Great Mission Times in Ipiales

Elder Welling playing football with his Pasto and Ipiales missionary brothers in Ipiales last Pday. (bottom, 2nd from left).

Monday
May 27, 2013

Hello Family and Friends, 

Things are going great. So this past week, was good. We had 
two baptisms and they were both awesome! We also married another
couple. SOOO AWESOME! So that, overall, was awesome and a fun day!

Starting with last Monday where we left off - we all played football with
the Elders of Pasto, so that was sweet. I played quarterback, and did a really
good job-threw some cool passes. But in the end, lost by one to the
other team. haha So overall was a great pday of football. Then we took a
picture of us who played the game. 

Then this week was really good with the baptisms and wedding and 
everything. What was different was that we thought
that we were going to have a ton of people at church.
Then in the end only 3 people showed up, which was puzzling.
I don't know whats going on, but I just can't get people to 
come to the church. 

But the next month is looking good.We have a great investigator 
named Byron who is going along great and getting ready to be 
baptized on the 15th. So he is doing really well, and we just
need to find other people-we are going to be focusing on this
week a lot. 

But overall things are good here. Today we played soccer in the 
for Pday and that was fun. My team dominated. There is a cool
Elder here now named Elder Morgan. Another one of my good mission

friends who is a great soccer player. 

But yeah, other than that...Things are good here, this week we
have a zone conference with President Prince and everyone on Thursday.

That will be awesome. Then the next week I think I will go to Cali for meetings. 

Love you all and miss you all.

-- 
Elder Tyler Welling

Transfers.....Staying Here in Ipiales and Happy!

Monday
May 20, 2013

Hey Familia and Friends, 

Ooo, this past week was good. My comp and I had a lot of lessons and
worked hard all week. But, for some reason, things just aren't
happpening like we want. We only had 3 people at church. 
We decided this week we just gotta keep doing work. Which means I
am still here in Ipiales, btw, which is awesome. I love it! 6
months in another city. We'll see if we can get a little bit better
this time around. 

But yeah, I had exchanges with another missionary on
Wednesday, Elder Cain from Sacramento, that was cool. He is a good
Elder, and likes to work hard. So we had a fun day, and basically did a
good amount of work. On Saturday a girl was going to get baptized, but then
her best friend came and basically helped her change her mind. 

This weekend we are going to have 2 baptisms this. One of them is getting married 
which will be awesome. hah SO i am excited for that. So, overall this week
that is coming will be great and we are excited for it! We will be
working hard working for June. Should be great! Elder Edwards is here
with me today, so that is awesome. He is one of my best bros in the mission.
SO that's cool. But other than that, nothing is new.

Love you all and miss you all. Have a great day!

Elder Welling 

I Love My Mission, I Love This Work!

Happy Ipiales/ZL Companions are they!

Monday

May 13, 2013 

Hey Familia and Friends 

So this week was good. I had a ton of fun and everything talking with
you all yesterday, was sooo cool to see my best companion on my mission 

ever and one of my good friends -- Belnap!!! Was great! Hope you all enjoyed 

talking to me as much as i enjoyed talking to you! Ha! 

This past week was great. We taught a lot of lessons and got along great
with my companion. But I think we made a mistake, because I think we
were focusing on the people that maybe aren't ready to listen to us
yet. So on Sunday we only had 2 people come to church, which was a huge
bummer. But overall things are going great here. I'm having an awesome time
and trying to get better everyday at eveything I do. 

The mission is flying by, I can't believe it. I am loving it so much, and it
is soo amazing now that I speak Spanish well. I remember one day on the bus
in Buenaventura last summer when Elder Belnap was like, man its so cool to 

speak two languages!...I was like, yeahhhh..sure,...because I was struggling
with my Spanish during that time. Now I am loving it!!! I get excited
everyday when I realize the progress I have made since I came here
and since I left Buenaventura. 

I love it, I love my mission, and all of the best
buds I have made during these two years, like my current companion, and Elders Belnap, 

Edwards,Taua,Bolo and many others. Loving my mission, and I will keep working hard to do
everything I can and to give my primicia to the lord! Love you all and
miss you.

"I'm kinda a big deal."

-- 
Elder Tyler Welling

Zone Leader Consejo in Cali, Learning from President Prince

Elder Welling happy to be eating Sister Prince's delicious lunch. Happy to be with all his fellow ZL friends.

Monday

May 6, 2013 

Hey Familia and Friends, 

Sorry I am writing my card so late, but we just finished
playing soccer way late. So now that's why I am writing. 

See Elder Welling very focused on what President Prince is teaching them-pen in hand.

But this week was good, went to Pasto on Tuesday night 
and slept at the ZLs of Pasto. My good friend, Elder Edwards
is there, he is a good friend, will be my friend forever.
Then on Wednesday morning we headed to the terminal in Pasto and got a
really bad bus to Cali. It was SO small and hot and bumpy, was a bad
12 hours, to say the least. Then we went to visit some recent converts
of Elder eEdwards, so that was way cool to see them all in Cali. Was a
good time. 

I can see the back of Elder Welling's head, can you? Learning so much from President Prince.

Then that night we slept at the Torgersons. They are a missionary 
couple, they are awesome. I love them so much. They gave us
delicious tacos and brownies. SOOOO good. Then we all slept. On
Thursday morning we had the Consejo with the ZLs and that was a good
time. Always like being with them and President and Sister Prince. We 

learned a lot. 

Elder Welling is in the center back, the tallest, I think. Loves being with Pres. and Sister Prince and all missionary friends.

Then after the awesome Consejo with President Prince, he
drove us and Elder Edwards and Zambrano to the terminal so we could get
a bus to Pasto. We had dinner at the terminal with some other elders
that are the Zls in Popayan, that was saweet. They are cool guys,
too. Then we got on a nice bus back to Pasto. I talked awhile to
Edwards and the other guys, overall was a good time. Then we
finally got to Ipiales at 7am. I slept for like 30 min then went 
back to work. Overall was a solid week. Not too much else to say
lol. We have some people preparing for baptism on the 12th, so that
should be awesome. But hopefuly I don't get transferred. All
is good here and everything. Hope you all are doing great, also. 

I think I see Elder Welling's well-worn shoes:) Love this!

Love you all and miss you. Sorry the letter is so short. 

Love you all and miss you!

-- 
Elder Tyler Welling

Elder Bednar, My Colombian Family, Best Weekend in Cali!

Elder Welling with his beloved Colombian family from Buenaventura, the Rodriguez Family-so grateful for them!

Monday
April 29, 2013

Hey Family and Friends! 

What a super long week. As always I will start with this last Tuesday. It was solid. We went on and did things called disembarkments. It was awesome. It was so we could find a bunch of people in a short amount of time. So it is where all of the missionaries in our zone went to all of the areas and just went to find people. It was good. We found a total of 126 in three days. We only had time to work this week from Tuesday to Thursday, because we had to go on a bus Friday for a trip of 17 hours....I'll explain later....:( haha so then we did work finding people, and had a good time doing it-finding a bunch of people and growing closer as a zone. so that was overall awesome!

The Cali Mission with Elder and Sister Bednar. Elder Welling, 4th from the left on back row (I think).

Then on Friday the bus comes around..First off it was supposed to leave at 730am to get to Pasto at 930am and to be in Cali around 630-730pm in the evening.....sooo....it didn't end up showing up till about 830am. We left, got to Pasto at 1030am, and then had to wait at a bus station for about an hour more waiting for them to repair the bus, because there had been burnt wires......sooo we finally get to Pasto, and the other 16 missionaries there are obviously mad and upset..haha. Then we left at around 12 noon to go to Cali from Pasto.....so then..about 20 minutes into the drive the fun bus pulls over and seriously brokedown, again,..in the middle of nowhere, an hour away from Pasto...that was awful. We had to wait for a bus for 30 more minutes that would take us 28 missinaies to Cali. But...then a bus showed up and only could take 27 more. WOW That was so awful. So we had to split up the groups, Pasto and Ipiales. How sad, and then headed on our way finally to Cali. Overall it was a solid trip, didn't get into Cali until about 1030-11pm at night..lol But it will be a trip to remember for a long time.

Then that night we ate pizza and stuff, and had a good time with all of the other missionaies that were at the house. haha

Elder Welling with Elder Eliason, the new ZL in Elder Welling's beloved Buenaventura!

The the big great day of Saturday!! We started our meeting with Elder Bednar at about 9am in the morning and it went until 12noon. Was awesome!! He basically did questions and answers with us, then we analyzed how he was teaching us and everything. It was awesome! A really nice and spiritual time with him. He is amazing and extremely smart. So, overall it was just awesome. And at the end Elder Bednar said that he wanted to shake all of the missionaries hands and everything. SO I was basically at the very end of the line, and I shook his hand. Elder Bednar said nice to meet you, but in Spanish, mucho gusto. Then after was his wife. She didn't shake my hand, but gave me a big hug!.....AWKWARD:... lol. Right in front of an apostle! Then I talked to Sister Bednar, holding up the line for about 20 seconds. She said, "that hug was from your grandma!" haha Was really awesome and great!

President and Sister Prince with Sister Bednar and Elder Bednar, a day Elder Welling will always remember!

Then walking back to my seat Elder Edwards, my best bro in the mission right now, looked at me and said.."what the heck?"...Then I said, "bro, I'll tell you after." SO that was hilarious. Then after we ended I found Sister Bednar in the hallway again and talked to her again. All of the other missionaries were dumbfounded.....haha, I was too!

Branch President and Sister Maryam Rodriguez-Elder Welling's beloved BV, Colombian Family Forever!

SO then I talked to her, but then I looked down the hallway and saw Maryam frrom BV and then turned my head, did a double take and freaked out. Was awesome to see them again! I couldn't believe it! I talked to them for a good while, and got pictures with them and everything. I love them soooo MUCH!!! They are my Colombian Family, as are the Brinez Family in Cali!!! I LOVE BV and the Mission so much!! SO overall it was a great trip.

Elder Welling with Sister Maryam Rodriguez, his beloved BV Colombian Mom Forever-so grateful for her!

Then the bus trip back was great with all of the other missionaries this time and everything. Couldn't have been a better weekend than it was!!! The Rodriguez family and the Brinez family are the best!!!!

Love you all and miss you!!

Elder Welling

Interviews, President Prince, Baptisms

Monday

April 22, 2013

 

Hey Family and Friends, 

 

This week was good/bad, On Monday we just kinda chilled and did work and stuff. So basically the cool thing happened on Friday. We headed to Pasto to have our interviews with President Prince. They were awesome. Loved every second of it. I started first because I am the ZL and older of the two, so that was way cool. President is awesome! We talked about a whole bunch of stuff from the work to Apostles and everything. I love having the interviews with President every 3 months. But, I wish that it was every month. It'd be way better that way, haha! But just doesn't work out. 

 

SO also, this Saturday we had a baptisms of a man named Milton Tena, who is about 60 years old. But he is just awesome. We found him, because we heard a saxophone being played in a house. SO we yelled. Hey, you with the saxaphone! He looked at us and said he felt something good. SO he let us in. We chit chatted and did the normal. It was cool, because my comp and he shared the music in common which was awesome. SO then, after a month and a half he got baptized and has said since the first time we met that he was waiting for us. SO that was super special and awesome! 

 

I love how the Lord prepares the people for you so you can send them the gospel and help them come unto Christ and be his disciple. The people are waiting, just that the missionaries and member need to find them. This week was good, but next week will be better, we hae a lot of big plans to improve the work here in ipiales and get some big things started. Then of course i will see Bednar on Saturday, which is amazing. haha!

 

 Love you all and Miss you.

EW

--
Elder Tyler Welling