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

We were able to play rugby today actually. It was a lot of fun but I’m
a bit out of shape and now my feet and body hurt from actually
running. No worries it was just touch rugby by the way.

Transfers were this week and for me I did get transferred to Awassa
which is where we go every P-day anyways. It’s pretty familiar
territory but I won’t be able to see those plants sprout. Hopefully
they keep growing and the other missionaries take care of them. I’ll
also be the Zone Leader down here with Elder M, we won’t be
companions though. My companion is Elder W and he’s from
Idaho. A pretty cool guy and I’ve been able to see him a couple times
a week for the last three months anyways.

We were blessed this week. More people prepared themselves for baptism
than we expected. We really didn’t do much as missionaries, all of
these people were prepared already it seems and we just so happened to
pass by and show them the little bit that was needed to do. So we had
fifteen people baptized from Arsi Negele and one brother from
Shashemene. Overall we had sixteen baptisms this last week and it was
pretty cool. We would have had brother Mesa baptized and another woman
as well but Mesa had exams to do and the other woman who’s a husband
of one of the men was having some lady problems so they will be
baptized this next week too. It was amazing to see these people travel
hours both days for their baptisms and confirmations all at their own
expense. It is definitely one of the moments I will never forget.


I’ve mentioned a bit of the week already but like I said, it was a
great one! It really was a great way to end the transfer. The work is
going great. The only other highlights I can think of besides that is
that we had 40 people in Shashemene on Sunday. That was the highest
we’ve had it and it was nice to see it at such a level as it was my
last Sunday there. We also visited Arsi Negele that evening with
President Amannual from the District Presidency who lives down here
and he taught them a bit about the temple and answered all their
questions. He’s a good guy.

I am doing great, healthy, and I’m loving
the work. Take care and know how much I love you all and I can’t wait
to see you soon! 9 months! That means if anyone else wants to have a
baby too while I’m out the should get started in the next 15 days
otherwise I’m going to spoil the day. Take
care and keep the faith.

Love,

Elder Welch

The week was well. We had a meeting with President Jackson up in Addis Ababa so we were there from Thursday to Saturday. We didn’t get much time to teach during the week so attendance on Sunday wasn’t that great. The meetings in Addis were great. The Spirit was so strong. There was one training by one of the Assisstants to the President who is from Chicago and a convert to the church of only about 2 and a half years (including his mission time). He asked us to come up and bear testimony to him about families and how he can help the rest of his family join the church. Everyone was crying including me and the Spirit was strong. It was amazing too because he recently found out that his Grandfather was also a member of the church and it was just a great training. President also took us to the Hilton for dinner was was pretty good.

We came down on Saturday but the bus ride took FOREVER! We had a baptism planned for Saturday but had to postpone it until Sunday. The bus driver seriously looked like a pirate and kept stopping every 5 miles. He even ran out of gas at one point and we waited for like 30 minutes for them to get gas. I think he kept stopping because there were no winds behind the sails. Arrr matey.

Sunday was good. We only had about 25 people at church but that was expected. A lot of our recent converts are getting very busy with school and other things so we missed a lot of them. After church we went to Awassa and G was able to be baptized. He’s a great guy but was a little scared people would see him there because he used to be an evangilist preacher there. I hope when he gets strong he’ll be more open with people about him being a member of the true church. We also went to Arsi Negele and saw M and his family and friends. Like I said 13 people had saved up the money and were ready for baptism. The rest of them are still working on saving up money and others who came late still want to be taught more but things there look awesome.

The week has been good. Another week with only small differences and occasional things out of the ordinary. We did finally have B interviewed by President Parrish and he should be baptized this next week. President was really impressed with him. His friend though is wanting to wait a little longer on baptism now though.

We’ve been teaching a lot in three areas now. We teach in Wendo Genet, Shashemene, and Arsi Negele. Things are going well and we have people with baptismal dates in all three areas. We’re trying to throw our resources around all over to help get the name of the church out there and to build it up as best as we can here.

A downer is that my companion, who was with a local, crashed his bicycle on Friday and got a little scraped up and sore but he’s doing well. Things haven’t been so easy on him. I haven’t mentioned but his father also passed a couple of weeks ago too which was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever had to deal with. Don’t worry though, I tell you now because this actually happened 2 or 3 weeks ago. He’s doing well now though. He’s such a great guy.

On Sunday we had President and Sister Parrish at church on Sunday which was great. We had 30 people at church, and like I said, mostly men. President and Sister Parrish are so great and I can see you guys being a couple missionary someday.

Also last night we went to Arsi Negele to see Brother M and his family. They are doing so great! We had 21 people alone in that lesson and it’s the start of great things to come in Arsi Negele. We had 13 men there who are all very interested in the gospel and are already doing missionary work on their own out there trying to invite people to come visit with us. His wife also came to church which is about a 2 hour round trip. I also committed all the men there to baptism on the 27 of August and we asked them to save up 50 birr for each person by then to make the travel for the Saturday and Sunday, so they could make their own sacrifice for a great thing. 50 birr is a lot for people here and it was a great thing because 6 of the men committed to saving up the money for that purpose. It was great and I feel as though the gospel will spread much more quickly there than it will in Shashemene.
.

I love you all, keep the faith, stay strong, and remember these things we’re all facing are making us all stronger people! Keep it real.