Well the week has been good. We are still focusing on the main teaching pool which we accumulated the first week or two we were here. We have been trying to see J and F but we have only been able to find J at home so we're hoping to find him and her there together soon! She came to church again this week with all of her children so that was great.

Jo also finally came this week. This guy and his wife we have been seeing are really cool. They are young and pretty well off already. He drove his van to church (which having an investigator with a car is a huge thing by the way) and brought his two kids because his wife was on her way back from Kampala. We are seeing them tonight but they did seem to like church although they had to go early.

On Saturday we had our leadership trainings over in Lira which is about an hour and a half away. It was good to be there and get trained by President as well as to see the other missionaries there. I did get my package there, so again, thank you!

On Sunday we had President Jackson at our sacrament meeting which was good. He talked about 1 Nephi 8 and the Iron rod leading to the tree of life. It was very good and he encouraged the members to keep enduring, and to never let go of the rod and call it close or good enough. It's hard but we have to hold fast to the rod, not clinging barely. We had 13 investigators there. We hope to have some baptisms over the next two weeks but people here are a bit flaky so we'll see what turns out.

Today we had our zone activity and went out to this fort constructed by protestant missionaries when they first came to the north here. It was cool and built on top of these stones. We also went and hiked up this large rock hill thing and got some good pictures. It was a great time and gave me some much needed outdoor exercise. I took some pictures so hopefully you can see how cool it was.

Well that's about all the highlights for this week. I love you guys and hope all is well! See you soon!

Elder Welch

Two months left. Niceeeeee. I’m pretty excited to work on this last 1/12^th of my mission. Can’t wait to see you guys.

Sorry about not sending pictures. For some reason these computers here won’t let me send pictures. If I can find one that will I’ll send them, if not you guys might have to wait two months to see the rest. Sorry about that. The computers here are just horrible in comparison to Ethiopia.

We are figuring our way around Gulu a lot better and we are getting a lot more investigators to church. We drive around the city but we park it and walk when appointments are close together.

I was on an exchange this week for a day with a missionary who’s been out for 5 months. He was more tired than I was! I thought I would be able to relax being in his area but I ended up having to teach his investigators as midway through almost every lesson he just started playing a game on the phone. 

A lot of people live in huts here. They aren’t that bad on the inside though, at least not what you would think. The roads are mostly dirt here but the ‘paved’ ones have so many potholes in them that you wish they were dirt, because they would be easier to drive on.

They speak a lot of Lacholi up here. Not much about Koney, although someone said he came a while ago to bury his mother.

Well the week was quick. We have been seeing a lot of families lately and struggling t get them to come to church. We were walking around around 1 PM the other day and I was complaining about how it was such a useless time to tract since there are never families home, only kids or moms. Well we knocked on this gate and found a husband, wife, and their 4 kids at home in the middle of the day! It was pretty awesome and I really appreciated getting proved wrong. The family is great. When we visited again we found out that the woman’s mother had gone to the church and was planning on being baptized but moved to Tanzania suddenly. She told her daughter to keep meeting with us though and to go to that church. Pretty nice to have the support of her mom like that. The woman’s name is J, her husband is F, and they have the four kids named A, P, J, and Princess. An awesome family! They all came to church on Sunday too besides the father because of something in the family.

On Sunday we sacrament meeting and then watched the Sunday session of conference. Again, they watch it in segments to make sure everyone sees them I guess haha. It was great and the two words I really needed to hear and use in my life were from President Uckdorf, ‘stop it.’ I like that. I need that haha. We had 10 investigators there this time.

I also ended up giving a couple of shirts and pants to some orphanage here that is run by a Professor at BYU-Idaho. I figured I didn’t need them and what they heck.

 I’ve had to learn a lot of things on my mission and one of them is that I was too idle and not enough help. I love you guys!!!! See you in two.

Elder Welch

NY Times Uganda Missionaries Article...Check it Out!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/education/edlife/at-age-19-from-utah-to-uganda.html

Well the week was great. I’m really lucky to have Elder B right now because he’s a great worker and is keeping me working. We spent a lot of our time this week following up on the people we’ve found over the last two weeks. We had a few of them come to church this week and they seemed to enjoy the services. We’ll see them this week and we’ll see if we can keep them coming and progressing.

On Wednesday we had a DDM and it was pretty good.

On Friday we went to Kitgum which is a village about two and a half hours away. There are some members there and we visited them and made plans to come back this next weekend. We will only be able to go with one of us so we will split this week and Elder B will take one of the other elders this time there to teach their friends and families.

Saturday we followed up on some people and made some last efforts to get some people to come to church on Sunday. We also cleaned the church in the morning and had a baptism in the evening. I also had a suit made for pretty cheap and it turned out pretty well that got finished that day.

On Sunday we had quite a few people come. 163 people this week and it was pretty full. I also was able to wear the new suit which was nice. It’s a three-piece. I figured I might as well go all out on it if it’s so cheap here. We had 8 investigators there as well and we should have a baptism this Sunday. His name is K and the other elders were teaching him before they left. He’s a good guy of about 22 and will hopefully serve a mission in a year. We were supposed to have another guy named R baptized but he missed church because he was in the village. We’ll wait a few weeks on him now we think.

And now it’s Monday! Another week down. Take care of yourselves this week and I’ll see you in a couple of months now. Love you guys!!!!

Elder Welch

WOO HOO!!!!! Elder Tex has his return travel info!

FINAL Travel Itinerary For WELCH/TREY MARSHALL

Leaves Uganda Monday 18 June 2012

Returns Salt Lake City, UT

Tuesday 19 June 2012

We are getting so excited!

Well the week was a bit short. On Tuesday we headed up from Kampala for the 5 hour drive to Gulu. We have a truck so Elder B and I took turns driving. It’s interesting driving on the opposite side of the car and road for the first time. It’s weird getting used to.

On Wednesday through Friday we did a lot of tracting and were shown a few of the recent converts and members which are in our area from one of the other missionaries. Elder B and I are both brand new to the area so we have to start everything from scratch this transfer. We found a few good people and everyone of course said they were coming to church but only 1 of the guys we found came. His name is Anywor and he has a wife and little girl. His wife didn’t come but he did and he’s a pretty cool guy. He understood the resoration well.

Sunday there were about 124 people there on Sunday which is good but apparently not as good as they usually get. The church should be from 150-200 I guess. We then went with one of our recent converts in this area to see some referrals. He showed us a couple of great people and their families so we hope that they can turn into some fruits. We only have 5 more Sundays before this transfer ends so starting from scratch will be hard but we hope to do well by the end of it.

It’s very hot here but the last two days it has rained and cooled things down. I was especially thankful for the rain last night because there was no power and I would have melted alive if it wasn’t cooled off by the rain. I also almost forgot that we had to change the tire on the truck because somehow we ran over 3 nails! I don’t know how that happened but it was good to get down and dirty changing a tire again. I remember doing that very often with the Altima.

Well that’s been the week. Not too eventful because we are just starting things but the people here are very very nice. The only problem is it will be hard discerning who is really interested and who is just trying to not hurt our feelings. have a great week! Keep it real!

Elder Welch