No Time - Week 22

I think that besides a week with no letter, this is the shortest one yet.  You're killin' me, Grace!!

So sorry that this is so short. I'm not dead. We just have been
practicing all day for a choir fireside and I have no time for emails
today! Talk to y'all next week!

President Lies! Life off the Res! - Week 21

      Well kind of but not really.... It's just that every time that
President gives me transfer news early, and I mean every time, it is
wrong. THIS HAS HAPPENED EVERY TRANSFER SINCE I HAVE BEEN HERE.

Anyway, for those of you who are still reading and not busy reporting
me or President Sweeney to the missionary department.... I DID get
transferred! But I am not in Mesa still, I am not training, and I am
not on bike. I am with a sister from my old zone serving in both the
Scottsdale YSA and Chaparral wards. Let me just say, it is so
different from the Rez! Not gonna lie, I really miss all my brown
people, but I think that I will really like it here too.
      My last week in Papago was pretty normal. We put someone on
date, had over 21 lessons, and said goodbye to all my peeps. We got to
make dinner for the Woods on Monday night to thank them for all they
have done for us. They really are so amazing! Good thing I decided I
am leaving a box of things in their garage when I go home so I HAVE to
come back and see them :) Thursday we spent most of the day packing
and getting ready for me to move and then we had sports night. Since
it was my last one we got to play rugby, which is like my favorite :)
well, while we were playing I may have kind of sort of sprained my
ankle.... Like I was running and landed in a rut funny and my ankle
cracked like 4 times... I hobbled off the fired and immediately it
started to swell up. Luckily it didn't rally hurt too bad it we got
some ice and a wrap and it is not going to have to be amputated. Yet.

A pretty cool thing though, that night I had to get up to go to el
baño, and when I went back to bed I could not get to sleep. My ankle
was really hurting so bad and I didn't want to wake up Sister PH so I
just laid there in pain. I said a prayer and asked that the pain would
subside enough so I could get some more sleep. As soon as I did, I was
able to close my eyes and go back to sleep. It was really amazing. God
really does know us and what we are going through and he hears and
answers our prayers.
          We have already met quite a bit of people. On Saturday, my
first full day in the area (oh yeah,transfers are on Fridays now....)
we had a baptism! I met the guy before o

n Friday night and he is the
sweetest young man. John is in the YSA ward and he really has let the
gospel change his life. The baptism went so well! So many people came
and the spirit was really strong. Afterwards, we went to the temple
visitor's center with another investigator, CJ. He has a lot of
questions about the little details and so his lessons are very tiring,
but they are getting better. He really just needs to find out for
himself through prayer if this is true.

        I'm sorry that this is kind of short, I need to get better
again about writing down what to email about..... I love you guys.




Ps, I hit 6 months on Friday! How insane is that. I still feel like
such a baby! SO MUCH TO LEARN STILL. Good thing I still have a year :)

Life on the Res - Week 20

Some cool things happened this week. Last P-day when we went out to
see people we had scheduled to stop by one of our new investigator's
house. we had never been to this house we had one ever met her at her
other grandma's house so after we found it and we were sitting outside
getting ready to go in, Sister Pinto-Haynes said a prayer and I just
had this feeling like we shouldn't be there. It is kind of hard to
explain but I just felt bad. So I turned to Sister Pinto- Haynes and
asked her what she thought. She said she wasn't really sure but if I
thought we shouldn't be there that we should go. So on we went to the
next person we had scheduled to drop by, which just so happened to be
Erica, the former investigator. We have not been able to see her for
months it seems. She got a new job and has been working a lot and our
schedules never worked out, but we went over anyway. SHE WAS THERE! It
was so great to see her! And to make it even better, she told us that
she has been thinking about us and the church a lot lately, and she
wanted us to come back later in the week! It really was an amazing
experience. I had never felt like I shouldn't be in a place so
strongly before, so I am really glad that I payed attention to the
promoting so we were able to see Erica.
In other news, we have picked up a few new investigators lately! One
of the less active we have been working with for a while (who just so
happens to be the bishop's sister) has a husband who is not a member.
Every time we go over he has always left to go to another room and not
really payed attention to us when we were there. But the last few
times we have gone over I have really been trying to get him in the
conversation before he leaves the room and then HE SATYS FOR THE
LESSON. Imaging that, after talking to people and showing them you
care they actually listen to you! Well anyways, that was really cool.
We are seeing him again this week and hopefully he continues to meet
with us! Victor and Rozy are still doing pretty well. They are
actually moving this coming week! It is to another house in our area,
thank goodness, but we are supposed to help them do that later this
week.
The stake is putting on a road show this year! The youth are all
pretty excited, it is Star Wars themed and we have seen some of their
stuff. It looks way good. Nicole is in charge of costumes and everyone
is really going all out! They have the whole storyline scrolling on
the screen with all the stars and cool stuff. It looks way cool!
On a funny note, two of the guys that we work with (Steve and Wolf)
both told us that the love us this week! That is big. They show like
no emotions like ever even to their families. The most emotion they
show is when they are being sassy.... I guess that is usually how they
let us know they care, but they actually used their words this time!
We had interviews with President this week and pretty much everything
is changing.... He told me that I am leaving Papago :( As far as I
know I will be going into another part of Mesa, training and the best
part is that we will be white washing. That means staring a new area
from scratch! Phew I am kind of scared... But it will be good and a
new learning experience! President hinted at going up to the other
reservation in the mountains, it would be so cold!!!! Maybe he will
hold off on that it'll it gets a little warmer.... Haha
We have been able to have quite a few people to come to church the
past couple weeks! Most of them are less actives, we are still working
on the consistency of church attendance with our investigators, but it
still has been great. I will be sad to leave this place that I have
learned to call home and the people that have grown to b my second
family, but I really am glad for the opportunities I have to learn
more and serve other people as well.
All is good here, love you guys!

Sister Welch

Life on the Res - Week 19

It's a Wonderful Life!

So Sister Pinto-Haynes and I discovered that if pictures say a thousand words then imagine how much more a video can say! Therefore, we have been making silly little videos at the close of our days to share with you :) Some of them are pretty long, so it may take you till next week to finish all of them... but some parts are pretty funny! Well at least we thought so... So enjoy! Also: people when I got my call to Arizona said it is always warm. THEY LIED! It got down to 35 degrees this week during morning exercise! We almost died. Go to AZ they said. It will be warm they said. Jokes on me I guess! I have been wearing tights and boots almost everyday with a winter coat. Maybe I'm just a baby, but I was not expecting this! 

Love you Guys!

 Sister Welch

PS. meet Carl, my pet cactus. He is adorable.

Life on the Res - Week 18

This Christmas

Well it hasn't been that long since I emailed... So not too much has
happened....but I was doing family history to go to the temple again
this week and we got all that way back to King Henry III! The funny
part is that the mother was concubine #5... Oh yeah... We had our ward
Christmas party and it was amazing! So many nonmembers and less
actives came! It was pretty fun! I love you all!

Also, I'm really proud of this tree we made :)

Life on the Res. Week 17 - We Almost Died!

*****WARNING: The first half of this email was written last Pday which
we didn't get to finish because of service and you are hearing from me
today because yesterday's pday was spent driving with Sister
Thumstedter to Snowflake for a baptism of a family she worked with
when she served up there. Also next week Pday will be on Wednesday
again because it is transfers week and I am finally getting a
companion! I AM NOT DEAD, I AM VERY MUCH ALIVE, I PROMISE! Love you
guys :)*****


 I know this may be throwing you all for a loop, but turns out we did
service for almost all of our PDay yesterday so we got special
permission to finish our emails today!
     I never really know where to start these letters so I hope you
guys don't think I am crazy and this scatter brained all the time,
there is just so much to tell and I tend to forget and go on and on...
but anyway! Whew, this week. It feels like the days here last forever
but the weeks go by so fast! I'm not really sure how that works, but
it does.
  I guess I will start with the fact that Sister Hess went home this
morning! I am yet again the "last of the mohicans".... jut kidding, I
mean I am back in the trio with the Spanish sisters I live with most
of the time, but we were able to find some members to come out with me
during some days so the work is a little more balanced the next two
weeks. On the bright side, all of our lessons will have a member
present!
  This week was full of things to do with meetings, the holiday, and
sharing the god message of the Gospel with the people here in Mesa/
Scottsdale. We had exchanges on Tuesday with our Sister Training
Leaders, which is just when we switch companions for the day so that
our leaders can evaluate how well we are doing and give us advice on
how we can be more effective and happier. I went with Sister Colina
into, you guessed it, Spanish work for the day. I may not have been
called Spanish speaking but by the end of these few weeks I could
probably hold my own!
  Well for Thanksgiving we tried our best to stay busy but there are
only so many things that you can do in your apartment... we did have
three dinners though, that was very fun, and so filling! Holy Moses,
it was a LOT of food. We helped out with the state Turkey Trot and
then for service we made birthday cards for homeless children with the
other missionaries in our zone. It was a long day because we couldn't
do much proselyting work but it was fun to do all the service. On
Friday we did a sisters workshop where we were with the other sisters
in our zone and we learned about things to do on the mission to stay
happy and healthy. We got to do each others make up and hair and those
things and it was SO FUN! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the sister we serve around,
they are so amazing and you can just see the Spirit radiating from
them.
  We have been able to go to the visitor's center with some of our
investigators this past week or so and it has been really cool. When
we went with Victor and Rozlyn I ran into a frond from our stake at
home, Ali! It was so fun to see her! Of course we had to get a
picture...
  We (and by we I mean I because I STILL don't have a full time
companion) have been trying our best to teach all the time, but it
seems like Heavenly Father really wants me to learn something,
probably patience. But while we were trying to visit a less active
family on Sunday we were able to meet the family that lives next door
and they said they wanted us to come back and teach them! The father
is a less active member, turns out, but the kids are all unbaptized
and the mom is not in the picture anymore. They are a pretty sweet
family and I am so thankful that we were there at just the right time
to get to meet them!
  And now you get to hear the story I know you wanted to read from the
moment you saw the heading of this email! We have been trying to
contact this referral, Matt, for a while now and he has never been
home to meet us (yet!) but the other time we went over it was
daylight, not scary at all. This night on the other hand it was around
6:30 (aka complete darkness on the Rez in winter time) and we decide
to go check on him. So as we are walking up to the door we see a dog
and think, aww cool I didn't notice that before... and then we get
close and see it's a doberman and he's growling at  us. AND if that
wasn't scary enough, four more of them come out of nowhere! By this
point we had made it to the front door but that meant we were trapped!
Mat wasn't answering the door either... I was so scared! I was jumping
and squeaking at every bark and growl coming from those dogs. I am not
conditioned for this at all! We decided we couldn't run back to the
car cause that would make them madder, and they would totally outrun
me....We slowly inched back to the car, miraculously without being
devoured. If I learned anything, it is to always carry a Book of
Mormon, especially around possessive dogs. And never go to Matt's
house at night time... I made it another week on the Pima- Maricopa
Indian Reservation. I'm not dead yet!

WEEK 2:
  Luckily for you not too much happened this week so you won't have to
keep reading for too much longer! We had some really good days, and
some not as good days... There have been quite a few interruptions in
our normal schedule so it is easy to feel like we aren't being as
productive as normal. I'm excited to get my brand new, very own,
companion next week!  The coolest thing that we did this week was get
to meet Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the presidency of the 70. He came to
our mission and gave us a really cool training. He told president that
he thinks that our mission is very obedient! While he was speaking to
us he talked about a lot of different things, especially out of Preach
My Gospel. It seemed to a lot of us that he spoke quite a bit on
marriage and preparing for that part of our lives, which is a little
different topic to speak to a bunch of *obedient* missionaries.. it
was still really amazing! He also spent a big amount of time talking
about the parable of the 10 virgins and how it is comparable to the
temple. We can't borrow some one else's oil (temple recommend), you
will be turned away just like the 5 foolish virgins. He told us to
never let the time of our oil (recommend) lapse, lest you be
unprepared when the bridegroom comes and tells us "ye know me not".
  Hope this wasn't too long of a read for all of you! I love you guys!

Love,
Sister Welch

PS. Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! It really was an
awesome day! I got to spend most of it at church!

News from the Res. 1 December

"Hey Bobby! I'm not dead yet. I love you. I got your birthday package
this week, thank you so much! I will definitely have to make the
cheesecake or lemon bars and Sunday to celebrate. I will be finishing
writing my bigger email later tonight it's been a crazy couple days.
Miss you. If there's anything I can do for you let me know.

PS if you're putting a package together anytime soon it might be nice
to have my scarves and flannels… But it's OK if you can't get around
to it fast fast. I love you K bye."

When I got this note, I immediately thought of my friend, Amy Jo.  I remembered getting a similar note from one of my sons while he was on his mission, and her saying I need to let him know in no uncertain terms that this is not acceptable.  I knew that I would not get a weekly epistle, but seriously....  It even felt like she used Siri to write the note to us.