Christmas Week

This week has been good. Lessons and such.

The only problem has been people leaving for village

throughout the week so our teaching pool has greatly

decreased. We were going to have a baptism for example

this Sunday but the girl who was supposed to be is

leaving with her family for the village. We are planning

on and hoping for 5 baptisms the 26^th to end the year off.

They will be baptized and confirmed the same day just

to avoid any confusion with things going into the next year.

Nothing too interesting really to tell you the truth besides a

Christmas party that the Kampala Stake had on Saturday.

Turns out it was really just a devotional and the Stake

Presidency spoke. The talks were a little bit slow and

boring but it was good. That’s what the pics of the

missionaries sleeping and yawning are from by the way

haha. After I was expecting a ton of food but nope,

just a banana, cupcake, and a samoosa. After I brought

some boxes for people to throw their garbage in and

apparently I didn’t explain to them how throwing garbage

in a box works, because I came back to see no one there

in different areas with an empty box and garbage everywhere.

Us missionaries just cleaned it up hoping people would start

understanding the concept.

Sunday we had our Ward Christmas program. It was good

besides the fact that the Bishop had to stop everyone midway

through one of the songs because no one was singing it right

at all. That was pretty funny. M , P , and T were confirmed too

and I performed M and T ’s confirmations so it was pretty cool.

The night was good.

Today we just worked out a bit and I cut my hair again for this

next transfer. That’s about all that there is to write about really.

I can’t wait to call you guys this Saturday. It will be awesome.

Remember, around 9 in the morning. I love you guys!

Elder Welch

Moving day

The week was good but a bit stressful because of
a lot of moving and a few wasted days of work.
Tuesday we expected to move all day and than
in the afternoon they called and told us they
wouldn’t be able to move us that day after all.
We just went to our area for a couple of hours
and taught some lessons and went home after a
half day wasted.
The next day we finally moved into our new place
which is nice and cozy. Not too big but not too
small. We are the only ones in the small
walled complex which is a very nice change.
We are right smack dab in the middle of all of
the Catholic buildings though so it’s a bit
awkward. The first few hours we were there we
had a couple of nuns come to our door and were
surprised to see a few white guys answer the
door. Pretty funny.
Thursday we had a Leadership Training at the
Mission Home in Kololo all day. I gave a short
10 minute training and it was pretty fun, but
another day without seeing people.
On Friday we finally got to see people and set
up times to interview them for baptism but again
I had a “Leadership Retreat” with the Zone
Leaders, the other District Leaders in the Zone,
and the Traveling Assistants. Pretty good but I
didn’t get to see anyone again!
Saturday we stressed about finding everyone and
getting them interviewed for baptism. We talked to K,
who’s brother is an RM
and who was going to baptize her yesterday, and it
turns out she had some sickness that was causing her
much discomfort. She was so determined to just get
baptized and than go to village but we told her
we would just do everything when she got back.
Man that was kind of a bummer.
Sunday was stressful too. Church started and it had
been raining all morning and was still raining when
it started. There were maybe 20
people there overall and the people who were going to
be baptized didn’t show up. I was so stressed out. Well
the three eventually showed up and my fervent prayers
throughout the meeting were answered. P, T, and M were
all baptized yesterday. It was awesome. P is pretty
awesome and knows everything. She bore a powerful
testimony after she was baptized.
T is a bit shy but she too is a cool girl. We found
both her and
M through P. M is only about 13 but he’s a funny
kid. Just pretty cool and laid back.
Well that was the week. Pretty good but like always,
full of stress.
Hope you are all doing well and that you feel my
prayers for you all each night. The church is true,
just read the scriptures and it is
obvious. You can do that or an even easier way is
just simply feel it is true through the power of God.
A testimony is a heck of a thing.

Elder Welch

the week flew by...

We sang a few Christmas songs at church this last Sunday.
I love Christmas time. We plan on singing carols this
month as a District and maybe with a few members on like
street corners or at parks.

This week flew by again. I feel like I was just sitting here.
Tuesday we set a baptismal date with K for Dec. 12.
She’s came the lastfew weeks and she has good relations to
the church. It was seriously a miracle we found her in
the middle of the slums. We’re having her
‘brother’ baptize her I think. His name is F K and I think I
mentioned before he’s in charge of missionaries apartments
and that kind of stuff. He’s even the one who found our
new apartment they are setting up.

Thursday a member made us some make shift macaroni and cheese
which was good.

Saturday started good but ended badly. I ate some fish
fillet at a restaurant for lunch and by our next lesson,
I wasn’t feeling so well at all. I fell asleep during the
lesson and I woke up and I felt like someone had beat my
entire body with a stick. I had a bad headache and
we had to rush to the church so I could so some… business.
I then laid in the church for like an hour and got really cold.
I felt like I had malaria but I knew that wasn’t possible
since I take my pill every day. I went to bed early that night
even and started feeling better by the next day. I didn’t
eat anything until Sunday night so that was
quite a bit of time since I ate that dirty fish fillet for
lunch on Saturday. Whatevers.

Sunday was still good. We had 8 investigators come and 4
of them have baptismal dates. The three families didn’t
show up again which made me pretty sad. The one’s who got
lost last week I showed to a less active
guy hoping he would bring them this Sunday. Of course he
didn’t show so they probably didn’t know where the church was.

It is going to suck around here because of the holidays.
People are going to their villages and a couple of our baptismal
date candidates are leaving for almost two months. It sucks
how people just pick up and go to village so often without
telling anyone. People just disappear that way.

It’s been hard starting this new area back up but I know
that in no time this ward will be back on it’s feet.
God works in mysterious ways sometimes. It’s good to be set
apart as a missionary because it’s a
totally different feeling. I understand why the always said
Jesus wept. When I feel the Spirit now I always feel like weeping.
I know we all feel the Spirit in different ways but I think
when you see anyone crying when bearing testimony, that they
are bearing it by the Spirit of God. I love that feeling!

Well I hope you all are continuing to do awesome.

Elder Welch

P.S. I forgot to explain that we had Japanese food on Friday night. So
that’s where those awesome pics come from. Also on Sunday night we
went to a birthday party for two members. Pretty fun!

Band Aid - Do They Know its Christmas 1984

Thanksgiving

The work is grand!
I forgot it was Thanksgiving until the night
time when someone reminded me. We didn’t do
anything eventful but ate some leftovers at the
Assistants place that they had made. The week
has been interesting and flew by for the most
part like usual.
Sorry this email might be short because for some
reason I forgot my planner at the Assistants
apartment and I’m emailing in a city I’m not
used to. The reason for that is because this week
we had the power turned off at our flat and we were
told that we owed 700,000 shillings
for the power. That is like an entire years worth
of power charges! It turns out that the couples had
been paying the landlord the money to
pay for the power and how the woman must have been
pocketing the money. She expected us to pay the entire bill,
again!
Well Elder S who is one of the couple missionaries in
charge of finances just said pack your things, your leaving.
So Thursday we spent the whole day cleaning and packing.
think he wanted us to move so fast because we also
didn’t have water and were having to shower at
the church.
On Wednesday we did have a good DDM though. We had it
at the church and as a District we watched the District 2
and we ordered a couple pizzas from a pretty good pizza
place we found that delivers. It was
an excellent DDM. One of the Elders who has been out
15 months told me it was the best DDM he’s had all mission.
It’s always good to learn new things but to have some
fun and enjoyment at the same time right?
Anyways, when we moved out they wanted to find us a
place but we can’t move into the new place until Dec. 1
so for now, we are staying with
the Assistants in Ntenda. It’s pretty fun having 6 guys
in the house.

Sunday was good but a little sad seeing that not a lot
f people came to church. We had a family we wanted to
come because they have a baptismal date for the 12th and
there are like 6 of them but I guess
they were in Village so we missed them. The other
missionaries did have a baptism of this woman named V
who comes from a semi-Muslim family. The woman’s mother,
who is Muslim, actually encouraged her to
be baptized because of the positive change that happened
in her other daughters who joined the church. Pretty awesome!
So today Elder C and I are just wondering around
Ntenda since the AP’s and the Zone Leaders had a Zone Leaders
Council all day in Kololo. Everything is great though only
that this computer I’m on doesn’t have a USB port to put
my camera in so I might not send any
pictures home this week.

The family seriously sounds so awesome! Being here makes
me appreciate you all so much. I was telling some of the
others how the littlebthings in life are more appreciated
here on mission. Some little things I really enjoy now
and give me a good feeling are things like
the shade, a cold drink, a good meal, people coming to church,
incenses, running water, having power, a cool day, kind
children,understanding adults, seeing members, a Dr. Pepper,
a funny moment, a package, and many other small things
I’ve never really appreciated before. I wish you all
could come here and your lives back home would
be so much better I guarantee it! I don’t think anything
on mission is better
than just a package. That can make the week seem better!
Love you all.

Elder Welch

My new area is pretty sweet. It’s right in Kampala

and it has the American Embassy so like I said before,

that means pretty good American food around here.

Being a DL is a little more responsibility but it is pretty

awesome. It makes it easier to be the DL in the same

apartment as the Zone Leaders. They help me out a lot.

Elder T is a pretty cool Cali boy. He’s lost like 45 pounds

on mission apparently and looking at pics of him in the

past is hilarious. Both my companion and him are like 6’4

so I’m the short guy in the District unfortunately. The

Ward is good, except yesterday we had the Kampala

Stake Conference so I don’t know how many people

from Nsambya were able to make it to that.

The wedding sounds BALLER! I’m sad I wasn’t there

physically but I was definitely there spiritually. We almost

had a mock wedding at our place last night where we

were going to make my companion put on a mop for hair

and do that recreation so I could be there. We didn’t

end up doing that though unfortunately. We have a lot

of fun being able to understand each other and

having similar interests. Pretty legit.

The week was great. Monday we just emailed and ate

some pretty tasty sandwiches at a Belgium hotel place

called La Petit Village. They have amazing breakfast

and amazing deli sandwiches. I love being able to go to

a place like that!

Tuesday we were able to get a referral from the former

ZL in Nsambya who is now the AP and he showed us a

family of like 10 that is really eager to hear about the

church but was forgotten about by the people who replaced

this Elder. We’ve been trying to see them and 3 of their

daughters have been coming to church weekly even though

they live about a 50 minute walk away. They are awesome

and I’m so blessed to have been able to have found this

wonderful family!

Wednesday was good. We had a ZDM here at the church and

it was cool. Our zone is pretty small, only 10 missionaries,

but it’s getting more powerful by the day. The time spent

was pretty uplifting

Thursday we helped this woman cross pretty much all of the

area we cover, carrying her tubs and child for her and her

daughter the entire way. The whole time I was thinking

“man this lady is really taking us far.” Well totally worth it.

We got to their home and she had a pretty large extended

family there of adults who were extremely eager to hear

from us. Each time we’ve gone back, and even that day they

have bought us drinks and fed us. I’ve never seen people so

Christlike before who weren’t already members of the church.

It’s like they already were members and understood how to

be a good Christian. We gave them 3 Books of Mormon and

have been teaching them the past week. They are awesome!

They are seriously so interested and treat us like we’re

Christ himself. I wish all the people could be like this family,

even members of the church here!

Friday and Saturday were full of lessons and on Saturday

we got to work with the “Special Assignment Missionaries.”

They are two Elders who have extended and just help out

giving trainings and make sure we are teaching well. They

gave us a small training and worked with us and it was good

for my companion and I to go on an exchange with these

seasoned veterans. We even commited a baptismal date on

Saturday to a Husband and Wife who were being previously

taught in Mbali and we found them again just this last week.

They are totally humble and awesome as well as the other

family we met. They have three awesome kids too and we are

really working to bring more families to the church here in

Nsambya. They have enough single adults so now they need families.

Sunday was the Kampala stake conference.

The second ever too! It was pretty cool. We had

a video broadcast from SLC of Boyd K. Packer and

Dallin H. Oaks. It’s like they knew exactly what to

say to all the people here. They talked about how some

of the local traditions need to be stopped in order to

follow the traditions set forth by our Heavenly Father.

That the man should help the wife in all things, just like

Adam and Eve worked together for food and to live in

the beginning of time.

So the week was good. Enjoy life and know that God is

always looking out for us. Keep being amazing.

Elder ‘Tex’ Welch

The week was good. Lots of lessons like usual.
On Friday we had the baptism of O, who was the
guy who left early the one week, and he’s
a cool guy. I really like him. We had the baptism
that day since
district conference and because of work for him.
On Saturday I found out I was getting transferred
to a place in Kampala called Nsambya. It’s a really
cool area I hear and has really good food.
It’s a ward there too and I’ll be training.
The area is being reopened after being closed for
a couple transfers and I’ll also
be the District Leader. In the Ward Bishopric I guess
one of the guys is from America and works at the
American Embassy.

Sunday we had the District Conference which
was good. Elder Callicker’s talk was good and we had
a good turn out from the Bugembe
Branch there. We held that at the YMCA in Jinja.
A lot of couples, missionaries, and guests. It was
pretty cool.

And today I just cut my hair like the usual
routine I do of cutting it at the very end of each
transfer. That’s about the highlight of today.
I did find a Dr. Pepper at a market though so I
bought a couple which always makes me happier.

Well that’s the week. Just think about things and
how they are different here.
Try and think how your life would be different
if we all didn’t have what
we do have.
Elder Welch