Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Monday November 14, 2011
hola familia!!!!
this week has been a rollercoaster ride for my emotions and in this moment i am a little procupied. let me explain. i have this great fear. and it all started with a dream i had during my first week in the MTC. my first week was rough and i wanted to give up many many times but after this dream it was sertain what i needed to do.
in my dream i was sitting in a room all the lights were turned out i could hardly see anything. then one by one people began to appear. and they all said the same thing, "you promised me", "You promised me" i could never see their face but what they said has stuck with me to this moment and i am sure it will haunt me forever. my greatest fear is one day to be standing in front of christ and someone will approach me and say "you promised me, why didnt you fulfill?"
this past month we have been trying to teach a family, in particular on of their daughters, Gabriela. one day we went to visit her and her aunt told us not to come back, that gabby didnt want to listen to us and that we were wasting our time. well we listened to her we didnt go back until yesterday. she is moving to italy tomorrow to be with her mom and we went to visit her and say goodbye and good luck. i felt like i should give her a book of mormon as a last effort before she left. i was in the middle of explaining it and she cut me off and asked. "why did you stop visiting me?" to me that question sounded alot like my fear. and it cut deep. we explained what happened with her aunt and she told us that her aunt was speaking out of anger. that she had been waiting almost 4 weeks for us to visit and we never did. she told us that she has read the pamphlets over and over and over again, that she has prayed, and that she wants to be baptised, but we never visited her. and now it is too late. . . what have i done? did i fail? did i break one of my promises? is she one of those people from my dream? did i fail to listen to the spirit prompting me to go back and visit her? and the answer is . . . i dont know. i will never know. the only thing i do know is i am scared.
we entered her house and talked for almost a hour more and we are also going to visit her tonight but i know that it wont be sufficient.
i got back to my appartment last night and after planning went straight to the book of mormon. i opened it randomly to Jacob 1:19 looking for comfort and for the first time i think my heavenly father was trying to make me feel guilty not comfort me, because it reads, And we did magnify our office unto the lord taking upon us the responsibility, answering th sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of god with all diligence; wherefroe, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day. the answer is YES i did fail. i failed her, i failed myself, but worse than that failed my dad who always tells me to work work work and i always tell you a am working as hard as i can. well in moments like these i wonder if i am lying. and worst of all i failed him who i represent, the name i have on my badge. i dont know what i am doing anymore.
i recieved the package with the terkey jerky and cookies but the camara not yet. still waiting.
i love you all and know that i am trying.
Elder Landon R. Welch
this week has been a rollercoaster ride for my emotions and in this moment i am a little procupied. let me explain. i have this great fear. and it all started with a dream i had during my first week in the MTC. my first week was rough and i wanted to give up many many times but after this dream it was sertain what i needed to do.
in my dream i was sitting in a room all the lights were turned out i could hardly see anything. then one by one people began to appear. and they all said the same thing, "you promised me", "You promised me" i could never see their face but what they said has stuck with me to this moment and i am sure it will haunt me forever. my greatest fear is one day to be standing in front of christ and someone will approach me and say "you promised me, why didnt you fulfill?"
this past month we have been trying to teach a family, in particular on of their daughters, Gabriela. one day we went to visit her and her aunt told us not to come back, that gabby didnt want to listen to us and that we were wasting our time. well we listened to her we didnt go back until yesterday. she is moving to italy tomorrow to be with her mom and we went to visit her and say goodbye and good luck. i felt like i should give her a book of mormon as a last effort before she left. i was in the middle of explaining it and she cut me off and asked. "why did you stop visiting me?" to me that question sounded alot like my fear. and it cut deep. we explained what happened with her aunt and she told us that her aunt was speaking out of anger. that she had been waiting almost 4 weeks for us to visit and we never did. she told us that she has read the pamphlets over and over and over again, that she has prayed, and that she wants to be baptised, but we never visited her. and now it is too late. . . what have i done? did i fail? did i break one of my promises? is she one of those people from my dream? did i fail to listen to the spirit prompting me to go back and visit her? and the answer is . . . i dont know. i will never know. the only thing i do know is i am scared.
we entered her house and talked for almost a hour more and we are also going to visit her tonight but i know that it wont be sufficient.
i got back to my appartment last night and after planning went straight to the book of mormon. i opened it randomly to Jacob 1:19 looking for comfort and for the first time i think my heavenly father was trying to make me feel guilty not comfort me, because it reads, And we did magnify our office unto the lord taking upon us the responsibility, answering th sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of god with all diligence; wherefroe, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day. the answer is YES i did fail. i failed her, i failed myself, but worse than that failed my dad who always tells me to work work work and i always tell you a am working as hard as i can. well in moments like these i wonder if i am lying. and worst of all i failed him who i represent, the name i have on my badge. i dont know what i am doing anymore.
i recieved the package with the terkey jerky and cookies but the camara not yet. still waiting.
i love you all and know that i am trying.
Elder Landon R. Welch
Monday November 7, 2011
Hola Familia!!
how has your week been? mine has just been dandy working hard and enjoying every minute of it. it still amazes me to think you are all getting ready for snow where as i am having to store a extra white shirt at my pension so i can let the other one dry from how much i have been sweating. it is hot and very very humid. and it is killing me. i sweat alot as is but now i have the humidity factor too.
supposedly i have recieved my package but i havent recieved it yet. the way the mail works here is all the letters, packages ETC. gets sent to the mission office and from there a man (named Pedro), or the Zone Leaders take all of it to district meeting and give them too us. well last week while at the temple Pedro told me that he had a package for me but that it was currently in his car and that he would bring it to me the next day. well he didnt come. so i asked the zone leaders and they know nothing about it eather. so they called pedro and he told them that he DIDNT have a package for me. so 1 of 2 things has just happened. #1 he lied to me at the temple about have a package in his car. or #2 he lost it. i am kinda worried because even though he works for the mission he is still a person so i just hope he is a honest person.
i dont have too much new news other than Elder Quintero is going to the clinic tomorrow to have his arm operated on. he has a little bump on his arm and they figure better safe than sorry so they are going to take it out so please remember my awesome companion in your prayers for the next week, it isnt a dangerous sergery but at least help him to recuperate faster.
we all remember my good friend Ramos Romero (the man with the problem with sunday as the sabath) well we had tried everything and come to find out he has been studying with Jehovah witnesses too and has chosen to be baptised in their church and not ours. well all i can say is i am sorry i couldnt change his mind. he really is a great man, i just hope one day he will see for himself that what we were teaching him IS true and that it always will be. talking with my comp after the lesson he said "i just hope i can be there in the day of judgement to say "I told you so." that made me think and i have decided i hope i am there too but not to say i told you so but to hear his amazing story about his eventual conversion. i know he has started to build a testimony i am just kinda sad i wont be able to help him grow it.
well it is off for another grand adventure of a p day . . . not it is p day by ourselves and elder quintero want to go and wash his ties . . . . . . are you serious?!?!?! you want to wash your ties? but hey i guess if that is his idea of a free p day i guess i will play soitare. oh which reminds me, if you have time i would love some american card games, like the ones we always used to play on sunday, phase 10, uno skipbo, golf and any other fun ones you can find. i am in no rush to have them so when you have time.
i love you all and remember i am working as hard as i can.
Elder Landon R. Welch
p.s. i tried to send pictures from the last few weeks but looks like it is going to take more time than i thought. but these are pictures of some of my good friends from trapiche at my goodbye party. and from the last baptism we had. and it was a awesome baptism 4 from us and one from the Hermanas!! woo hoo. and the amazing sunset is Oscar (our ward mission leader) and Lucero (one of our future baptisms) but i have honestly never seen a sky more beautiful.
p.s.s. tell brad dopp that i havent forgot about him and that i am writing his letter as fast as i can. and i think next week i will have time to email it to you. love ya chao
how has your week been? mine has just been dandy working hard and enjoying every minute of it. it still amazes me to think you are all getting ready for snow where as i am having to store a extra white shirt at my pension so i can let the other one dry from how much i have been sweating. it is hot and very very humid. and it is killing me. i sweat alot as is but now i have the humidity factor too.
supposedly i have recieved my package but i havent recieved it yet. the way the mail works here is all the letters, packages ETC. gets sent to the mission office and from there a man (named Pedro), or the Zone Leaders take all of it to district meeting and give them too us. well last week while at the temple Pedro told me that he had a package for me but that it was currently in his car and that he would bring it to me the next day. well he didnt come. so i asked the zone leaders and they know nothing about it eather. so they called pedro and he told them that he DIDNT have a package for me. so 1 of 2 things has just happened. #1 he lied to me at the temple about have a package in his car. or #2 he lost it. i am kinda worried because even though he works for the mission he is still a person so i just hope he is a honest person.
i dont have too much new news other than Elder Quintero is going to the clinic tomorrow to have his arm operated on. he has a little bump on his arm and they figure better safe than sorry so they are going to take it out so please remember my awesome companion in your prayers for the next week, it isnt a dangerous sergery but at least help him to recuperate faster.
we all remember my good friend Ramos Romero (the man with the problem with sunday as the sabath) well we had tried everything and come to find out he has been studying with Jehovah witnesses too and has chosen to be baptised in their church and not ours. well all i can say is i am sorry i couldnt change his mind. he really is a great man, i just hope one day he will see for himself that what we were teaching him IS true and that it always will be. talking with my comp after the lesson he said "i just hope i can be there in the day of judgement to say "I told you so." that made me think and i have decided i hope i am there too but not to say i told you so but to hear his amazing story about his eventual conversion. i know he has started to build a testimony i am just kinda sad i wont be able to help him grow it.
well it is off for another grand adventure of a p day . . . not it is p day by ourselves and elder quintero want to go and wash his ties . . . . . . are you serious?!?!?! you want to wash your ties? but hey i guess if that is his idea of a free p day i guess i will play soitare. oh which reminds me, if you have time i would love some american card games, like the ones we always used to play on sunday, phase 10, uno skipbo, golf and any other fun ones you can find. i am in no rush to have them so when you have time.
i love you all and remember i am working as hard as i can.
Elder Landon R. Welch
p.s. i tried to send pictures from the last few weeks but looks like it is going to take more time than i thought. but these are pictures of some of my good friends from trapiche at my goodbye party. and from the last baptism we had. and it was a awesome baptism 4 from us and one from the Hermanas!! woo hoo. and the amazing sunset is Oscar (our ward mission leader) and Lucero (one of our future baptisms) but i have honestly never seen a sky more beautiful.
p.s.s. tell brad dopp that i havent forgot about him and that i am writing his letter as fast as i can. and i think next week i will have time to email it to you. love ya chao
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Monday October 31, 2011
Hola Familia!!!
What a amazing week we have had this last week, we didnt have too much time to teach but for a good reason. i was finally able to go to the lima temple. after more than 6 months here in peru i finally got to see it, inside and out. it is a small temple, it looks much bigger from the outside but actually incredibly small. it has 4 rooms for endowments and the rooms themselves are small, it seemed to only fit our zone and no one else. but in the center of the temple was the baptismal font, it had windows on all side where you could watch them doing the ordinances from almost anywhere in the temple. amazing. as missionaries we cant be part of the baptisms which is kind of a disapointment, but none the less i hope one day to have the experience.
we also had a baptism this week, Henry Sergio Quispe Mendez was baptized at 10 saturday morning. i had alot of doubts about him, his desire, and his faith, as we were teaching him. but there is no doubt now in my mind how much he really loves and treasures the things we have taught him. we share with him some pictures from our temple adventure and all he could say is "wow, i cant wait for experiences like these on my mission." amazing young man with alot of desire to follow the spirit and to one day serve a mission. he recently turned 19 and was very disapointed that he had missed the mark to serve a mission. when we told him that the limit was 25 for men, his face lit up and said. "25?!?! well in that case when can i go?!" he will be quite the missionary.
but unfortunatly the week brought a little bit of sadness too. we were supposed to have 2 baptisms this week. but Miriam decided that she didnt want to be apart of this grand truth. she had a baptism date and hour set for saturday at 7, well we got to the church at 7 exactly and waited 30 minutes for her to get there. when she didnt show we went to the nearest phone to start looking for her. after calling 3 different places we finally found her. she told us that she didnt feel prepared, that there was still things in her life that she didnt feel good about. we told her that we understood and that we were there to help her over come any struggles or chalanges that she had. she then thanked us but told us that she didnt want to talk to us or anyone from the church anymore. i am not really sure what happened, why so suddenly she changed. in the morning we were calling her to find out what size of clothes she needed, and in the night we were calling to find out why she didnt show up. it is sad but it is her choice, we have taught everything, but she didnt want to accept it, and we just need to accept that. it is my hope and prayer that one day more will be guided to her door and she will open it to them. and that in this moment she will feel the need to change her life for the better.
i love this work the good times and the bad. i am so greatful for the oportunity i have to change other lives as well as my own.
i love you all and always remember i am working as hard as i can.
Elder Landon R. Welch
p.s. i was finally able to send pictures!!!
What a amazing week we have had this last week, we didnt have too much time to teach but for a good reason. i was finally able to go to the lima temple. after more than 6 months here in peru i finally got to see it, inside and out. it is a small temple, it looks much bigger from the outside but actually incredibly small. it has 4 rooms for endowments and the rooms themselves are small, it seemed to only fit our zone and no one else. but in the center of the temple was the baptismal font, it had windows on all side where you could watch them doing the ordinances from almost anywhere in the temple. amazing. as missionaries we cant be part of the baptisms which is kind of a disapointment, but none the less i hope one day to have the experience.
we also had a baptism this week, Henry Sergio Quispe Mendez was baptized at 10 saturday morning. i had alot of doubts about him, his desire, and his faith, as we were teaching him. but there is no doubt now in my mind how much he really loves and treasures the things we have taught him. we share with him some pictures from our temple adventure and all he could say is "wow, i cant wait for experiences like these on my mission." amazing young man with alot of desire to follow the spirit and to one day serve a mission. he recently turned 19 and was very disapointed that he had missed the mark to serve a mission. when we told him that the limit was 25 for men, his face lit up and said. "25?!?! well in that case when can i go?!" he will be quite the missionary.
but unfortunatly the week brought a little bit of sadness too. we were supposed to have 2 baptisms this week. but Miriam decided that she didnt want to be apart of this grand truth. she had a baptism date and hour set for saturday at 7, well we got to the church at 7 exactly and waited 30 minutes for her to get there. when she didnt show we went to the nearest phone to start looking for her. after calling 3 different places we finally found her. she told us that she didnt feel prepared, that there was still things in her life that she didnt feel good about. we told her that we understood and that we were there to help her over come any struggles or chalanges that she had. she then thanked us but told us that she didnt want to talk to us or anyone from the church anymore. i am not really sure what happened, why so suddenly she changed. in the morning we were calling her to find out what size of clothes she needed, and in the night we were calling to find out why she didnt show up. it is sad but it is her choice, we have taught everything, but she didnt want to accept it, and we just need to accept that. it is my hope and prayer that one day more will be guided to her door and she will open it to them. and that in this moment she will feel the need to change her life for the better.
i love this work the good times and the bad. i am so greatful for the oportunity i have to change other lives as well as my own.
i love you all and always remember i am working as hard as i can.
Elder Landon R. Welch
p.s. i was finally able to send pictures!!!
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