BUENAVENTURA!!!!!!!!! LET'S GO!!!!


Elder Welling and his new companion, Elder Belnap, looking out from their new home in Buenaventura
 Monday
July 30, 2012                             

Hello Family and Friends, 

what a nuts week, but also a grand one. So, Blake told me that i suck at writing and i know that it is true, but you all didn't give me any things on the olympics. <so boom, you all are worse than i am, haha but i will improve....wellll, i'll try.

Elder Welling with one of his fellow Buenaventura missionaries.
But this week was interesting, starting with monday night. Had a great day, then got back to the house and waited at the phone, because i knew that it was my time to leave. SO, the phone rang during prayer, and i knew it was going to ring. so i put my hand on it during prayer and answered it. Elder Tauaese the Zone Leader was stoked, and he said dude, your staying in the Zone!!! SO, i was too stoked and thought i was staying in Cali Andes. so i quickly handed the phone to my companion, and he got his transfer and stuff. but then after he said elder Tauaese needs to talk with you! SO, i was like oh crap. then the first thing he said is that dude, your in the Zone, but not in Andes. So then he told me i was going to Buenaventua!!!! as District Leader, crapped my pants. then he said Elder Belnap was my companion which is dopeeeeeeee! But anyways, i was crapping my pants, because i know i have to be the Leader of 2 recent Zone Leaders and the <AP, which is nuts. but i know that i am here more to learn than anything. 

But that was nuta, so it was really hard saying bye to everyone in Andes....i may have had rain coming down from my eyes.......bUt overall is was awesome. Had a great tuesday. sucked saying bye to the Brinez family and another family too. But then i woke up on wednesday and went to the terminal to get on my 3 hour bus ride to buenaventura!!! It is out in the cuts on the Pacific Ocean. But it was awesome chatting with elder belnap about our ideas and everything for Buenaventura. we started there on julio 25, and we put a goal as Buenanventura to have in total with the other 2 elders here in the city to have 30 baptisms in 30 days!!!!! On august 25 we will have 30! That was the goal. 

So we are working hard to acheive it. I have never seen anything like it here. we walk down a street, and obviously everybody is looking at us. everyone here is black and has never seen a gringo. and we can teach 10-15 new people in one lesson. We found 37 new people this week in 4 days, and have about 15 fechas for the 25 de augosto. It is Nuts, we are working hard and having a blast. there is nothing like it here. it is very poor, and i am basically opening the area as district leader. there are about 20 members and we have the church in their house.

President Prince called us on wednesday night and said we have to teach the gospel, and we have to find a Church to build to meet in!! That is our task and all eyes in the Mish are on Buenaventura!!! We will see how this goes, and we are going to do crazy things here. It is awesome, but stinking hot and humid. hope this letter was better and thaT YOU ALL ENJOYED IT. NOW FILL ME IN ON THE OLYMPICS!!!!! 

Elder Welling

WELL, WELL, WELL.....

Monday
July 23, 2012

WELL WELL WELL,

Another 6 weeks down in Cali Colombia. and these 6 weeks were the fastest by far. Why, i don't know. But overall solid, we have had 3 baptisms this month which is great, and should have 3 or more in august if i am here....but who knows. i hope i don't go, but i have a feeling that it is that time. We will see.


This week was good, and super fast. We didn't get to find many people, which i don't know why. We are trying so hard, but it is just not working. Hopefully it will get better. Every night on wednesday we have a noche de hogar with a family here, which is always fun and nice, mainly because they always have refreshments. but we had a cool message about wilford woodruff who searched the scriptures a lot about the way the church should be formed. so i liked that a lot.


also, yesterday we had a noche de hogar with 2 other families who are less active in the church. and we watched a movie about a family whose child passed away and how they could ALL RETURN HOME. It was really cool and really special. the families were almost crying, because i think they were having trouble in  their families. so it was cool to feel the spirit, and to have them know that all things can be fixed. Then we watched another video about the hand of the master. It was about well...a violin, but it was really, really cool. I liked that video a ton.


This miercoles, basically our whole ward went to bogota colombia to go to the temple, so we didn;t have a chance to get many referencias, but overall everything was good. It is still super hot here, and i still miss food in the USA, but things are great. i hope i don;t leave cali, 1. because my ward is awesome, 2 the familia briñez is legit, and 3. I have the dopest zone leaders who always like to have fun. SO, hoping i stay. i will call heremnan briñez if i go so that she can tell you all! Love you all, miss you a ton. 


Babe no, babe nooooo, nooooo, babe noooooooo
Elder WElling.
Hot rod quote.

This May Be My Last Week in Cali Andes Area....

Elder Welling baptizes family's son.


Monday
July 16, 2012
  
Hello family and friends,

This week was good, and now i am really hungry. But overall everything is going well. I am writing a little late today, because i had a good solid pday today. Things are going well. Today, we played soccer in the morning. i need to buy some new soccer shoes, which maybe i will have time to do this week. Also, today we went to a place in like downtown Cali where basically they sell a ton of cheap electronic stuff. Which was pretty chill, i didn't buy anything though.

This week was another struggle, but also a blessing. JUST WORKING  hard and stuff. But we had a lesson with a kid this week on monday night, and then he got baptized this saturday. he had assisted the church like 3 times. So i thought he was a member, but he was not. And so we taught him, and he had a brother that died at 14 who was a member. So the plan of salvacion was really important for this kid. he is really cool, but also kinda timid. But chill. So that was a good blessing. 

 So this month i've had 3 baptisms. if a missionary has 3 baptisms, you are considered an Hijo de mosiah, child of mosiah, which is basically super dope. But yea, we have also had a hard time this week finding people to teach, so hopefully we can start to find much better in the coming week.


But yea, i am having a feeling that it is my time to go, which sucks because i like my Andes area and the people. and also, the Zone Leaders are dope. But we will see in one week. So, ya that was basically my week which was solid, and also um poco slow. 
Love you all, miss you all. 
Elder Welling                                                                                       
Elder Welling and his companion baptizing these dear young men.
Elder Welling and his Zone ready to play some soccer on the 4th of July..Happy 4th!
                                                                                     

4th of July, Conference and Soccer Tournament

Elder Welling and His Soccer Team With Pres. Prince on 4th of July
Monday
July 9, 2012
Hello familia and friends,  how are you all doing? this week was good and also bad. but i am writing back late today, because we were playing football, which was fun. for some reason though, today i am in a bad mood. i just don't know why either.


but anyways, on to this week, starting with tuesday. we had the normal district meeting which was solid, just the same old thing. we are having a hard time finding new people to teach, and our ward is not helping much either. Hopefully this coming week we can find a ton of new people to teach. President Prince has set a goal to find 1000 new people to teach these next 3 months, so we will see how that goes. and also each companionship should baptize up to 3 or more people every month, which is a pretty high standard. but we can do it. And if we do it, Cali will be the most successful mission in South America!!!! So overall things are good.


then during the week, we didn't have many lessons, a lot fell through. we did a ton of walking. which sucks! But then saturday rolled around, and we had 2 baptisms. One was the child of a man i baptized in april, and now basically all of his family is baptized. i love them, they are so cool. At first, they told me that gringos don't fall well with him, which is basically saying he doesn't like gringos. but now he is all good with us and everything. then later in the day we had another baptism of a girl. So, we have 2 in the month of july now, and hopefully we will have more, like 3 more....


Elder Welling(2nd on right, next to top row) and Mission on 4th of July - Training Before Soccer and BBall Tourneys
Elder Welling and Entire Mission Have a Soccer Tournament. Elder Tyler's team is Green..Can you see him?
Oh, also this last wednesday on the 4th of July we had a huge mission conference with all of the mission. it was freaking awesome. we talked about Joseph of Egypt, which was awesome. i kept thinking about the technicolor dreamcoat songs, haha...but overall a really satisfying meeting. then later we played soccer, a big soccer tourney for the whole mission, zones vs zones. we got to the finals, and were up 1 to 0 a half time, but then we lost, i was soooooooo mad!!! But then i was dominating in basketball later, which was nice. Also, dunking....but i am pretty sure that the hoop is like 9.6 feet high.


Then, also this sunday the president of the mission came to our church meeting. i was intimidated. But things went well, we gave a really good talk on John chapter 21, about feeding His sheep. it was so good. But intimidating to have him there, he is such a smart, wise and cool president. I learn a lot from him every time we talk. But yeah, that was basically my meeting.


things are going really good, and just going to continue to work hard. Love you all, miss you all too. 

Elder Welling

Somos Cali!! (We are Cali!) - July 4 Celebration

Somos Cali!! (We are Cali!) Elder Welling and His Whole Mission Together

On Wednesday, July 4 we celebrated!
We celebrated being missionaries of the Misión Colombia Cali.
We celebrated our desire to:
- be obedient and protect our companions
- find more new investigators (15+ each week)
- baptize 3+ each month
- to be CALI missionaries!!
We had all of our missionaries (107) with us.
It was like having all the kids home under the same roof for Christmas.
Chaotic, challenging, and wonderful...
with a sense of peace knowing they were all accounted for and with me!
We spent a wonderful morning of training - 
Elder Tyler loved studying more about Joseph from Egypt
Good memories of singing Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat songs
can you find your missionary??? Yes, Elder Welling is 2nd to top row, 2nd from the right :)
and recognition of our Captain Moronis -
Back Row:  Elders Almendares, Yapura, Rivera, Rodriguez, Belnap, Menendez, Stutz, Novoa, Dyas, Razuri, Patino, Camacho
Middle Row:  Elders Loro, Peek, Rocha, Paez, Walton, Brodowski, Duque, Cabrera, Zambrano, Fuentealba, Amado
Front Row:  Hermanas Jacobo and Bautista
Followed by a lunch for about 120
Maria, Hermana Torgerson, and Ana
 and an afternoon of fútbol (soccer), volleyball, pingpong, basketball...
FUN!! Not sure which is Elder Welling above?
 more pictures...
The Sisters (not many, but mighty!)
Hermanas Torgerson, Oliver, Perdomo, Mancilla, Prince, Carreno, Fuentealba, Bautista, and Jacobo
Palmira Zone
Winners of the soccer tournament! Elder Tyler's took 2nd place, close game:)

Gonna Celebrate 4th of July, Milk Was a Bad Choice!


Monday
July 2, 2012

Hello family, sorry i am writing to you all a little bit late today, but we did a hike early the morning, with permission of course. We went to Cristo Rey again, freakin sick. But the hike was bad, just bad trail and kinda short, i will send pic. And later today we are going to buy Cali Jerseys as a zone for this Wednesday, 4th of July, because we have a big zone meeting. The whole mission!! to celebreate fourth of July!!!! 

But yea, this week was good, we had 2 baptisms lined up, but fell through again, because the girl didn't get back from work until later at night, so...it fell through. But this week was good, had a lot of lessons, but having a hard time finding new people to teach. But all is good. During one of our lessons a woman from Manizales, a city near Medillin, was telling us to get married with the investigators, kinda awkward, but all good. hahaha..

Umm, i have the same companion, for those of you who don't know. Um, overall the week was solid, but it is freakin summer here, and i am dying. ALways hottttttt always. Freaking hot during the nigh,t too. But overall good. Also, my hands are peeling. I think i am dying, i dont know what is going on...i am going to call the medical hermana later today to ask her about it. It is just weird. But i bought a lotion for it. So hopefully all will be good soon.

But yea, this was our hike. Also, i found Noahs Ark!!!! Freakin dope. i tried to pull off a titanic pose, but you can tell me if it worked. Also, there are so many dogs here, forgot to tell yall. But dogs are everywhere, and they don't have owners. it is nuts. SO ya, that was my week. Things are great. Love you all. Miss yall, too.

Elder Welling

Milk was a bad choice!!!!!
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