Elder Belnap's Farewell...Hard Week Ahead

Elder Belnap and Elder Welling saying their "see you laters" as Elder Belnap left for Cali and home this morning. 

Monday
November 26, 2012

I don't really know where to begin. I guess I will start off by saying that today has been one of the hardest days in my mission so far. Elder Belnap left to go back to Utah, and it has been hard for me. He changed my mission. Not only was he the best missionary, but he was also my best friend here on my mission. Today after he left, I have felt empty and down. Buenaventura is definitely different without Elder Belnap.

But, now I will rewind and go to Tuesday. On Tuesday, we went to Cali. There was a baptism for an old investigator of Elder Belnap's. Was really cool. We sang in the choir and man, it was amazing. We sang, and I felt pure, I felt clean. We sang Nearer My God to Thee in Spanish, and there is a part that says, Y Angeles Habrá....Right then, I felt the Angels come down from Heaven. The baptism was amazing. So amazing.

Then on Wednesday, we had a zone conference with Elder Juan a Uceda. That was great, he talked a lot about listening and obedienece. Was really cool. I loved it. Then we got back onto the bus and headed back to BV. On Thursday, we did baptismal interviews to get some people ready for Saturday.

Then on Friday we had the big Noche de Talentos (talent night). Was amazing. The acts were awesome and especially Elder Carillo, he is a juggler and was just absolutley incredible. I loved it. Was such an amazing day.

Then on Saturday, we had the baptisms for three people and my convert now, Alexander, who's a stud. Was awesmoe. SO, those three baptisms were the last of Elder Belnaps.

On Sunday the church had a nice meeting for Elder Belnap, and a lot of people said their parting words and gave Elder Belnap a hug. After the day we went around to all of the people that Elder Belnap wanted to go and visit. So we did that as a group of 4 missionaries and loved it. Then at night we had a nice going away dinner for Elder Belnap at the Branch President's house. It was really nice and special to have that time as the 6 of us and their two daughters eating together. Had a nice meeting then Elder Belnap said his goodbyes again. REALLY SPECIAL.  

Which now brings me to today, Monday. This morning we said our "see ya laters" and Elder Belnap headed off for his last hurrah in Cali. Elder Belnap, I can say, changed my mission. He changed my life and has helped me in more ways than he can imagine. I know I will see him again in Utah, but for the time being it will be difficult to adjust. Just like when I left my Best Bros in Cali (California) and family in Utah. I just have to adjust and keep moving on, and do the Lords work. And do it to the best of my ability. Love you all.

Elder Welling.

-- Elder Tyler Welling

Elder Welling's last baptism day with Elder Belnap in Buenaventura

                                                        

Bogota Temple Week for Our Buenaventura Branch

Elder Welling and Elder Belnap with their great companions and Sister Maryam, who takes great care of them in BV.

Monday 
November 19, 2012

Hey family and friends,

This week was great . On Tuesday the bus left for Bogota to go to the Bogota Temple. That was nuts!!! So my companion, and I had to go get the bigbus and drive it to the Capilla (our church). It was great, and my companion drove the bus! Then when we got to the church here in BV my companion parked the bus and we got everybody ready to get onto the bus.

We all sang a song first, then they started to get on the bus. A lot of the members started to cry and knew their prayers had been an swered. It was a really special moment. Then when they were all in the bus, Elder Belnap, and I entered the bus and took a picture of everybody. Then Jose(our BV Branch Presidente) came to us and started to cry and gave us huge hugs. It was a really special moment. We said some stuff to everyone, and then the bus went off to Bogotá. That was amazing!

God sometimes just wants us to work our faith a little bit harder. To do a little more. I learned a lot of lessons from that experience and I am so happy that they got to go. During the week we taught a good amount of lessons and worked hard. Didn't find many new people, but stayed focused on those that have been progressing.

Then later the bus came back on Saturday. We talked to all of the members and especially with Jose, our BV Branch President, that night. SUPER special, all of the members wrote their testimonies on a piece of paper about the experience, and I cried a lot when Jose was reading them to us. It was just amazing!

Then the next day, Sunday, it was a special sacrament meeting in the church. A lot of people went up to the pulpit and bore their testimonies about the experience at the temple. Some of my converts got the chance to go, and they said they understood now and want to invest themselves next year. They know more and said know that they will never fall away!!!! That was amazing and super special for me. I loved it. I cried during that meeting, too. The spirit was just overwhelming, and it is just awesome to see our Branch progressing in ways I never thought possible in only 4 months.

I am really learning what it means to be a missionary. Loving my time here in B uenaventura, and I will never forget these experiences that I have gained. I hope also that my family never forgets how they blessed the lives of others in what you have all done for them, too!

Love you all and miss you!  BTW, this next week is super busy with a ton of activities and we get to go to Cali to have a conference with Elder Juan a Uceda de los setenta, estoy animado por eso y que tambien tenemos mucho bautismos por la semena que viene. Pero, la aproxima lunes seria dificil para me porque el elder Belnap se va por Utah. Seré muy triste, eso yo sé.
--
Elder Tyler Welling

Week...........................Que?????

Elder Welling before baptizing these two sweet boys in Buenaventura

                                

Elder Welling and Elder Belnap with their companions ready to baptize these 8 wonderful brothers and sisters.

Monday
November 12, 2012

Hey family and friends,
this week was great. I will try to explain better what i did this week. So on monday, i can't remember what we did. I am pretty sure that we just went to the parks here and played dunkball and things like that.

Then on tuesday, i did some baptismal interviews for the people who were ready to take the next step . Then ready for traveling to Cali at about 6oclock that night.

I love doing the baptismal interviews, you can really hear how a person is changing and how the gospel has really influeced their lives. I love it. Sometimes they really open up. So, the bus ride sucked, but we got to Cali at about 8 oclock, and went to go and see some of Elder Belnaps old converts. They were so excied to see him. It was way special. Then we headed over to the Familia Torrgersons house to have dinner. They made us some good ol stew!! It was soooo good. So, that was awesome.

Then Mitt ROmney lost that night. SO, ya. The next day was wednesday and we had a capacitaion with President Prince. i gave a little presentation. and i feel it was that great. But Belnap said it was fine. Maybe it was, who knows.

But then later we had the training and it was awesome . then we bounced, ate Burger King, it was delicious. then we headed back to Buenaventura. But we had to do some errands before for an investigator named Alexander to get married. He is getting married the 23rd then the 24th is his baptiism. So that will be awesome.

Then the rest of the week was normal, working hard, and doing all we can to get the people to come unto Chrst. Then on saturday was the baptisms. It was awesome. We had 5 baptisms, but only four got confirmed. but it is ok, the other will get confirmed on the 25th.

So that was awesome. and now today i am typing you all. But the family we bapti zed was a big family, so that was great!!!!!! Here are the pics, love you all. Thank you for Everything and Helping out the Saints here in BV!!!!!!!! 

Love you all and miss you all tooooooo!!                                  

--
Elder Tyler Welling

Week.........Que??

Monday
November 5, 2012

Elder Welling with Elder Belnap and their companions and Sister Maryam in Buenaventura

                                                                
Hey Family and Friends.

This week was fast, but also really long for some reason. I will start really fast with Sunday night. I was just in a bad mood and I don't know why...I'm sure it is because I was hungry. but idk. 

Anyways. this week was good. We got started preparing for our baptisms that we are going to have this coming week. as of right now we have 8 dates. We have got to make sure and work hard that none of the dates that we have will fall through. And that they stay strong and are ready to walk into the waters of baptism. 

T his week will be really busy and we will go to Cali to have a mini conference with Pres Prince. I am sure that it will be awesome, and we are excited for that. 

But this past week was good. We had some solid lessons with two girls, Tania and Nayi. They are really cool, but are really hesitant also. I think they have a testimony about the church. but something is holding them back. I am not sure if it is something to do with their family or what. But we need to help them a lot this week to progress even further with their faith in Christ. 

We also have an awesome investigator, Alexander. He is amazing. here an investigator asi is called a Pepa. He has done all of his genealogy, we baptized his children and everything, he just has to get married. 

Which reminds me of all of the miracles we saw this week. Absolutely nuts. Always look for the miracles of God, they come in many different ways. It was awesome to see those amazing things happen. 

God listens and answers our prayers when we put in all of our effort and have done everything we can do to fulfill our needs. That is when the hand of the Lord comes into our lives. 

That was our week and this next week will be nuts.
Love you all and miss you all. 

--
Elder Tyler Welling

What's Good in the Hood?

Elder Welling with Sebastian Brinez in Cali

Monday 
October 29

Whats good in the Hood??
First off, that is great about the Giants! Happy they won, But really it has been awhile since the Yankees won the world series. Need to get back in the swing of things.

So, this week was solid. We didn't get to teach many lessons, but we did a lot of important things. I will start with Monday, played Soccer and beat some Colombians 9-7 on a micro field. and then later that day went out and taught. It was great. We had a really awesome lesson with these 2 daughters of a member. We watched the Joseph Smith movie. It was amazing. I love watching things like that and seeing the first vision. I always get a testimony and feel it growing stronger every time. I know the two girls felt the spirit and the emotion in the movie. It was amazing. But they have something on their mind. I don't know exactly what it is, but I will find out.

This week BV was without water for 4 days......that was interesting. Luckily we had a reserve tank, so things were ok for us. But as for the city, it was bad!! haha. We didn't have any water to wash the dishes, which sucked. But we were lucky to have reserve water. 

Elder Welling with his fellow missionaries/companions in Buenaventura

                                                                                                                 






                                           
What else, we had a conference this week on Sunday. The area talked to us and also Neil L Anderson. It was great. He talked in Spanish, but totally sounds like a gringo, haha. It was really special though. He gave a blessing to the country of Colombia at the very end of his blessing, and it was amazing. It is so awesome that we actually have a prophet and 12 apostles today! I can't think of what the world would like be without a Guide. We, our LDS faith, would not exist had it not been for a prophet. So glad to know that we can look to their teachings to know what to do and how to receive happiness in this life.

Things are great here. As you have all seen in the pictures, Buenaventura is reallllllyyyyyy poor, and they can't grow anything here...why idk but it is difficult for Colombia to make a lot of money. So that is a problem here. But hopefully things will get better,. Colombia soccer is great and will hopefully qualify for the world cup next year. They have a good shot and oh yeah, when they play it is impossible to teach a lesson. haha Love you all, have a great day, and GO NINERS!!!!

Elder Welling.
--
Elder Tyler Welling

What Week Is It? Whoah...I Am In Colombia!!!

Elder Welling pondering many things...

  
Monday
October 22, 2012

Whats up Family and Friends,

This week was good, but also long. I will start with Monday. So this week we went to Cali reallly early on Monday morning. We had breakfeast with a couple missionary. They are awesome. They are from Idaho, so the breakfast was legit!!!! So then later that day we were in the Office, had our interviews with President Prince and stuff. Always awesome talking to him, just gaining knowledge on how to think, how to do things differently and ask for advice. So that was awesome. 

Elder Welling with new missionary couple from Idaho.

Ya, Pres Prince is having Elder Belnap, and I work in new companionships and area. I think it is because if we stayed working in only 1 area together it would be way more dominant over the other area. He said this is probably my last transfer in BV.

Then got my new companion and headed back to Buenaventura . He is from Bolivia, his name is Elder Aldunate. He is chill, 19 years old and has about 5 months in the mission. But otherwise it is all good. Definitely hard to switch companions when I have learned so much from Elder Belnap. Just a different way to teach, and he has to get to know everybody and everything. It is just a process, but it is all good!!

So then we had divisions twice this week. and other stuff. But yeah, on Thursday I noticed I was in Colombia again, sometimes it is weird like....Woah I am in Colombia!!!!! Lol!!!! But yeah, this Saturday we had a baptism. It was awesome. I attached a picture of the little girl who got baptized, her name is Nichole. She is sooo sweet, and quiet. But ya, so that was awesome.
Oh, on Friday we had a goal as a companionship that we would start with finding 100 people in a day. So we went out like freaks ready to find and teach a ton of new people. But, it didn't work out to be 100. But we did in my companionship find 52 new people. Elder Belnap, and his companion found 54. So it was awesome. Really hard work. But awesome.

Then yeah, that is basically my week, have a lot of good people to teach, but won't bapti zed for at least two weeks, so we will see how things goooooo.... Love you all. Miss you all.

--
Elder Tyler Welling

I'm in Cali...Just for the Day

Their special baptism day in Buenaventura of 10 new members.

Monday
October 15, 2012

Well, i am in Cali for the day. I just had my interview with President Prince. It was awesome. always has so much insight and knowledge in his interviews. So this week was great, but also terrible.

On Monday we didn't really do anything too great. We kinda just chilled in the house if i am remembering correctly. So it was a solid week. On Tuesday we had the reunion de distrito (our district meeting). It was solid, our numbers as a district were kinda down, it was a hectic week. Elder Patino gave a lesson, and finished his mission today. There were a ton of tears this weekend because of that.

So we worked hard this week. The branch is growing so fast that we have to make a lot of hard decisions . Basically we need to pick if we need to strengthen the members if we are going to find new people, or help our investigators, which is really hard to do . So we did a little bit of everything this week. We found 13 new people to teach, but also we needed to get everything set up for the leaving of Elder Patino. That was on Saturday. he showed a great video of how his time in Buenaventura was, tons of pictures and photos of everything. So that was a really cool meeting. He was my Zone Leader in the mission, and really taught me a ton of valuable lessons in my mish so far.

It is so amazing how the church has come to together so perfectly here in BV...new members coming out of the bushes, people waving us down saying they want to talk to us and everything, it is just nuts. We had one baptism this last Saturday, and we're having a few more baptisms this Saturday.

So I had my interview with President today which was great. He always helps me a ton. One thing he said is that he feels closest to the Savior when he reads from the 4 gospels. Just the thought of the apostles there writing down everything. It is all true. We need to always follow the example and the teachings of the Savior. People that were there when the things the Savior did happened.

But also, he told me some really bad news...... Elder Belnap, and I have a division!!!! But not really, he is changing areas and I am staying in the same place. so that was super sad. But, we are both still in BV, so i guess it is ok. 

Things are great here, though. I will continue to work hard and be the best that I can be, going for the grand slam. Love it here, Cali is awesome. Today, we aren't really doing anything, just chillin in Cali, then heading back to BV on a 3 hour bus ride... Love you all, thanks and write me some letters!!!!! Please!!!!!

LOVEEEEEE

-- 

Elder Tyler Welling