The Widow's Mite

Hello Family!

Another week has gone by! Kadasig sa tion ba. It's so crazy to me how fast the time flies by now...

I went to Sagay again this week and I heard some great news! At the beginning of my mission, we baptized two kids of a less-active sister that we met. The R------ family was one of my favorite families to go to in my first area and I love them so much. We had worked on teaching their father after the baptism and we had some amazing lessons with him. I was really sad last year because I was transferred a few weeks before his baptism, but I was SO happy that they were now all members of the church. I have always wondered if they were still going to church and growing in the gospel. I was super happy when I asked the Old Sagay Sisters how the family was doing. They told me that Brother R-------, the one I didn't get to see baptized, actually became the High Priests Group Leader! That made me so happy and grateful that the Lord had watched over them and helped them stay strong as new members. He was always such a great father and really was good about making sure things were being run correctly in his household. It's nice to see that he has been able to take on that calling, especially as a new member! I heard that he was actually in Manila right now working a bit, but when he comes back he'll be able to continue his calling.

I was also super excited to learn that the family of 6 we baptized in Sipalay, the D--------- Family, will be sealed in the temple at the end of May!! They will be sealed almost exactly on their one year date! I don't think I will be able to attend the ordinance because we don't have a temple in our mission, but I am so happy for them and the fact that I got to teach a family that was so prepared and converted to this gospel.

I had some really good studies the other day. And when I say "the other day" I might actually mean a week, 2 weeks, or 2 months ago... It always kind of blends together nowadays... But it was really good. I happened to read about the Widow's Mite in multiple contexts this week and it really helped me realize how important it is to give much out of our own desire.

--

1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.

 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.

 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.

--

As I read this passage, it made me wonder which of those I am; the widow or the rich men. Do I give when I have little, or do I wait until I can give comfortably? I think many of us are the latter; giving freely when we feel comfortable; when we feel that we ourselves have been given enough to become qualified, perhaps even obligated to start giving to others. What I realized with this, however, is that we must ALWAYS give. That's hard! I always think, "Hey, I worked for this! I deserve this!" We all have many things that we deem "expendable" and "indispensable", but in reality, everything that we possess has been given to us by our Heavenly Father and we must be willing to relinquish that at any given time should the Lord call on us to do so. I hope to become the type of giver that gives not just when it is convenient or when I feel that I have enough, but the type that follows the Savior's example of giving freely of that which has been given so freely unto us.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton

Fear Not, Little Flock

Hello Family!

Great week! Hard week, but great week.

I don't have a lot to report on this week! Things have been pretty normal for the most part! I have been doing a lot of design work lately. It's so cool to be able to use talents I have been given to help the work progress here. It's been really interesting to me as I have started designing again to see that I haven't gotten worse like I thought I would! I totally thought that after over a year of not touching any sort of design program or anything that I would be struggling to get back into the zone. But I have actually created some of my best designs while here! It's been really cool. I love it.

I learned something in my personal study earlier today that I really liked. It was in Luke 12:29-32. It was talking about taking no worry about earthly things.

--

29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

--

This is such a simple doctrine that I think all of us seem to forget. Sometimes I think we forget that God wants to give us EVERYTHING. God wants all of his children to receive forgiveness through the gift of the Atonement. He offers it freely to those with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. He wants to give us all His kingdom; it's His PLEASURE, in fact. That was my favorite part, the last verse. "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." It made me think about the term "to GIVE you the kingdom"... Perhaps we are already being given the kingdom right now, here on earth! As we live the commandments and follow what we know to be true, we gain knowledge and happiness; two eternal concepts. I used to think that it meant that we WILL receive the kingdom after we have died and go through judgement, but my perspective has now changed to that of actually receiving it right now! CURRENTLY. It makes me reflect upon the BYU devotional talk by Brad Wilcox that talks about "Learning Heaven", which I have shared with you before. What a great opportunity we have to LEARN the kingdom here on earth and to become more like our Heavenly Father. Awesome!

I wish I could elaborate on that concept more, but I have only just barely started pondering that thought. I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven that wants to give so freely to us. Sometimes we are hard on ourselves and we alienate ourselves from God's love... But I know that He always wants to help us and that He always wants to give His kingdom to us -- His "little flock."

Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Welton

Training and Children

Maayong Hapon!

We had so many great things happen this week! I always love sitting down on Mondays to email because it gives me some time to reflect on what all has happened. The weeks for me just FLY by now and I always think, "Well, there goes another week. Doesn't feel like much happened..." But then I think back to all of the things I did and how much was accomplished and I realize how great it is to be serving a mission and to always have such a great purpose.

Being assigned in the office has always seemed interesting to me because it has the same sort of feeling as when I was in Student Government. As it was described to the office staff during the time of President Lopez, "The mission is an elegant swan that gracefully glides across the top of water. When you see it, you only see that beauty, the magnificence, but rarely does anyone notice that that swan is paddling like crazy underneath the water. The office is the legs and the rest of the mission is everything above water." I thought that was quite a humorous analogy because it feels so true. We do a LOT of things that nobody really would think about or notice, but it is helping that swan move across the pond. Being able to see the mission from a wider perspective has made me really realize that God accomplishes most of his miracles through his children here on earth. Most of the wonderful things that we are blessed with here on earth are most likely because of our Heavenly Father's inspiring or softening of the heart of someone else to act in our benefit. I imagine that we all probably do a lot more good for others than we do bad. How wonderful!

We had an MLC this week! I loved it. I had the opportunity to give a training again and it was one of my favorites that I have prepared so far. I decided to talk about "accomplishing a vision" and how having a vision for your work can make miracles happen. I even made this neat little graphic/flowchart/diagram thing to show the process of creating a vision, what supports it, and how we measure our progress in achieving our vision. It went really well! I am always so grateful for opportunities to teach like that because I always get to learn a lot from myself and from what the Spirit inspires me to say. So cool how that works!

We left the meeting at lunch to get Elder Wade's license. I love the DMV in America, but I think this place has topped it. The LTO is a wonderful place here. After a few hours of waiting (nodding off occasionally) we got his license! That was great for me because it meant I didn't have to drive the whole Sipalay journey by myself! It was so great to be able to go down there again. Love that place. So many cool things to see!

Elder Wade's training has been going well! He's very quick and determined and wants to learn his job so bad. It's been hard because so much of his job has to be learned by experience, though! He's been very good at asking questions, he's started creating plans to organize supply deliveries and make them more efficient, and a bunch of great things. The learning curve for this job is so steep though, and I know he just wants to learn it all and NOT make mistakes. It's been really interesting to observe all of this because I can see just how similar this is to parenting and teaching children. All I have been able to do this far is just DUMP all of the knowledge I have about this job and hope he absorbs it. I remind him of things, I offer my input on what he's planning, but at the end of the day I just have to hope that he is learning from what I am trying to teach. I realized that the biggest part of this job is to just be a logistical thinker. I can't teach someone to think that way, but I can give them things to do and show them the way to go in hopes that they will follow. President said something the other day that I really liked. It was something to the effect of, "Teaching your children to avoid the mistakes that you have made or are currently making is great, but the best way to do it-- the way the Savior did it-- is to live in a way that you can say, 'come follow me'." I am grateful for parents who have lived in such a way that has expressed the words, "Come follow me."

Things are going great here! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Elder Welton

Here's a picture of our baptism! Such a great baptism!

Also, here's a picture of a dog at a recent convert's house. He looked pretty beat.

Here is the mission vision statement that Tanner designed a few months back.  He was able to put his Photoshop skills to work.  

New Year!

Happy New Year!

This week was awesome! We did a lot of good work. It's been fun training Elder Wade as the new Supply Elder and seeing his excitement about it all. I have been reminded of all the exciting changes that happened when I was first assigned here. It's good to see that fresh attitude and excitement for everything!

We had three baptisms this week! That was so awesome! We had R------- and his daughter interviewed, but we were sad to hear that his second daughter would be going back to Victorias for school before the weekend and wouldn't be able to be baptized with her dad and sister. We were sad, but we decided that maybe it was just meant to happen at another time! What ended up happening is that we got to the church on Saturday to set up and the family was there waiting for us. We opened everything up and got it all set up for the baptism, but it was still a little bit early. As I looked around, I saw the two who were going to be baptized, R------- and J--------, but then I noticed there was someone else running around! It was his daughter! It took me like 10 minutes of being there to realize that she hadn't actually gone home! We talked with R-------- and found out that she just stayed with them longer because the person that was supposed to come get her never came. So we made some quick calls and got permission for Elder Wade to interview her, seeing as he had never actually taught this family and just came from being a Zone Leader. So we got the approval, and then I got to baptize them! It was such a great baptism. I talked with R------- after the baptism and asked how it all went. He just had a smile on his face and just said, "Ah, Elder, it was so great. I feel so good!" It was just such a good feeling because he had finally gotten through such a long process of wedding papers and the teaching and everything. Such a great guy. Great family.

It's so crazy to me that it is 2016 already! We always laugh in the office because we are now getting batches of missionaries that go home in 2018! That seems SO far away, but then I remember that I have almost already made it that far myself. That's so weird. But I am excited for the fresh feeling of a new year and a good chance to change our lives.

Last week was actually a bit of a perspective-changer for me. Taking the departing missionaries to the airport has always been an interesting thing for me. I have seen many people come and go and have always felt it such a privilege to be close to those missionaries that have finished the race and to those who have only just begun. This time, however, was one of the hardest ones for me because we sent home our group of Sisters. It seemed so unreal that those few sisters that had been with us from the start were now finished... It seems like just yesterday that we were all just trying to make sense of what in the world our teacher was babbling in front of us that first day. Now, they have finished what they set out to do! I was SO happy to have been part of their first moments and their last, but it was hard to see all of them go and move on to different things. A few of them got a little teary-eyed, even I almost got to that point (but I wasn't gonna let them see that)! They were all wonderful missionaries and I hope that I can become even close to the caliber of servants they were for the Lord. I think the difference in length of missionary service for the men and women is so important because it helps us perspective-less elders get a little reference point on how fast this truly is. I was sad to have seen them go, but their departure alone has helped me realize that I won't get to do this forever. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have.

We had an interesting meeting yesterday night at the mission home. We got a text earlier that morning saying, "We will be having a goal-setting meeting for 2016 later this afternoon at the mission home." It ended up being a really good meeting and I actually came out with a lot that I didn't expect to get from that kind of meeting. We talked a lot about leadership and setting standards of excellence to measure our work in the mission and how we can get everyone else to see this vision of success. Something I realized while we were all counselling together is how important it is to make others successful in reaching their goals. There are many leaders who think they can do it all on their own or that they can do things better than someone else can and then expect to have good results. The test of a true leader and follower of Christ is to not only have your own vision and to be capable of making it succeed, but rather to accomplish our goals whilst helping others to catch that same vision an accomplish it themselves! Jesus Christ is THE teacher on this subject, as with almost any other principle. There are so many things he could have done by himself while on the earth. He could have went to all of the far away places that He sent the Apostles to and probably could have been a more effective teacher than they were. But it is evident in Christ's character and teachings that He valued "building" people and helping them to catch the same vision He and our Heavenly Father have for us all. They see such wonderful things in store for us, yet we continue to be blind to that, usually due to a lack of faith on our part. But what Christ and our Heavenly Father see in us is pure, untapped potential. Christ picked his Apostles from a group of fishermen, tax collectors, wise, and unwise. They all had flaws and strengths that Jesus wanted to build and develop. These character trait differences are evident in that of Peter and John, two of the most well-known Apostles. Peter had such a spontaneous attitude that it caused him to dive off a boat to greet his Savior. John sat calmly near Jesus, talking with him and listening intently. However different they may be, they had the same calling and the same love from Jesus Christ. Jesus saw their differences, but He was able to help them catch a vision of happiness, salvation, and prosperity and then built them enough to help them see the need to share that with others. Wouldn't it be amazing to see everyone's potential like He does?

I hope everyone has a great week! I need to finish preparing a training for tomorrow's MLC!

Halong!

Elder Welton

Mawwiage

Hello Family!!!

It was so great to be able to talk to you all on Christmas! It was really exactly what I needed to keep me going. I realized that my group of Sisters is going home this week and that I really don't have a whole lot of time left here. It's sad, but it has given me some added desire to work more diligently!

So, surprise -- Elder Cicon transferred! He was put in as one of the new AP's and will be whitewashing an area! I have a new companion, Elder Wade, and he is ALSO from my MTC group! Who would have thought?! Two in a row. It is going to be a good companionship. He is fresh from being a Zone Leader and is super diligent and ready to work and I'm excited! We will do some great things, I'm sure. It will be interesting training another Supply Elder.

We had a WEDDING earlier! It was so awesome! Radney and Celeste looked so happy! They were all dressed up in a suit and dress and just looked wonderful. We were so blessed to have had the Relief Society help organize a lot of it and take care of the decorations. I didn't think us Elders could do a very solid decorating job, so we were sure grateful! I hope that they will be able to go to the temple a year after Radney gets baptized and be sealed! 

It was interesting listening to Bishop Jayme solemnize the wedding and give his advice to the couple. He talked a lot about how in order for relationships to be successful, we must be willing to drop our pride and say, "I'm sorry" sometimes. Even when we are not in the wrong, we must be willing to sacrifice our pride if we want things to succeed. Relationships take constant maintenance and selfless service if we want them to become fruitful. I realized how much the Savior serves us and how little we actually notice Him trying to strengthen the relationship between Him and us. No matter how many times we reject Him, He keeps reaching out with the same love and affection, perhaps even more and more love, every single time. Why would someone fight so hard for someone who gives so little back? He loves us. There's nothing else to it. There's no way we could repay that kind of kindness to others or even to Him. But our Savior wants us to learn that very same love He has for us; the same love that our Father in Heaven has for us. It's hard. It requires us to drop our pride and to see people for what our Father in Heaven sees in them, not just what we see them do.

I hope everyone had an AWESOME Christmas!

Elder Welton

Who, What, When, Where, and WHY

lo Family!

I am so excited to Skype you next week! That was quick... We have the options of calling you any time from December 24-26, and so I think I will plan on calling you on the 26th there so it'll be Christmas for you all. That's not sure yet, I will let you know next week, but I will be Skyping and make sure you're prepared. :) I realized that I will have a LOT to talk to you all about. I think the most EXCITING parts of my mission have happened just within those few months since Mother's Day. I have to include Sipalay and the crazy things that have happened in the office since then. WOW. And also, just something to ponder, because of the changes made to the MTC programs, I will actually be coming home a week LATER than I expected - June 22. So plans such as schooling will either have to change or I will have to come home just a little bit early, which President Barredo understands and will review with me after we have come to a decision as a family. So we can talk about that next week, but think about what you would recommend before then! It's honestly so weird to be making plans like this already. I just barely left!

This week was AWESOME, though! We had to go up north to Sagay and Cadiz to do deliveries and to "procure" a house that will be used in the next transfer (good word, right? thanks mom). The owner of the house is a member and actually one of the wealthiest members in all of Negros. They started "Grace Pharmacy" and own a lot of stuff. They love the missionaries and said, "We have a house in Cadiz that we haven't lived in in years! We will let the missionaries stay there if you need it!" We actually did, so we went and looked at it. We decided with President beforehand that we should probably just give them like 2,000 pesos ($50 per month), even though she said it was free, just so that we were paying them something at least! We got to the apartment and it was MASSIVE. It had two floors and this one little chandelier and bedrooms galore and air-conditioning and it was bigger than the mission home! The whole time I was thinking, "Did Elder Cicon really say that this place was only $2000 pesos? Maybe he was talking about, like, just TWO of the rooms..?" Then I asked him and he said, "That's what I was thinking! This TOTALLY isn't 2,000 pesos..." We decided that we needed to pay her close to the maximum we are allowed to pay for a house, because it was SO nice. I'm pretty sure what we are paying is still thousands of pesos off of what it is actually worth, but I am so excited for those next missionaries that will stay there. They will love it. Maybe a little frightened, actually...

We will be travelling to the entire island this week to give everyone their packages. Basically, we get to play Santa Claus for the next few weeks. It's so cool! I will get to go back down to Sipalay and see all the beautiful views down there again. Yes! We are gonna be so tired doing all that driving though, man. It'll be worth it, though!

I have been thinking a lot lately about questions and answers and Elder Cicon and I have been having some interesting discussions about it as well. We had a deep discussion about answers to prayers and how God actually answers our prayers while still fulfilling HIS plan for us. It's hard for our human minds to understand the idea of a perfect plan that allows for requests from imperfect humans. Elder Cicon shared how he felt that EVERY prayer is answered, just not always how or WHEN we may want the answer. We talked more about it and thought about how hard that must be for Heavenly Father; wanting to give everything to us, yet knowing that we need to learn and be patient sometimes. Sometimes our requests come immediately, but sometimes we must wait a LONG time. Elder Fraire popped into the conversation mid-way through and contributed to the conversation. The topic eventually came up regarding the interrogative, "Why?" and how important it is for our Heavenly Father. I think God has provided the answers to EVERY SINGLE interrogative (Who, What, When, Where) except for WHY. And I think that's why we are all here on Earth! We need to figure out WHY God has done all things. We need to understand WHY following the commandments are important. And we need to understand WHY Jesus atoned for our sins. I think this single question is what separates a lot of people from living the gospel or from continuing on with their lives in the midst of trials - we just don't understand the "why" of all things. I've come to know a lot of the basic doctrines and principles and concepts contained in the gospel, but I find them deepened every time I seek to understand why we need these things. I know WHAT faith is, I know HOW our salvation is possible, yet I don't fully understand WHY these are so necessary... I know what Jesus did for us, but I don't know if I will ever completely understand WHY he would do that for such a person like me. We can learn all of the who's, what's, where's, and when's at church and by reading the scriptures and all of those things, but ONLY through the Spirit can we understand why. All of those things mentioned are FANTASTIC ways to invite the Spirit and we should always strive to do them, but if we only have him with us when we are doing those things, we will miss out on a lot of learning experiences. Whenever we have difficult trials we will always understand, through our own observation and deductive reasoning skills, what happened, how it happened, when it happened, and where it happened, but we will never understand the reason or the why if we don't have the Spirit next to our side, teaching us every step of the way. We probably didn't understand why we were going to be sent to Earth when we were in the Pre-mortal Life, we just knew that the Lord promised us exactly what he promised Joseph Smith; "Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days." "All these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." What a comforting promise to remember when we don't understand why.

I hope everyone is having a a WONDERFUL Christmas season!

Elder Welton

God's Eyes

Hello Everyone!

Sorry mother and father for not emailing you last week... I was quite busy! Hopefully everyone is doing well!

We had a lot of things these last few weeks! We welcomed a new couple to the mission, moved them into the awesome house that we made a deal on for them, had Mission Leadership Council, and had the FIRST EVER activity in my whole mission. It was so fun! The day before MLC, P-day, President approved us to hold a lunch and activity for all the Zone Leaders and STLs in the mission. We made all these fun games that were designed to teach principles. The activity Elder Cicon and I did was SO fun. We took rubber bands and tied the ends of 5-6 pieces of string to it, going around the outside in the shape of a sun. Then, all of the teammates were required to put the loose end of the string in there mouth in order to stretch or shrink the rubber band. They then used that little setup to take plastic cups stacked in a pyramid form and move them a meter over, restacking them into another pyramid. It was SO funny to watch them crawling all over the floor with a little string in their mouth, trying to move these cups with 5 other people tugging on the other strings. It taught a lot of teamwork and showed how hard it is to do things when you aren't communicating. Real fun.

We have been able to proselyte a little more lately and we finally got to start teaching Radnay again! He's so great. He finally came back from Cadiz after a few weeks of being there and came right back to church. We have been working for a few months on trying to get him married with so many trials that have come up that have just made it so hard. I don't want to ruin the story by telling to much right now, but the pieces seem to be falling into place right now. All I can say is that miracles are real and that God's hand can most definitely be seen in the lives of all his children. I will update you all on that as time goes forward, but we are SO excited for him. We just want to see him baptized so bad.

At MLC, Elder Cicon and I had the opportunity to give a training on something other than our assignments, for the first time! It was wonderful. I honestly didn't know what else to say about Baptismal Records... "Hey you guys, turn those BR's in... And make sure they're accurate. Please." We decided to train about LOVE and seeing with God's eyes. It was AWESOME. It was Elder Cicon's idea to begin with, and we just grew it from there. It really set the tone for the entire meeting and I think the missionaries really understood that there was just a LACK of love in the mission; love for investigators, love for the missionaries we are serving as leaders, and just an overall love for Jesus Christ and his work. We prepared a nice PowerPoint with all the stuff we wanted to talk to them about, but right up until I trained, and even while my companion was speaking when we were up front, I was writing down impressions in my notebook as they came. People probably thought I was weird just scribbling things in my notebook while I was in front of them giving a training, but I knew I needed to include them in my part of the training. One that came to my mind to include while I was up there was something our President said just a few days prior. He said, "When somebody makes a mistake, we, as leaders, need to separate the person from the mistake. We dislike the mistake, but we always love the person. Our view on them should never change." This obviously comes from what Jesus Christ taught about being merciful if we ourselves want mercy. As I have continued to study about mercy and how it applies to us, I have come to realize how loving our Heavenly Father is. God himself cannot be merciful in ANY way, otherwise he would cease to be God. But by offering Jesus Christ, he made it possible to offer us mercy at the expense of his Son. Of course, we need to be constantly trying to change and become better if we want access to this NECESSARY power from our Savior. The most sure way to receive that redemptive offering is for us ourselves to become MERCIFUL. It's easy to love the lovable, but in order to follow Christ we must learn to love the unlovable.

Before this experience at MLC, I was actually on a breakfast run with Elder Fraire for everyone while we were all working at the office one morning. Outside the fast food places, especially McDonalds, there are a few people that ALWAYS swarm our car as we enter the drive-thru to ask us to buy them food. We know that some of them just hang around all day to ask for money and smoke and drink, and so it's always been really hard to see them as someone who is truly in need of help. Elder Fraire is so great. Even when we were companions, he would always buy them something no matter how many times they had asked him. I know he doesn't really ever want to do it, but he does it anyway. My thoughts are always like, "I probably shouldn't give them something every time because they will just keep asking for stuff EVERY TIME. And they don't even really need it! They just sit around all day!" This particular day, when it happened, I was just thinking some very judgmental things about one young man who approaches us every time. He had piercings all over and tattoos and everything. After Elder Fraire gave him something (after having given something to like THREE other people as well), I just turned to him, somewhat frustrated, and said, "Why is it SO hard to see people like God does?? Why is it that I can't just look at that person and honestly think, 'Oh this poor, unfortunate child of God. I should help him,'??" I wanted so badly to think that of this person, but that judgement was just so stuck in my head. What I wanted most was to see through God's eyes, just long enough to even want to desire to help this person out! In response to my vocalized frustration, Elder Fraire, after a few seconds, maybe minutes, replied, "It's a gift. It really is a gift to be able to do that." As I thought about that, I realized how true that was. We most definitely CAN see through God's eyes, having the love of our Savior only if: 1) we are worthy of the Spirit and 2) we are praying and asking for it. It truly is a gift of the Spirit to see with those spiritual eyes; and we must seek it daily. I hope for myself to be able to see through those eyes even more. But I now know that I must first ACT mercifully and DO merciful things if I want Christ to help me become MERCIFUL by nature.

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL week.

Elder Welton

Here's an awesome picture of many of my MTC group erving as Zone Leaders and STLs at MLC

Here's a little peak into the joy that is Sunday night! We are up so late every sunday getting numbers in from missionaries... I figured you would like to see some of the real part of missionary work. And our cute office Christmas tree.

 I got my package mother! The advent calendar got a little shaken up on the way over here, though. I was surprised to open a little door and find no chocolate inside, followed by another door with the same surprise. I took a knife to it and made this discovery. I re-situated them and taped it all back together!