Staying Safe

Haha 20 years eh! Don’t feel old,
Dad you know you’re still faster than me!

A is a great woman. Her four kids are I
(15 and a half),A (14), M (11), and A (8).
They are great kids and A has actually been
teaching them all the lessons to make sure
they are prepared. We can’t always see all
the kids with all their activities so we
usually teach A and a couple kids and she makes
sure to teach the rest of the kids. She’s great!
The literacy class is just a class where they
teach it in Luganda but also read things in English
to hopefully help the people in the class
know English better. It is doing great actually and
a lot of the people we are teaching are attending
that class on Sunday’s in replacement of Gospel
Principles. They use and read the Gospel
Principles book but it is just translated into
Luganda and they discuss things in Luganda in there.
Sister C, a great member here, teaches that class.

We made sure to buy a lot of food for the apartment,
no worries haha.
We usually buy from both little shops and my favorite
store is the Embassy Supermarket. It’s right across
from the American Embassy and has a ton of things
other stores don’t have that are American. It’s
great but some things are a bit spendy at times. All
four of us live in a house that has a walled in
complex and us American Elders usually
pay a member 5,000 shillings to do our wash each week.

The lock in wasn’t bad at all. We borrowed the tv
and dvd player from the church to make sure we could
watch some things so we didn’t go crazy. We also had
scriptures and other things to read and I was able
to catch up on some sleep. It was kind of like a
vacation on mission? Haha. Museveni made sure to
have military forces out everywhere during the day
the results came out.

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes as well.
I appreciate it and it’s good to be 20 now. Maybe
people will start taking me seriously?
Probably not still haha.

The week was pretty short. Monday we went to the
ARA and played tennis and some other things. I
realized that tennis is actually pretty fun
and I want to play some more of that and racquetball
when I get home.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were able to teach some
lessons to A and her kids, B, and K and D. We wanted
to make sure to see them as much as possible before
we were locked up. Thursday through Sunday we were
stuck inside besides going out for church on
Sunday. We just watched movies and hung out mostly
during that period. Church was good though. We had
a decent attendance for people being
gone for elections and even Elder M and I had 12
investigators at church. We are planning for those
7 baptisms still for on Saturday.
Church was great but afterwards we went back inside
again to make sure to be safe.

Well that’s the week basically. Pretty boring but it
was good to see things have gone relatively peacefully
since elections and we hope it stays that way. It’s
sad that people don’t have true democracy here
but if they want to change that, I hope they can do that
in a peaceful way. I know that with faith in Jesus Christ
all things are possible, even changing your country for
the better, and that is what us as Missionaries are
trying to do for the people here in Uganda.

Happy 20th Birthday!

Valentines Day

Happy V-Day !
They actually do celebrate Valentines day here.
I’ve noticed signs for parties for it and people
selling flowers and chocolates. If there
was a holiday which had to do with a man and a
woman being together, they will celebrate it.
They are very for that kind of stuff it seems.

The weeks been good. A lot of teaching and such like
usual. There were some highlights though. We’ve
continued to work with A’s family lately but the only
thing is she wants to be baptized so
much but can’t, because her and her ‘husband’ have been
living together for over 22 years not legally married.
At the very least we will get her 4 children baptized.
She even came to the church on Saturday to help clean
and she’s not even a member!

We have another guy named B who is really smart and just
the right age to go on mission in a year. He’s 18 and
really loves the Book of Mormon. He has two siblings who
are actually members who moved away.
We took a little trip this last week to see his 86 year
old, former Anglican Preacher, father to see if it would
be ok for him to be baptized. His father was soooo happy
to see us and gave his blessing for B to join the church.
We gave them a few copies of the Book of Mormon and he
said he would read it. I don’t think missionaries have
ever been to where we were on Saturday haha. The town B
was from was really nice though and they should get
missionaries there asap!
The town had all nicely paved roads, no garbage anywhere,
and it was quiet. Much different than anywhere missionaries
are now in Uganda.

Sunday wasn’t too bad. Church attendance wasn’t like last
week and we didn’t have quite as many investigators there
because of some personal incidents I guess. We did have 7
there though and it was good to see
them. The literacy class we started last week is going
great and the women that we have in there are powerful.
These mothers of these families are very legit women and
gives some nice age to this previously YSA ward. We even
saw J and D later that night
and they fed us which was an answer to my prayer because
I didn’t have any food at the apartment and I prayed that
we would get fed that night. Thank goodness! Haha.
We also gave J and D a Book
of Mormon stories book and they love it. They are almost
done with it and understand the Book of Mormon so much
better because of it. What a genius thing. It’s only 1000
shillings here too which is a little less
than 50 cents.

Today we’re going to the American Recreation Area and it
should be a good time. I think we’re going to play basketball
and other stuff there possibly? I don’t really know what to
expect. Well that’s been the week. This next week isn’t going
to be much work but we will at
least be safe. I hope things don’t get too crazy here but the
‘President’ here has been ruling for 30 years just like the
Egyptian President. The roads and stuff were actually cleaner
and nicer back when
Idi Amin was around. Kind of sad….

I know the work is so true. This last
week our Mission President trained us on the story of the
sowers in the New Testament. The parable of the seed being
sown by the sower onto 4 different types of ground. We’ve
been trying to read it with our investigators lately and
it’s a great story to help motivate them
into being the last good seed, which is the one that endures
to the end. I encourage you all to read it and ask yourselves
which seed you are really being, and which kind of fruit you
are bringing forth, whether 30, 60, or 100. It’s in Mark 4
and in the other gospels in other places. Read it and apply it.
It will motivate you to be a
better member of the church.
Love,

Elder Welch

The work is good and the transition is great.
The transfer has started great and I’ve seen the
greatest miracles since I’ve been on my
mission this week.

I think you’re right about me staying here is a
blessing. There are so many great families we’ve
found just this last week!

So another blurry week. Monday I received Elder M
and we were able to see each other again. I had
seen him a bit when we were both
in Jinja together and he’s a cool guy.

Tuesday I basically showed him a little around
the area which was nice.

The real blessings came on Wednesday when A
our recent convert, came to Kampala from Kanungu
(9 hours away). He was meeting
with President but we were blessed having him for
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He showed us many
of his friends and family members and it
was awesome. He showed us many people who seemed
just ready to be baptized and trusted him so much.
He told me how he just is surprised
at how he has this power to persuade people and
help them believe what he was saying. I told him
that was the Priesthood he has been given,
and how he needs to always be worthy to have that
power with him. He
uses it well! The fruits of it happened on Sunday.

On Sunday we had 91 people at church. That’s about
20 more than usual and it was all because of the
Priesthood God has given, especially to
Abusolom and how he has used it to it’s full potential.
For our side we had 16 investigators there, not
including all of their kids. It was
about 4 families A has showed us. Even J and D
came from his influence. We have about 10 baptismal
dates set right now, 5 of them coming from a referral
J and D gave us. A woman named A who lives near
them was very interested in the
Gospel and was converted immediately it seems. She
has 4 kids who we plan on baptizing probably on
the 27th. They were supposed to be for
the 20th but I don’t think that will happen now
since we are supposed to stay indoors for the
17th to the 20th because of elections and just
to be safe.

Also, F was baptized. The water was low so they
had to do it a couple times but it was still great.
A ton of people were there for
the baptism too so that made me happy, I just hope
they weren’t scared when they saw they were baptized
a few times and were scared when they
came out haha.

Later last night, Brother C, the 1st counselor
who works at the Embassy, invited us over for dinner.
It was great and it was good seeing him. He’s the man
and made us this awesome lasagna dish. It
was like being in the U.S. for a few hours. We even
watched some planet earth on his blueray player which
was awesome!

Even today we went to this place called wonder
world. It’s an amusement park in our area and it
was cool. It was closed though but
we still walked around it and we even were able
to use the go karts they had there. I kind of messed
the wheel up on the one but that only
got us more time on the go karts! It was fun and a
nice break for our P-day. Now we’re emailing.

So I hope you are all doing great and know that I
love you all so much. The church is so true and the
blessings are very great for those
that wish for Heaven here on Earth. I’m starting
to realize that it is easy to receive the blessings,
all we have to do is follow the
councils of our Heavenly Father as the prophets
and scriptures speak for him. I love the scriptures
so much and I’m thankful for the hope
and knowledge they provide.

Elder Welch

So the boy that we baptized this Sunday is awesome.
During the baptismal service the Bishop talked
about him and how impressed with him he was and how
smart he is. He said he was going to be a future
leader not only in the church but in
other areas of life. Even the Relief Society
President said he knows too much, but in a good way.
It’s just sad and unfortunate that he’s
lost his parents and hasn’t been able to go to
school for a year. His sister has been taking care of
him and her two kids as well. He’s been a real asset
in translating the lessons into a
language that his sister could understand.

So this weeks been another great blurry week.
Mainly lessons and preparation for baptisms.
On Friday Elder Tuttle came and interviewed
F, J, and D for baptism. They all passed which was
great.

Saturday we had a Zone Activity/Party for a few
wards in Makindye. It was a pretty good party and a
lot of people came. It was fun and we
even got transfer news there. The pictures we took
are pictures of the Nsambya zone.

We found out that I will be staying here in Nsambya
for another transfer or two maybe. I will
be getting Elder M who is from Zimbabwe and finishes
his mission after this transfer. I’m killing him so
that’s probably why I will be
in Nsambya for another transfer after this.

Sunday was great. J and D were baptized and were
excited.
F was there but he was thinking his baptism was for
next Sunday so we will have it than. It’s good
because we still had the District
goal of 10 for the month. Again, all those were
from Elder C and me. We also had a lot of great
investigators come to church on Sunday
so we’re hoping to have those people baptized over the
next few weeks.

Well that’s the week. Another blurry not so exciting
one but we are getting the work done.  I’m so happy that
you have raised me in the church to be the man I am.
Stay classy.

Elder Welch

The week has been good.  It really all
is just a blur haha. On Monday like you saw,
we visited the Anglican cathedral in Mengo.
Pretty cool.

On Wednesday we had a district leaders council.
The goals for our mission are the highest numbers
that any zone has gotten. The goals
are 24 contacts a day, 6 lessons a day, 1 baptism
a week, 3 new investigators, 8 investigators at
sacrament and a few others I can’t
remember.  Haha I thought it
was funny and so hopefully the new goals will be
more reachable for a well balanced day.

Saturday we had the baptism of D. She’s a cool girl and
I’m happy with the work we have done here in Nsambya so
far this year. The five baptisms we’ve had, are actually
all going to leave the area. Elder O, the zone leader,
said he thought it was a ‘slap in the face’. I
thought about it and said ‘maybe it would be for you,
but one of themis going to teach 31 people and prepare
them for baptism, one of them is going to Iraq where he
learned of the church and where he can
hopefully teach more people about the church, and three
of them are going with their whole family to a village
where the church isn’t right now to start a meeting group.’
I think those things are better for those people to go
out and spread the word even more instead of
sitting here idle in the Nsambya ward. I asked him if he
was doing more good here in Uganda, or if he did more
good back when he was in his home ward in Kenya.
I think he got the point.

Sunday D was confirmed and M (her younger brother) was
ordained a Deacon. Now when they start their meeting group,
they can have authorization to give the sacrament since
the father used to be a Branch President and now his son
can help pass it. M and A were also given the Aaronic
Priesthood in the office of Priest which
was cool. Now A can go back and teach the people in
Kanungu with authority. I’m excited for missionaries
to get there and baptize all the people he’s prepared.
We also worked with one of the AP’s on
Sunday night. It was alright, I guess some people
have different styles of contacting and teaching and
Elder D’s was just a little different
than Elder Cooley or myself were used to. Oh well
it was still a good experience to see how he teaches.

Now today I’m emailing. I had a really good
realization of how important agency is this week.
We contacted these 3 siblings who are between 20
and 15 years old. They were way interested
in the church and knew the Book of Mormon was true.
The only problem was they didn’t make it to church
on Sunday. When we went to see them
we found out that a family friend told them we
weren’t the right church, and that we were just
starting another false church and he
wouldn’t let them go. They really wanted to and
I saw how important our agency is. When agency is
blocked, it’s of the devil and limits
what life is all about. This life is a test and we
need to be able to follow God or not, according to
our own conscience. It’s great to be
apart of a church that knows how true that is and
it is even included in our main Articles of Faith.
Always remember, use your agency
wisely. We have two main choices, and there is no
fence sitting. Let us always think who we are
truly serving. (2 Nephi 2:26-27)


Elder Welch

The Mosque

This week has been good. We went to the Mosque last
week which was cool so hopefully you get those pictures.
The week was busy like usual though and
right now even it’s all a blur haha. Sorry today we had
interviews and a bunch of stuff so we didn’t have as much
time to email today as usual.

We taught M and A all week which was great and ended up
with the two being baptized on Saturday and confirmed on
Sunday as well as the other two boys baptized last week.
Thursday we had a Leadership Training at the Mission home
and it was good even though no one listened to the 5-10
minute time limit besides myself and another
guy in my district. The trainings were
uplifting and made us all want to work that much harder.
Actually they told us to take bold steps so I’ve been
going into churches this last week just wanting to teach
some of the preachers about the Book of
Mormon and teaching them the Doctrine of Christ from
2 Nephi 31 but I haven’t talked to any yet. Apparently
in other parts of the country, whole congregations are joining.
Like 7 churches that are Community of Christ out in Eastern
Uganda and another Church of about 70 people up
in Northern Uganda.
That would be cool to do that kind of a thing.

That’s about the highlights of the week. Hopefully for next
week we will be able to get 4 baptisms. The one is the sister
of those boys baptized (not the Catholic one, which it isn’t
expensive to go to Catholic school I don’t think pops) and the
other 3 are young women who were in village. The young womens
number is growing pretty fast in this Ward haha. So that’s
about it. Just know that with faith, mountains can be moved.
With faith, 7 churches, 350 people can be moved. I think that
is amazing once people actually Ask, Seek,
and Knock. When they do that, they are able to know that what
we are teaching is true. Most of the people who are against the
church have never tried to actually do those things, but just
assume it is not true. If people truly investigate,
it’s pretty clear.

Elder Welch