The week goes well in Africa. Right now I’m in Uganda, sorry for not letting you know, and I’m emailing a day late because yesterday was full of zone leaders council meetings. I’ll be back in Ethiopia by the end of the day and things will be back to normal.
This week was transfers and for me I’ll still be in Awassa as the Lone Zone Leader. We are getting three missionaries but losing three as well so it’s still stay at six. I’m getting a new companion from Africa somewhere but I don’t know his name that well and I don’t want to butcher it on here so I will tell you his name next week.

The week has been full of basic missionary work and preparing for the end of the transfer. I did have to come to Uganda (which I’m here emailing right now from) for a Zone Leaders Council. I headed up to Addis Ababa on Saturday to spend the night there because our flight was the next day at about 1 in the afternoon. I attended the church there. It was kind of sad to see this giant chapel they have there, only about half full. I guess the work hasn’t been going so well there and when the church stopped the church leaders from giving out money to the members (which they weren’t supposed to be doing) many people left the church when that stopped.

The flight to Uganda was amazing of course. Like I said before, Emirates is THE nicest airline I have ever flown on. They give you a meal no matter how short the flight is and it’s just comfortable. If you haven’t flown Emirates before, I would suggest it (am I an advertiser for them now or what?).

Yesterday was full of the Zone Leaders Council meetings and it was pretty spiritual. We had the Zone reports and I was happy to see that our zone was the most efficient zone per missionary for the last two months. It was nice because after that the Assistants than kind of blasted everyone for not doing so well. I’m so proud of the missionaries we have in the zone and the work they do. It’s a small zone but it’s the one I hope people wish to be in. Even for August we had a 2.46 baptisms per week per companionship average. That was nice. Especially since the next highest zone was about 1.19.

After that we just crashed and now it’s Tuesday and I’m just emailing before we have to head to the airport in a couple hours to fly back to Ethiopia.

The week has been good and I really do feel more recharged from these meetings. I also feel a lot more accountable for my zone which was kind of the theme of the assistants trainings. The whole zone is basically our area and we are accountable for making sure our zones are running and being efficient. I hope the missionaries in our zone keep being awesome. I’m so proud of those guys.
I’m safe and only a little sick from allergies right now but thanks to Mom I have medication to help with that. I’m getting old aren’t I. Now I have allergies and all these things I used to think you guys were old about. Stay awesome and eat a steak for me! I love you!

Elder Welch

Ugandan Ettiquette

This was a section of the newsletter sent out from Trey's mission. I found it pretty interesting!

UGANDAN ETIQUETTE

 Ugandans tend to communicate more indirectly than directly.

 Stories, proverbs, and the like are common means of expressing a point indirectly and require the implicit knowledge of the lis-tener.

 Greetings and a good amount of small talk almost always occur before talking about business.

 Humor plays a big role in communicating and most Ugandans enjoy a good joke. However, it is best to avoid sarcasm as it may not translate well, if at all.

 Generally, people prefer indirect eye contact. This does not mean you can’t look at somebody directly, but continuous eye con-tact during conversations is not a must. Overly direct eye contact can be considered aggressive by some. Women and children often will look down or away when conversing with men or with elders.

 In most situations, Ugandans are not overly concerned with being punctual. People are expected to arrive within the first hour or two after the appointed time.

 The higher the status of the person, the more they are excused of lateness. Also, it tends to be that the more prestigious the event the later guests will arriving. This usually applies to both social and business meetings. Punctuality tends to be more valued in business situations.

 When gesturing or beckoning for someone to come, you should face your palm downwards and make a scratching motion with the fingers.

 It is rude to point at people as pointing is reserved for dogs, so usually the whole hand/arm is used.

 Holding the palm upwards and then motioning in a small flick downwards (like throwing a yo-yo) has a variety of vague mean-ings. It could be questioning "what's up?" " What?"; apologizing "Sorry, what can I do?"; filler "You know."

 Pointing fingers upwards and rubbing the thumb along the fingertips is the sign for money.

 Special traffic gestures when trying to hail a taxi: Pointing straight upwards (repeatedly for emphasis): I'm going far. Pointing down: I just want to go a little ways (rarely used, because then they don't pick you up. Hand flat, open towards the ground about waist-height: I'm going a medium distance.

 Walking over versus around any bowls or pots (especially those containing food) is considered rude.

 Spending time in silence versus conversation is often times also interpreted as rude.

 Men almost always wear long pants, even in the hottest weather; shorts are a sign of being a child.

 Dress is highly valued in and people who dress well are respected.

 Make sure shoes are cleaned and polished. People will look down on you if you have worn looking shoes.

 Speak slowly and enunciate -- most Ugandans have difficulty understanding fast, strung-together English.

 Local greetings are a bit difficult to learn but many people in rural areas will greatly appreciate this small effort.

 If you look like a foreigner you are likely to be overcharged for most things. If you can afford this, it doesn't really matter, just pay. If you can't or would like the right price, try bargaining by at least halving the price they gave you.

I hope General Conference was great. I really felt chills down my whole body when I heard they were building two new temples in Africa. That was such a great feeling knowing that.

Well the week was short but good. We didn’t have a lot of time to teach this week since on Friday we had to head up to Addis Ababa for trainings and for the District Conference on Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t have any baptisms or church down here because of that so it’s kind of stalled the work for a week.

On Thursday I did get the chance to meet with a couple of Mennonite preachers from the United States. I realized that our church truly knows so many mysteries. I do appreciate their pretty simple look on the gospel and on life but they need to know more. These guys don’t watch tv or listen to the radio or anything like that. We talked about heaven and they thought it was heaven or hell. I had them read a couple of scriptures from the Bible about that and how we believe there are many degrees of glory and they simply just answered “well I don’t really know much about this or haven’t studied it… um Jeff? Nope me neither.” Haha It was pretty funny especially because they ended up saying the Bible was enough and they knew enough. I just thought “wouldn’t you like to know more about all of this, especially the passages in the Bible you didn’t know or understand.” I’m glad for all the mysteries of God we know from the prophets and from personal revelation.

Other than that stuff, it’s all pretty basic. Just don’t the work and trying to build the kingdom (the correct way). . I love you all so much! Keep the faith and hope for that which is to come which is greater!

Elder Welch

Where we are there is aids and stuff like that of course but I don’t really see it too much. Malaria is not common here at all. In fact none of the missionaries here use nets or take the pills because no one has ever gotten malaria. It’s Uganda that is bad on that and the two countries are pretty far apart.
Well the week has been great. We finally moved into our new place this week. It’s nice but it has some things wrong with it. It’s like a lemon home haha. The plumbing is a little bit annoying and things don’t drain to well. We did also get some curtains up in the place so that people would stop watching us as we’re in our house. I feel like it was like the show “Big Brother” for them. Kind of creepy….

We also have a new local missionary working with us. His name is Elder D and he is a hilarious little guy. He’s maybe like 5’2 and he looks, acts, and sounds just like Borat. Haha it really makes things pretty fun with that kind of a guy around.

We had the baptisms of G and her two daughters, F and S, on Saturday. They are awesome and the mother is so converted. She is a future Relief Society President for reals. She was a referral from Elder B and they were so prepared. All we did was just teach them the stuff, they were already ready.

Sunday was good. We had President and Sister Parrish down here for sacrament in Awasa. It was kind of embarrassing because the Branch President honestly is having some problems. He really doesn’t know what he’s doing and sacrament meeting was a mess. First of all the sacrament wasn’t out and ready, the meeting started late, there were not speakers, and than he just invited people randomly to speak in the meeting. After that there were no people to teach any of the classes. It was so disorderly. The only problem is that the former Branch President wants to help him but the new one refuses to listen. It’s kind of frustrating but I’ve set up a meeting with him on Tuesday with all of the other leaders to kind of organize something better. He’s doing his best but we just need to help him a little more.

President and Sister Parrish also took us out to eat at Haile resort, which is the resort for the runner Haile Gabriel Sallase. It was awesome. I had this beef tenderloin and it was the best thing I’ve eaten on my mission. It was a legit steak and was so good. Pretty cheap too. I think it was about 4 dollars to get it. Ethiopia would be a great place to go on vacation to because all the good food is really cheap.

Well those were the highlights for the week. Sorry if I haven’t been giving long emails but I feel like the res t of the things I would share are repetitive so I just focus on the highlights. Just know that I love you all and that is what is most important. Keep being awesome and I will see you sooner rather than later now. Keep it real.

Elder Welch

The Meeting with Elder Cook was awesome. He’s such a great and humble guy. We didn’t get to be with him too long but his training and instruction was much needed and cherished. He is one of the 70 and was sustained last conference. He’s actually giving a talk at conference this next session so look out for that. So this week for us was a little shorter on teaching because of the trainings up in Addis but it was an overall good week. We’re teaching a few really good people and the best thing is that G and her two daughters should be baptized this Saturday.

We had a better Sunday too. We had 51 people there which was a lot better than it has been and after each sacrament meeting I make sure to just have a short meeting with the Branch Presidency to discuss things we can improve on. I appreciated that they fixed a lot of the things I talked to them about last week. The only things this week were that the Aaronic Priesthood should be seated before the meeting starts, they shouldn’t be wearing sandals…. (I switched and passed instead for the young man who was wearing sandals), and that the talks need to be less loud and Protestant-like. It was a way better Sunday overall though.

Today we should be moving into our new house which will be great because traveling to and from Awasa to Shashemene is really a pain. I also realized I have way too much stuff I realized to fly back to Uganda with today. I could only come here with one of my suitcases and it was really quite full.


Well sorry this week has been a little uneventful but the work is rolling forth and I love you all still the same! Keep being awesome and I really appreciate all of the support that you all are always giving me. Can’t wait till we meet again!

Elder Welch

P.S. Sorry to hear about BYU’s embarrassing loss…

We haven't moved into our house yet but we should this week. The
church there is established in Awasa so they have a church. They are
still looking for a another church in Wendo Genet however.
I'm going to be short this week because of circumstances but I promise
to send more next week with pictures too.
The week has been good. We did have a little problem in Wendo Genet
dealing with one man's pride but the situation is being solved and
it's not really my worries since that's not my area. The Elders there
are doing a great job with the little problem.
Awasa is a bit harder of an area than Shashemene especially with who
the missionaries have been teaching before. They haven't really had a
big teaching pool and they haven't been seeing the recent converts so
attendance is down and they aren't getting new people into the church.
We're trying to turn things around.
We had a couple of baptisms this week. On Saturday N was
baptized. On Sunday M, the father of the 7 kids and his wife who
were baptized from Arsi Negele, was finally baptized as well. Their
family is so powerful. I was so happy to see him finally baptized
because of delays from work and school. It wasn't for our area that it
counts but I was happy to at least see M getting baptized.
Monday we couldn't do much because it was the Ethiopian new year and
everything was closed. It was a little frustrating. The guard of the
church invited us over for lunch and to see his family. He says he
will learn more about the church when he's done with his Lutheran
gospel training. I think he fears that they will kick him out for
meeting with us.
Today we are headed to Addis Ababa again for a meeting with Elder Cook
tomorrow morning. We should also move into our new home tomorrow once
we come back.
Well that's it for me. I love you all and can't wait to see you again
someday soon. Keep the faith.
Elder Welch

The week has been good. It’s been weird trying to settle into a new area and especially since we don’t have a translator which makes things very hard because the words I can say in Amharic don’t lead to any personal connection. I hope we get some members or a local to start working with us soon. We’ve also been traveling daily from Shashemene to Awasa as they are getting a new house to move into. They found a new house, which is the picture I’m sending you and it’s very nice! It’s about two floors with a balcony on the third floor with an amazing view. It’s very large and will be a nice place to crash in the evenings.

Sunday Elder C and I stayed in Shashemene for the service there since we needed someone to run it. There were only 13 people there, all members, because there were no missionaries there at all to invite people or do any teaching which is kind of a bummer. There were only 20 in Awasa though which has 4 missionaries teaching all the time… I don’t know why it’s struggling so much but we hope to see that number at least double by the end of the next couple of weeks.

Today we were able to play some rugby again but the Ethiopians still didn’t understand the rules. I was surprised to see that they were doing worse on the rules than they were last week haha. It was fun and is giving me a good exercise on top of the 30 minutes I’m doing in the mornings.

The work is going well and I hope to be able to do my best to get things better than when I found them. I just want you all to know I love you and that I can’t wait to see you all soon. Keep the faith. Be awesome. And make good decisions. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do (and don’t do some things I probably would do). Haha playing.

Elder Welch