The week’s been good. I for sure won’t take anything for granted
anymore. Power, water, food. Those are all luxuries it seems.
We’ve been living in the house we
have now for the past couple of weeks, it’s just been under
construction while we’ve been there. The pictures of the building with
all the bright colors is our house, and the church meeting group room
for Sheshamene.
I even saw Memphis on Al Jazeera when I was at a restaurant. It’s
crazy to see how high the Mississippi has gotten.
So my week was pretty good. Not so much teaching. We only taught on
Tuesday because than on Wednesday we had all the interviews for the
baptisms as we went up to Adis Ababa on Thursday morning and arrived
there in the late afternoon.
Friday we had the leadership training with Elder Watson again. He came
to Ethiopia to do the same training which was great but I had heard it
already. I guess it just got it in my head better. The training was on
the need for councils and how they help keep the membership in the
church active, and safe.
Even after the trainings I was able to be interviewed by Elder Watson.
What a great experience to get interviewed by a General Authority. He
mostly just asked me questions about what I wanted to do with life and
everything. It was still great.
We got back late Saturday afternoon and rushed over to the church for
a baptism. Brother Bayena of our area was baptized and it was great.
He was confirmed Sunday and even given the priesthood immediately.
On Sunday we also had 7 more baptisms from our side which was great.
Five of them came from one family and they were the five more kids to
one of the Preachers baptized. His seven kids have now all been
baptized so it’s great.
Next week Elder Macmillan and myself are hoping to open up the meeting
group in Sheshamene and having sacrament in Wendo Genet. It shall be
great! We are getting chairs, and a bunch of things from President
Parrish tomorrow. I’m excited because we had just filled the chapel in
Awasa past capacity and people were sitting outside of the building.
That was 90 people we had there and we hope to make Awasa into it’s
own District apart from Adis soon.
Well that has been my week. I hope you are all doing well and safe and
that you know I love you all so much. Stay healthy and awesome.

Greetings from a whole new world. Ethiopia is great! It is completely
> different than Uganda and I feel like I’ve started a whole new
> mission. This roads are nice, there’s no garbage, the food is amazing,
> the weather is cooler, people don’t just tell you what you want to
> hear, and they also don’t really know English so I’m having to learn
> Ahmaric. Look up the symbols for that language by the way, it’s a
> completely different alphabet. It sounds similar to Arabic as well.
Ethiopia is a great country. It’s much more modern than Uganda and the
> people here are beautiful. That has actually been a problem with
> missionaries in the past here but don’t worry about me. You know I’m
> strong. Especially down here in Awasa, the people aren’t as good
> looking. It’s got a bit of Italian culture mixed in and the people
> here have style, show public affection, and are more Europeanish.
> The flight here was amazing! I think the best food I’ve eaten the 10
> months before that was the airplane food. We flew on Emirates airlines
> and that is a very nice, Arabic, airline service that is centered in
> Dubai. That flight was so nice! Air conditioning, nice seats, nice
> service. That was a mini trip.
> Awasa is a 4 hour drive south of Adis Abbaba so we made that trip on
> Wednesday morning with President Parrish and his wife. Reminded me of
> the old trips we used to take as kids besides the fact that we saw
> hyenas, camels, huts, and all kinds of things that you see in the Lion
> King on the way down.
> Awasa has a branch with a great President of the Branch who found the
> Book of Mormon and was taking trips from Awasa to Beklobet which is
> like a 3 hour trip a few times a month until he could get missionaries
> sent here. We are opening up an area close to Awasa called Sheshemene,
> the Rastafarian Holy Land. Rastas there walk barefoot and it’s said to
> be a bless land.
>
My new companion is from South Africa. He’s a white African and he’s a
> very straight guy. He worries quite a bit about little things and I’m
> trying to help him with that and he’s helping me to be a better
> missionary overall.
>
> The language will be hard to learn but us as missionaries as for now
> are just learning the basics of it. They will at some point teach it
> at MTC’s and stuff and missionaries won’t be using translators, but as
> of now we usually use translators

It’s been raining every day here as well so I guess it’s similar.
By the way, we flew from Entebbe to Adis Abbaba, and than
drove down to Awasa.
some! I miss those little kids so much!
So you know pretty much my week but basically I arrived in Ethiopia on
Monday night. The flight was amazing and we grabbed some good food
with President and Sister Parrish. President Parrish is a counselor in
the mission presidency.
Tuesday we were just in Adis and we saw the nice chapel they have up
there as well as some missionaries and had a District Leaders meeting
and set some goals for all of our individual districts.

Wednesday we came down to Awasa and we’ve been staying here as we wait
> for our house to get signed over so we can move there. It’s a small
> apartment here but we all enjoy spending good time together. The
> shower here is so cold though because they have no water heater!
> That’s the only thing I can complain about right now.
> We’ve just been seeing some of the recent converts down here and we
> did a little finding in Awasa and found some good families for the
> Elders here to teach. We made a trip to Sheshemene on Saturday as well
> and went to a place called Wendo Genet, which I believe means ‘Place
> Paradise’, being named that by the former king of Ethiopia, Ras
> Tafari.
>
> Sunday was good but we didn’t see quite as many people at church as we
> would like, and that’s why we are opening up that meeting group in
> Sheshemene so it is closer to some of the recent converts. The most
> recent convers in Wendo Genet were a few preachers from a church and
> we are just trying to get them patient with us as we make it easier
> and the church closer to them. They are great guys though seriously.
> Well that’s been the week. Just know I’m safe and that Ethiopia is
> seriously amazing!
>
> Elder Welch

I’m going to
Ethiopia! I will be there by the time you read this. I will be opening
up a new area and attempting to learn a new language. Unfortunately
the area doesn’t speak English or even Amaric so it’s going to be
hard. Also most of the people in this area, called Shashanana or
something, are Rastafarians.

Easter was good. We had the Stake Conference and it was great. We
heard from the Area Seventy, Elder Watson, who’s an awesome guy. He
was the former secretary to the 1st Presidency and worked under 6
Presidents of the church personally until President Monson decided he
needed to be an Area Seventy. He speaks like a member of the 1st
Presidency.

P , D , and U were all baptized on Friday to make sure it
didn’t conflict with conference. It was great and they should all be
confirmed this Sunday by the new missionaries in Mengo. My former
companion is also being transferred to another area in Kampala.


So the week has been good. Mostly preparing those people for baptism,
and preparing the area for the new Elder to come, not much that is new
though. Rwanda won’t be opening for some time now apparently. The
government there has kind of tabled signing the documents to allow the
church there because of their fear towards religion. The genocides
there were largely because of churches sadly. I do get to go to a new
country though, and Ethiopia will be awesome! I’m excited. The Stake
Conference on Sunday was great and we had a nice Easter dinner. Now
today I’m just waiting for the flight to take me and a couple of other
Elders to Ethiopia so we can start the work we need to do there. Not a
lot of time though and I think we will be leaving there soon. Sorry
this email is shorter than usual but you understand the circumstances.
Talk to you next week.

So the week has been good. I finally figured out something that when
the kids have been calling me “swazzinigga” which I was very confused
about, they have been meaning Schwarzenegger. I was like ok that
makes a lot more sense, I was very confused why they had called me
that for the longest time until I saw his name written on someone’s
wall and they pronounced it that way.

So the week was good. We’ve just been teaching the good investigators
we’ve had to weed out throughout the weeks and we’re preparing about 4
of them for baptism this upcoming week. They are P , Al , D ,
and U . P is a pretty smart lady and she’s not bad on the eyes
if I do say so myself. She’s a referral from a woman who just became a
local missionary and I think it sparked P’s interest in the
gospel. She’s about 21 and we’ve been seeing her often the last two
weeks to prepare her for his baptism.

A is still a work in progress and we are hoping he can forsake all
the wicked things he’s been accustomed to with his friends.
We are hoping he will be ready by Friday when we will have to have the
baptisms because of Stake Conference.

D and U are two young men from the orphanage. I don’t know if
mentioned but the orphanage owners are recent converts as well and I
even interviewed the man who owns the place for baptism. This will be
the 6th young men baptized from that orphanage. They are good kids but
they have lived part of their life on the street so they are
accustomed to a few shocking things we’ve told them they must forsake.

On Thursday we had a Zone Development Meeting and it went well until
we got a call that their were mass protests all over Uganda.
Apparently the opposition leaders staged a “walk to work day” and the
government of course was pissed at any sign of resistance so they were
tear gassing, shooting, and arresting people who were involved in
walking to work. The opposition leader, Besigye, was shot in the hand
and is in jail right now. People are pretty mad but things are
remaining somehow peaceful as of now. Needless to say that day we were
ordered to stay inside so since the meeting was in Mengo, all the
Elders came to our flat. It was pretty fun actually because we had
monopoly at the house so all of us Americans played that. I of course
won but apparently I cheated everyone. We played again, and again I
won. I was again accused of cheating everyone though. That’s business
right?

Saturday we started watching General Conference and it was awesome! I
loved this conference. We also had the baptisms of Joy and Lillian on
Saturday after the sessions.

On Sunday we finished up watching the sessions of conference and
L and Jwere confirmed. I loved Richard G. Scott’s talk and it
honestly makes me just want to get married. That is the kind
of marriage I want to have and even though his talk was all about his
wife, I absolutely loved it. I also liked Elder Holland’s of course
like usual, even though it was mainly him talking about President
Monson haha. Overall I just loved watching it and it makes me realize
I was so stupid about watching it for the first 19 years of my life. I
will definitely not sleep through it again (right Clayton!).

Overall the week was good and things are winding up for this transfer
so that we can start a new one afresh starting next week. I love you
all and hope you all know how much I care about all of you. I think
about you all constantly and you’re always in my prayers. Keep the
faith and seek after that which is good. Wickedness never was
happiness
Elder Welch

I’m very well.

Missionaries here all stay in really nice
places. The missionaries in outlying areas
sometimes have nicer homes.
The meals I eat are this. In the morning I
have toast, a couple small bananas, and a cup
of water. Lunch is usually either chipatees and
beans or rice and matoke. For dinner it’s almost
always a couple of rolexs unless someone cooks
for us, than it resembles my lunch again.

Back in Nsambya there were places to get good
things to eat, but usually only on special
occasions. Here in Mengo there is no where to
get anything like those.

So the weeks been good. We had the leadership
training on Thursday and I gave a training on
the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. I
talked of how first we missionaries need to
acquire the Spirit in
order to give it. Now it makes me think of a
training I heard my first
transfer. There was an Elder from Utah who talked
about the Spirit and how growing up he never felt
it. He used to have a big ol beard and
smelled always like smoke (he said it wasn’t from
a campfire either).
He told us of an incident he had with his mother
in which she was asking him to come back to church.
He told her he never wanted to and
she bore her testimony. She than asked him if she
could feel that, if she could feel the Spirit.
He responded angrily “I feel nothing!” and
stormed out… I can still remember him telling us of
that and even seeing pictures of him back then. He
used to be a gothic and wore
makeup, smoked, drank, had long hair, pierced ears.
He honestly would have been someone I would never
think would be a member. But he said one day
his brother was simply getting ready for church as
he was sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of
cereal (without a shirt of course). He
said his brother walked out the door and than
leaned back in and simply said “hey, want to come
to church today?” For the first time in
years he just said… sure. And he threw on just a
regular shirt and went with him to church. His
brother had invited him many times over
the years but he said he for some reason finally
felt prompted to go.
Well needless to say he cleaned up his life and
finally came back, and of course his old friends
thought he was crazy and stuff so he lost a
few of them, but he said he never regrets it.
The Spiritual death he was suffering from before
scares me honestly. He honestly couldn’t
feel anything and he knew it. The commandments
are there so that we can feel the Spirit more,
not to hold us down or tell us what to do.
All commandments are given because God loves us.

Sorry but I just all of sudden thought of that
and thought I could share it because it made a
big impact on me. We did a lot more
teaching during the week as well and sadly the
guy named Jy who was supposed to be baptized
on Sunday wasn’t because his mother told
him “you’re Catholic, you can’t be baptized
again.” He didn’t even come to church on
Sunday either. Oh how Satan controls the
testimony of so many people in this world and
uses his power to try and steal
people’s agency. I don’t think I’ve ever had
such a realization as to
how Satan wanted to take people’s agency
in the pre-existence. I guess
if that guy would have been truly converted he
would have been baptized anyways. It reminds
me of Brother Suzuki in Marshall and how
he joined the church at the cost of his entire
family, how his father
to the day of his death denied he had a son.

Well that’s been my week, I hope you all
stay faithful always, and know that the church
true. Don’t look for
excuses not to believe like many people do,
but look for the fruits
and reasons to believe. There are 100 reasons
this is the true church
in comparison to every 1 thing that people
use as an excuse to leave
the church and break the commandments.
I love you all.

Elder Welch

Elder M is my new companion and he’s
been out about 6 and a half months? He’s been
a member for a while, his brother is an RM and
kind of set the example for him. I think only
his father isn’t a member but his mom and
younger brother are also. We’re getting along
great, he’s a hard working guy. All Africans
that serve here go to the
South Africa or Ghana MTCs.

The week has been good. A lot of teaching and
stuff but nothing too exciting. We had a DDM on
Wednesday and the AP’s came (Elder R and Elder
D) as well as four branch missionaries
so it was a good DDM of 10 people. Back in
Nsambya I was used to their just being 4 of
us there for those.

Saturday I interviewed a guy from the sister’s
side and had to use an interpreter to interview
him but he passed and was pretty well
converted. A very emotional guy though because
when I asked him about his mother’s information
he said he didn’t know who she was and
started crying for a few minutes. Honestly though,
it was pretty sad and even now I can’t help but
tear up thinking about that kind of a
situation. Like I said to Stephanie, I don’t know
what all of us kids did in the Pre-existence to be
so blessed with having you both as our
parents.

A guy from our side was baptized.
He’s a great guy and will be a
great missionary someday.

On Sunday we had a pretty good service and I was
the impromptu teacher of the Elder’s quorum. I
was handed the Ensign or Liahona with
the talk by Elder Robert D. Hales on Agency and
told to teach it since the Elder’s quarom president
wasn’t there. That was about 30 seconds
before the lesson started… It went pretty well
nonetheless. It reminds me of that scene in The RM
movie where they compare Elder’s quorum and
Relief Society. The Relief Society always has a
display, handouts, music, and all that stuff and
they cut back to the Elder’s quorum and
they are all sitting there, no one has the manuals,
and the one guy teaching is just like we’ll be
reading the first 6 pages of the lesson
haha. Women really are what hold us men together.

We had the baptisms after and they were great,
again the guy from the sister’s side was scared
of water and pretty emotional for the
baptism. The S ’s were there for church as you
could see and were able to attend this baptismal
service.

Well that’s the week for me.
Keep the faith! The church is very true, we can
try and find reasons not to believe but in the end,
nothing justifies ‘a little
sin’.
Elder Welch