Autumn in Uganda is great! The leaves fell a little
bit but they start growing back right away so I
didn’t notice much. Mission is good.

My companion is on a mini-mission right now.

He’s negative 4 months on mission but I’m sure

the time will fly for him. He’s doing great but he

hasn’t been trained on any teaching skills so he’s

extremely fresh. He’s picking things up though.

It helps with the language because when people try

and say “I don’t know Lzungu (English)” I just have

Elder Musitwa contact them. Speaking of which

Clay should see him when he’s in the MTC in

January if Clay is still working there.

Jinja border Lake Victoria as well. That’s the

lake we see from our house. We did get new

furniture this week too. I had a picture of the

couches which are really nice as well but, like

I said, those unfortunately got deleted.

I don’t think the women here got the opportunity

to see the General Women’s thing but I didn’t

even hear about it either. We won’t even get to

watch conference for almost a month after it airs

anyways unless we go and watch it at a computer

place late at night.

So now to my week. Almost basic but it was a good

time. It flew by so it’s hard to remember everything.

On Monday it was Elder Flinders last P-day so Elder

Stevens and myself hung out with him and we went

out to eat at this place called Ossiez that is really good.

The people there really liked that guy.

Tuesday we had just a bunch of lessons but at the

District President’s house we watched The Testaments.

I’ve never watched that before! What a great movie.

Really helps you see the people in the Book of Mormon

and how they read the scriptures and how people

persecuted the truth, just like they always have

and always will.

Wednesday we had our District Development

Meeting and all shared how mission blessed our

lives. I stole Ammon’s words and how he asked

the exact same question to his brethren in Alma 26.

His answer is that he’s been blessed by bringing

nonbelievers to repentance, and giving them the light

of the gospel. Same for me, that’s the one blessing

that I see here on mission, is how the gospel

changes people.

Friday we were busy finding a few people and setting

up their baptismal interviews which is always stressful.

On Saturday they had the baptismal interviews and 4

of them passed, but one of the guys we had planned on

was MIA. The ones who passed though were J, S, B

, and J. They are all pretty legit and I wish I could show

you a picture of them….. J is from Rwanda and has lived

here for only a couple of years. S is a friend of hers and

lives down by a lot of people who are becoming members.

Same with B, she’s living down there and the three of them

are friends, and we taught them all at about the same time.

Now just from that area down there we have had at least

5 baptisms and hope to have more from more of their

friends we are teaching. J was S’s friend, who was baptized

last week, and was way excited to be baptized.

He too has a wife and kid in a village up north.

We’re teaching their friend named O who should be

baptized next week as well.

So on Sunday we had those 4 baptisms and E was rebaptized

since he missed too many weeks to be confirmed

but he was more than happy to do it again. He had

business to attend to in village but President M

still made him be baptized again anyways.

So on Sunday we had 6 baptisms in Bugembe

because the other guys even had a baptism,

even though it was the Jinja District President’s

adopted daughter. Kind of a freebee so over

all out of the entire Jinja zone, our area had

7 of the 17 baptisms for September, and my

companionship alone had 6 of the baptisms,

which is pretty good since there are 9

companionships in Jinja. Also President J, the

mission president, came to our church and

had some crazy news. They released the

District Presidency and called our Branch

President, President M, to be the new

District President. It was pretty new,

and they also told us of how the Bugembe chapel

has been approved and will be finished in

6-8 months.

So that was the week, it was pretty good.

I wish I could have shown you it in pictures,

but hopefully next week my camera will be

working so you can see.
Keep studying your scriptures. The church is

so true and when you read the Book of Mormon

slowly, you will see how it applies perfectly to

our lives in anticipation of the Savior coming the

second time. Just look around and see how the

members of the church are the same, yet different

in a good way from everyone else in the world.

The Book of Mormon is that second witness of

Jesus Christ. Matthew 18:16 gives the need for

this book perfectly. Everything points to its need,

especially with the world getting crazier by the day.

I love you all. God bless.

Elder Welch