An Awesome Baptism, Hectic Week





Elder Welling's Baptism Week (but this time in a pool)

Monday

September 24, 2012

Hey family and friends, 
This week was sooo stressful, but awesome, also. we had a good weekend, but i will start with Thursday. the zone leaders came here to Buenaventura to help us with interviews, and stuff for our baptisms this weekend. we went with Elder Tauaese. he is from the states in California, so he is cool:) basically Thursday was sick (great), because we were a group of three gringos in BV. but it was great, everybody was ready for our baptism weekend.

at the end of the night we went to go eat some delicious food from the street. we had eaten there 3 times before, but it was the first time for Elder Tauaese. so later that night the food got Elder Tauaese sick. that was bad for him, because he had a three hour bus ride back to Cali the next morning.


but other than that, this week was hecka tight. we didn't have a place for the baptisms until Friday morning at 10oclock, a day before the baptisms. so that was supér crazy!!!!  we were blessed so much though. the pool that we did the ordinances in was perfect, and everybody loved it. Elder Belnap, and I had 4 baptisms, and it was amazing. we had 8 as a district. and if everything goes as planned, we should have 9 more great people being baptized this weekend in my companionship with Elder Belanp.


it is amazing to see the changes in the lives of the people that have accepted the gospel. it's a wonderful thing to see. so this Sunday was great also. oh, but also on Saturday i bought Elder Belnap, and I some big juicy burgers. man they were delicious. well, actually they are really terrible burgers compared to the burgers in the US, but good for Colombia... i have been craving some costco hotdogs, haha... just American food. rice and beans every meal kinda gets old, lol...but it's all good....


This week should be super stressful, too. hopefully i don't die, because of the stress. Love you all, miss you all so much. Hope things are going great. PS, we get to play pool today on our pday. i got the recipe for chocolate chip cookies from my mama, too :)




Love yall, stay classy US....
--
Elder Tyler Welling

What's Up? Preparing for Baptisms

Monday
September 17, 2012


OK, finally i am here and ready to write about our week. So like i told you last week, we were called to be a Branch!  So awesome!. This week we did a lot of callings, and all that jazz. Luckily none of the missionaries have callings yet. Luckily we have a lot of Elders in the church who can be leaders. only thing is Elder Belnap, and i are teaching a class about how to teach basically. so that was awesome! 

this week we worked our tails off.  We had about 21 lessons, and just were always thinking about other ways we can get the members involved. If we were walking, we were on the phone with a member telling them to call so and so.  we did a lot of stuff. but it was all awesome.

this week we plan to do a ton of work once again. hopefully we can have everything ready to go as scheduled, and have the hand of the Lord in our work. really, we have to have help on high from the Lord again as we prepare for our baptisms this coming Saturday. but this week was super great. we had 16 investigators at church again, and it was really special. a lot of people who we thought would not come showed up and they loved it. super blessed to have had that happen.

we played soccer on Monday during pday, lost 7-9. but i really don't like playing on the small synthetic fields. i like to play on huge fields, but there aren't many. basically there are just huge fields covered with rocks and beer bottles. haha but its all good.

I love Bueanventura more and more everyday. and it's awesome that Elder Belnap is my companion. i keep learning so many things from him, too. Love you family and friends. this is my message for the week. hope you are all doing well. and i encourage you all to read the BOM,

Love you all!!!!!!!

--
Elder Tyler Welling


OH GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!! NOBODY

Whose Got It Better Than Us? Nobody!!!

Elder Welling at the waterfall before their baptisms.
Elder Welling rides on top of a bus/van to Cali (I think).

 Monday
September 10, 2012


Elder Welling on a pday at the river.
WHATS GOOD FAMILY!, AND FRIENDS!!!

WOW; what a crappy week in the beginning, but then it turned in to be one of the best weekends of the mission. I will explain why. Starting with Monday night, I ate something and no me cayó bien. It didn't go down well at all. Then later that night, it all came back up...and up...and up...so that sucked a lot. I was held on the sidelines for TWO days!!!! It was terrible. I couldn't work on Tuesday or Wednesday!!!! I hated being in the house. But luckily Elder Belnap helped me a ton. But he was also sick a bit too. But not like me.


Then on Thursday, Friday and Saturday we basically just worked our tails off and went to town. And then on Saturday President Prince called, and told us he would be coming to our Church meeting the next day. Which was AWESOME!!! We had started fasting on Saturday and finished on Sunday, super hard fast being sick and frail. But it was totally worth it and worked!!!!!!! We fasted for INvestigators to go to church! Then we did all the work we could to get a lot, and in the end we ended up having 22 investigators at Church! There were 98 total at the church!!!!! It was awesome to see that outcome. And now when you work as hard as you can and rely on the Lord, that's when the blessings come.


So Sunday was just great! President Prince gave a little talk during the Church about the formation of the Church and everything, he said.........Buenaventura will now be a Rama (official Branch)!!!! AHHHHHHH SOOOOO SICK when he told us the news!!! I was stoked!!!! We had worked so hard here, and everybody was just so happy when that news came. The First Presidency of the CHurch Approved us here in BV, So awesome. Then we had lunch with President, and Sister Prince which was delicious and everything! Also Sister Prince brought Tortilla Chips, and Salsa which was like mana from Heaven, so freakin delicious.


So, basically this week was awesome, and the NINERS WON!!!!  WHose got it better than US? NOBODY!!!!!!!


-- I love you all!

Elder Tyler Welling


Beautiful Baptism Pictures, New Goals and Karaoke

Baptisms in the beautiful river last week. Elder Welling is in the back helping the Sister. These are their 9 new members.
Monday
September 3, 2012

OK, another week down the tube, filled with a ton of work! But it was solid. 

I will start with this morning really fast, we got permission to go fishing at 5 in the morning, but didn't catch jack squat! It stunk. Anyways, this week was great! I was sick for a bit, but feeling much better now! 

Starting with Tuesday, me and Elder Belnap posted some goals to accomplish this week, so we can get closer to our mark that we have set for this week. We put up 2 goals. One was to find 20 new investigators, and the other was to post 9 dates for baptism. And on Sunday, we finished both of those goals. We worked our tails off and stayed focused all of the time. It was great to finish those goals we had set!!! 

So now we have a lot of dates for baptism, but we cannot let up on the work, or forget why we are doing this. Learned a good lesson last time. 

But, the week was great. Had a sickkkkkk activity this last Saturday. It was a night of Karaoke, and we got permission to sing, too!!  The church was packed with about 120 people.!!! SOOO COOOLLLL!!!!! Everybody was singing their minds out, and just having a great time! So cool, I sang Thriller by MJ, so I learned that I don't know the words as well as I thought I did.....hahah And Elder Belnap sang Billie Jean. Overall the night was a huge success!!! Loved it. 

Then the next day the Capilla wasn't too filled, but we still had about 65 there at church, including our new members. Overall it was a solid week, and we will continue to work hard to see how things goo!!! Love you all, thanks for the letters and yeaaaa...

--
Elder Tyler Welling


Their beautiful baptism day in the river of Buenaventura last week. Elder Welling is in the middle helping a Sister back.