to? Who is your companion? Well, Elder, we have a transfer call for you. Be here at Galo Chapel at 9:00am tomorrow morning. Thank you." That's basically it. You pack your bags that night and then go to the office. Some people have to leave around 2 or 3 in the morning to get to the office on time. You have no idea where you are transferring or who your companion is until you get there. I always laugh at how stressed people get about the upcoming transfer day.

I forgot to tell you about some of the foods I have tried recently! I ate some octopus the other day and it was actually pretty okay! I tried oysters for the first time and, I'm with you, dad, it's not good. The members got a good kick out of seeing me try it. Don't really need to try that again in my life. Something that is fairly normal for me now is that we always eat dried fish called "uga". The Filipinos are always surprised when they see me eating it, "Elder, you eat uga?? Americans don't usually eat that!?" It's good, okay? I don't mind it. I also love the guys that walk around our neighborhood selling it every morning. They carry the stacked fish around on a board in one hand yelling, "UUUUUUUUUGAA" intermittently with their shirts off because of the heat. I love it. To your question, mom, we basically eat a lot of chicken and pork. That's essentially part of every "sud-an" that they cook here. There's no translation in English, but it's basically "toppings for rice". The question here is not, "would you like rice with that?", but rather, "what would you like with your rice?"

I have been sick for a while now, nothing serious at all. I have just had a slight head cold that has been here for a few months. I almost think it is just seasonal because it was always the same in Utah. In winter I would just get like a permanent cold until Spring/Summer. I haven't gotten sick again at all, though, other than that first time. The hardest thing is when I lose my voice, though. That's happened a few times now. Nothing is more debilitating in a mission than a lost voice because that's your main tool. But that's about all that's happened to me.

We don't experience a lot of antagonism here in this area. The only issue here is trying to help people understand WHY and HOW the church is not just "another church about Jesus." Everyone here is Catholic unless they have another religion that they have switched to. But people are kind of shy around Americans and so it's always good to have a Filipino companion for that reason. Sometimes, because of the close association of the church with America, the Filipinos are assumed to be Americans. Even if it's a pure Filipino companionship, they sometimes get called Americans. But it's great. I am super excited to talk to you on Mother's Day soon! I will tell you all about it if I can!

That's all for this week! Sorry no pictures, I left my card reader at home...

Palangga ta kamo. Higugma ko kamo. Mahal ko kayo.

Elder Welton

#LDSconf

I finally got to watch conference! It was so good. So many wise leaders and such good advice. I especially liked the part about cellphones and turning them off for a while. I finally get that whole concept now that I'm out here on my mission. Someone just needs to remind me of that when I'm home. As he was speaking about that, I wrote in my journal, "Maybe I don't need an iPhone after my mission..." But, you know, we'll still see about that one :) I'm not gonna make any rash decisions.

So this week, I was actually put into a trisome! I actually don't really like it a lot, because now we are working two areas with the inability to split unless we can get a member. So that's fun. The story behind this is kind of long, so I'll give the short version because it's kind of not important. We have four people in my apartment, one got sick, so did another Elder in a different part of the zone, so they grouped the "sickies" together at the hospital and then one was sent to Manila. The other one came back to our apartment and now we are a trisome. Is trisome the right word? There's three of us, that's what I'm going for...

For you, mother dearest, I will talk about an average day.

Everyday I get up at 6:30. If you are not in front of a fan, your blood boils, especially because the ceiling in our apartment is so low. So I drag the fan out of my room, plug it into the socket, and then lay down on the ground on the cement with the fan blowing on me so I can keep cool for a bit. The goal is to dissipate as much heat as possible into the floor. After a few minutes of that, I go make some breakfast. Sometimes... I'll usually put on a few conference talks to listen to while preparing and take a shower. The cold shower really is a blessing, especially during the summer here. As soon as you get out though, you stand in front of a fan while you get ready. So, basically it's HOT here. And then we study for a few hours, eat our lunch, and then go out to work. The problem with the missionary schedule here is that everyone takes their afternoon siesta, inherited from the Spaniards. So basically we just have to keep walking around to our different members and investigators until we find someone awake to listen to us. Around three or four is when the work starts going a bit better. Then we just proselyte straight until about eight to nine. Sometimes we have a dinner appointment, but usually not. Then we go home, plan, eat, and do everything we need to get done before 10:30. It's hard to get to bed on time because there's so much to fit in to that last bit of the day... That's basically what I do on a normal day. However, "normal days" rarely happen here. There seems to always be something that happens that interrupts our studies. Especially with the traffic and transportation systems, if you have to go into the city for something or to pick up something from the office or anything like that, you're looking at a two to three our journey, if you're lucky. It's "Filipino Time", very similar to "Mexican Time", to those who are familiar with that. And then when we get home, we just have to go out and work to keep up with the pace of the work here. So that's how it is here!

We had a baptism this week! H........  His father was baptized by the Sisters just before the area was given to us. We finally got H........ to go to church with his father and he was baptized. He's super super shy, but he's great! He braved the murky baptismal font water like a champ. I always like wearing baptismal clothes because it looks like karate stuff. The kids think that too haha. So we usually do some karate poses and kicks. The baptismal service was great and everything went well. Except I did have to go get my white tie that I left at the apartment. So it was pretty funny, I'm sure, to have seen a white guy, tromping around town in all white. How cool.

I had something come to my mind just barely that I have pondered a lot during my mission. President Lopez pointed out during my first day here, that in the white handbook it quotes Mosiah 4:27.

 

--    "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize;therefore, all things must be done in order."  --

He made sure to point out, "Elders and Sisters, you are not allowed to rest or take naps. Yes, you will be tired in your mission, but notice here in this scripture that it implies we are still running. Elders and Sisters, you should always be running."

When I heard that, I thought, "Okay, he totally twisted that scripture to his advantage just so we can't take naps..." But I have since come to understand EXACTLY what he was talking about. Yes, we should not run faster than we have strength, but we should never stop running. Sometimes we can slow down our pace, but it should never turn into just walking. Whenever we are "comfortable" in our lives or in our calling, that means we are also not progressing. It's very nice that you are comfortable, but, hey, you aren't "winning the prize". If we aren't diligent, we aren't winning the prize. And if we aren't winning the prize, then what's this all about??? (that was actually quoting Creed off of The Office when he talks about scuba diving) Anyway, let's win the prize! Go for gold.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton

Flaming Dustpan Guy

Happy Easter to everyone. I hope you all enjoyed watching Conference a few hours ago. I am so excited to watch it this Saturday!! It's so so strange that it's already Conference again... I feel like I just BARELY watched it in Sagay Zone with my trainer the other day! So weird.

We had a baptism this week! Her name is, Love Me Lariosa, or better known by her nickname, LubLub. Yes, I can now officially say that I have met someone named "Love Me". I'm not sure what the story behind that name is, but I'm sure it's probably an interesting one. Her siblings were all baptized a few years ago when the Sisters were assigned in the area, but have all since gone inactive, unfortunately. Even despite this challenge, we have been able to get Lub and her sister to start attending church again. We are hoping to eventually help the whole family come back! She has family that has been very active in the church throughout the years and so we had her Uncle baptize her so it would be more personal for her. It was a cool experience. Great baptismal service.

My companion and I noticed the other day how often the General Authorities "invite the presence of Holy Spirit" before they speak. Without fault, Elder Bednar does this EVERY time that he speaks. Elder Domantay points it out now, "Ah, there it is again!" I was pondering that a little while ago. Why is it that they say that every single time? Obviously, if they aren't speaking by the Spirit, that's not the way they should be speaking. But, why do they have to SAY it every time. I realized earlier that we really should be personally inviting the Holy Ghost into everything that we do. So many times, especially with myself, we think that the Spirit couldn't help us with our daily tasks or our worldly pursuits. That's wrong. ESPECIALLY if our task requires interaction with our fellow men, the Spirit can help us. For example; there have been so many times that I have been anticipating, or perhaps, rather, DREADING a conversation with someone in which there is an issue that needs resolving. Had I invited the Spirit to those conversations, perhaps some of those conversations would have been a little different. We can invite the Spirit to "consecrate our performance" on nearly anything that has a worthy goal attached to it. Obviously he's not gonna consecrate our performance of getting 100 likes on our Instagram post or anything like that - but in the decisions that are important, in the decisions that influence the lives of others - he will for sure help us IF WE INVITE HIM. Whether it's buying a house, help on a test, traveling to the store safely, or studying the scriptures - we just have to invite him. 

We didn't have too many interesting experiences this week. The single one that I can remember, however, was HILARIOUS. After leaving Love Me's house, being our last appointment that night, we started heading home. On our way home, this man was out sweeping the ground with his broom and dustpan, which the dustpan actually has like a stick thing coming out of the top so you don't have to lean down and pick it up like you normally do with dustpans. That's a real nice feature. But for some reason, the contents of the dustpan were on fire, so he was literally walking around carrying fire in a dustpan and sweeping stuff into it. As we approached him, he stopped sweeping, darted his eyes over at us and read our name tags. He shook my companion's hand, "Elderrrrrrrr DOMANTAY! Elder Domantay." He then read my nametag, yelling, "Elderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" -- I kid you not, he did that for thirty seconds! So here I have this guy looking me straight in the eyes, holding my hand, yelling "ELDERRRRRRR" for a horribly uncomfortable length of time, while, in his other hand, holding a flaming dustpan of sticks, leaves, and plastic wrappers. It took all my human willpower to keep from laughing right then and there. As we left, when the coast was clear, my companion and I BUSTED up hahaha. What a wonderful experience. I will be sure to show you in person how great it was when I get home. Just remind me.

That's all for this week! Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Welton

Mom question:  How do you feel about the language now?

About the language- I really just don't give myself enough credit I think. I can carry on a somewhat normal conversation, but I tend to use a lot of english words if I don't know what the Ilonggo word is. That's one thing that really saves me in this language. So many people know english that I can get away with using English words a lot. Usually, that's what people understand most anyway. I'm really just expecting too much from myself in expecting to be fluent. My progress so far is good, though. It's nice having Filipino companions to help out. He and I are still always asking each

other questions the entire lesson. We both use a lot of English words in gospel topics because we don't know the ilonggo words. We are shooting back and forth most of the lesson saying, "hey what's that word in Ilonggo? I only know the english word." It's pretty funny. That's all.

 I'm not sure where my companion and I are looking in the photo... That was the best one, though.

Apparently It's Easter Soon....

Hello Family and Friends!

So, I just barely found out that it's Easter soon... I always just remembered that it was sometime in April, I forgot when exactly. I know that's horrible, but I totally forgot! I'm excited now! And even more excited for General Conference!! What a great time of the year to reflect on the life of the Savior.

This was a good week! I think I write that every week... but it's because it was. Sure, there are the ups and downs every week, but I don't think I have had a week yet where it WASN'T over all a good week. We have had a lot of progression in my area lately. It's kind of sad for me to see all of this right now because, with the looks of the mission right now, I might be transferring... Hopefully not, but we will see. But as long as they get baptized and endure to the end, that's what matters.

We went on a hike this morning at Mambukal Resort. It was SO cool! There were seven waterfalls and it was really really exhausting. But I have good pictures! I sent them to my mom so if any of you want to see them, I'll have her put them on my blog. (Can you please do that, mom?) Very pretty.

Thinking about Easter and General Conference makes me think about the life of the Savior. I remember listening to a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland last week where he talked about what the Apostles did after the death of Christ. After I listened to the talk, I read the Bible verses he discussed. So after Jesus died, the Apostles had no idea what to do. They were basically thinking, "Okay... well, now what?" They were never trained on what to do AFTER his death, they only knew how to follow him. One of these twelve said to the others, paraphrasing, of course, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going fishing," because that's all their life was before this! That's all they knew - FISHING. So the others followed him to the ocean. They got on the boat and fished all night and caught absolutely nothing. All of the sudden they heard a voice on the shore say, "Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No." (John 21:5) They come ashore and eat with Jesus who had prepared food for them to eat. Jesus speaks to Peter at this time and asks him the question, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs." Jesus then repeats the last phrase TWO MORE TIMES, "Lovest thou me?" Jeffrey R. Holland pointed out that perhaps Jesus asked so many times because maybe Peter just didn't quite get what exactly Jesus was asking him. But his question to Peter is the same question he is asking to us all; Lovest thou me? If the answer is yes, his answer is the same; Feed my sheep. 

I read something the other day that I really liked, I think it was in the Ensign or Liahona or something. But the impression it left on my mind was that most of our opportunities to help people (in this case, to "feed his sheep") will not come in big ways. We may not be sent to save someone's life or to help a "lost sheep" (since we are talking about sheep right now) turn their life around, but to do the little, simple things. One thing I have learned on my mission so far is this - The best thing you can give to someone else is your time. Giving your time and devoted attention to someone even for just a few short moments can make all the difference in the world for someone. So that's just one of the many ways that we can "feed his sheep."

That's it for this week. Have a great Easter and Conference! I still have to wait an extra week...

Elder Welton

  This is on our way up to Mambukal Resort where we went hiking.  

 My companion, Elder Domantay is on the far left.

 This is a picture of my companion on a bamboo "bridge" above 3 carabao

Here is a picture of the falls we saw on our hike.  There are a total of seven falls, but we only made it to four before we turned back.  We asked the tour guide if he was used to the hike because it was a bit brutal, straight up!  He said, "Yeah I'm used to it, but it is still so exhausting"

 Here is a cute kid in my ward who has two extra fingers next to his thumbs.  

We had him count on his fingers and, yes, he does in fact count to twelve.

 This characterizes the Philippines.  Someone needs to check the English there.  To add to the funniness is that this place is a chain restaurant, so the mistake wasn't made just once.  haha

  I made nachos with the refried beans you sent. 

 I had to splurge a little on those chips...very rare here.

Packages!

Hi Family :)

So, I got all my packages! That was super exciting! We went to the office on Thursday, I think, to get some Books of Mormon... Book of Mormon's.... Copies of the Book of Mormon..? (My companion and I talked about that the other day.) But upon arriving at the office, I heard, "Elder Welton, we have three packages for you in addition to the books and the mail that you already have!" ... Oh great. Certainly, I was excited for those packages because I have been waiting for 5 or so months, but if you have ever tried to carry home even one box on the jeepneys here, you'll know what I mean. These things are not made for Americans. The journey home was rough, but the reward was sweet. And salty. And had cinnamon bears - so I can't complain. :) Thank you so much for all the food and stuff! And for the birthday wishes!

This week was a really good week! We were blessed with many investigators that attended church! Yes! Our hard work paid off! We even had one of our investigators, S------, come to church! She's had a long journey with other Elders and even the Sisters teaching her, but I really feel like this is her time! She's great. So are all the rest of our investigators! Keep you updated on that and everything.

It's been really weird this transfer so far. After becoming senior companion, everything just seems to be so much different. I have gotten so much more involved with the work and it really is so much different of a feeling. I often have hard times writing in my journal because all we did that day was work. Work man gihapon. (still just work) But my love for the people and my desire to serve them has increased even more, that's the good part. So sorry if I struggle to write good letters from now on, because my mind is somewhere else haha.

I did read something in my studies, though, that I liked. I have been reading in the later chapters of Alma and EVERYTHING is about WAR. Every single chapter. Sometimes I am thinking, "Why did Mormon include this mess in here? What could I possibly learn from this??" But I figured it out as I neared the end of those war chapters! He put this in here so we can see what leads to the destruction of people. He put it in here so we can avoid becoming just like the Lamanites and the Nephite dissenters. From what I read, I noticed that all of the struggles within these people decided when someone thought that they "deserved" something (sound like America?). When we start to think that we deserve things, that's when our destruction begins. The only time these people were successful and prosperous was when they were living the Gospel. Many people think the Gospel restricts us when in actuality, it is giving us freedom. Yes, we have to give up some stuff, we have to be constantly trying to be less selfish, we have to be constantly avoid things that people say are "fun" and "the norm" - but if we do that, the blessings are so much better. Now, if I can only help my investigators to understand that, that would be the best.

Well, I think that's all I got for you all today! I'm gonna go play some bowling with my companion. Because bowling is fun.

Love,

Elder Welton

First Week as Senior

Hello Family!

This has been a really good week! Very different as well.

This week was a bit of a wake up call for me. It was so weird to be the one, not only leading the area, but also leading the companionship. I think the thing I realized the most was how much I need to improve my language. And my faith. I need a little bit more of that as well. You can never have enough faith... just like Nutella.

It was a really good week working with Elder Domantay! I love this Elder. He went into the MTC in October and so this is the start of his 4th transfer in the field. It's always a thing us Americans talk about in the field about how fast the Filipinos learn the language. My first district leader told me the other day, "Yeah, I'm going home tomorrow and the Elder I just trained my last transfer was better than me in Ilonggo by his second week..." So that's how things work here in the Philippines. And they are all these fantastic teachers, it's so crazy! A lot of them were able to work with the missionaries a lot before they went on their missions so they know how to teach and everything already. It really is a blessing for me though because he can help me a lot in the things I can't do yet.

Thank goodness I just remembered this experience because I had no idea what I was going to talk about in this letter haha!

I think it was my second day with Elder Domantay and we had just taught a lesson dealing with someone who had recently relapsed on their smoking problem. I absolutely BUTCHERED my bit of the lesson trying to figure out how to help this individual and then he shared this experience he had about someone he knew who had an addiction and fixed the lesson up all nice and pretty by the end. I was so impressed! Afterward I was like, "Elder, you are so skilled! You have been here less time than me, but you already know how to teach way better than me!" ("skilled" sounds nerdy in English, but that's essentially the translation for what I said to him) His response to my statement was this: "I'm not better than you, I just knew something you didn't. We have both have had different experiences." Very simple.

What he said to me was very simple, yet very profound to me. Here I was thinking, "Ah man, I'm already getting beat by my junior companion. He should be the senior!" But after he said that I realized how true the thing he said to me was. We all have experiences in our lives that we have learned from. Sometimes we won't realize why we have certain challenges or certain experience, but maybe someday down the road, we will have an opportunity to share that experience with someone else. And perhaps that personal experience will be the only thing that will affect the person enough to help them with solve their own concerns. So we shouldn't compare ourselves to other people. Each person has been given their strengths and weakness and we can learn from them.

That story about Spencer mixing up the scriptural names is funny. I have that same problem sometimes. Many of the gospel terms in Ilonggo and Tagalog are actually Spanish because the Christian heritage was brought by them to the Philippines. If you read an Ilonggo Bible and the Book of Mormon, a lot of the names and words are just Spanish. But a lot of people are more familiar with Tagalog and English versions of scripture anyway because the Ilonggo translations are pretty deep. Most of the structure and vocabulary have been lost in the currently used language. The way the language works, you can just drop any root word of most languages into a Filipino conjugation and it works! For example, people here don't really understand/use the Ilonggo word for "share" so when we go to someone's house we say, "Puede kami mag-share sa inyo?" "Puede" is also Spanish, so this is a really confusing place... I realized the other day that they were mixing FIVE languages in my first area! Tagalog, Cebuano, Spanish, English, and Ilonggo. But that's probably the reason that people learn new languages here so quickly. So that's fun.

Apparently they are coming out with an iWatch and a new MacBook! That's cool! I would like details on that please :) Thank you! And I will be sure to make those teacher recommendations for Ben, I will have to think about it first because I can't remember all of my stuff from sophomore year.

Have a good week!

Elder Welton