My name is Elder Welch. I am a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. I am currently serving a full time mission, sharing the gospel with the people of Lima Peru West. Here you will read about my experiences in my letters home. Please feel free to write comments, but know I wont see them until I get home in February 2013.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Monday July 16, 2012

Hola familia!!!!
 
well one week more one week less. it kinda sucks when you know that your transfer is coming because you honestly loose a little bit of your desires. i used to dread transfers because they gave you so little time to say goodbye to people, who in such a short time, have come to know and love . . .  but now it makes sense.
 
i am glad that the trek went well, that you were able to feel the spirit this week because despite of my trials i too felt the spirit this week. i prayed every night and morning that you were enjoying the trek and that you weren't too tired to get up the next day and start over again. and i know now that my prayers were answered.
 
i am still having a few troubles with my companion. but we are trying to just go with the flow our last week together and i hope to put the good old boy scout saying to use. "leave it better than when you found it." and i realized that is how it should be with our lives in general. i look at the people i have known in my mission and i ask. . . was i a influence for good in their lives? did i help them grow closer to Christ? and unfortunately the answer hasn't always been yes. i think back to the first of my mission, inexperienced, immature, uncaring and i wish i could go back to Lampa de Oro and try again. there were so many people there who were ready to hear the gospel but we didn't really take the time to help them out. they closed the area and i have no idea what those people are doing with their lives now. i just hope that in some way they remember the simple testimony of a 19 year old kid who almost couldn't bare it with the language difference.
 
but i now see the progress i have made as a missionary and as a person and i hope and pray that my new area will be just as full of spiritually prepared people as there are here. i have said it before but i will say it a thousand times i am so glad to be a missionary. i can honestly say that the stories of these people never repeat. their lives are always different and their needs will always differ. but one thing never EVER changes and that is the solution. . . the gospel. i invite all my family and friends, be you week in the gospel or week in the knees, to put this challenge to the test. I KNOW THAT THIS GOSPEL IS THE THING THAT WE ARE SOMETIMES MISSING IN OUR LIVES!!! i think about the general conference talk this last April. about being active in the church, and less active in the gospel. . . are we willing to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before. . . those who gave their lives before denying the only pure and true thing that exists in this world . . . those who suffered to follow a prophet thousands of miles to reach Zion. . . or him that suffered, bled, and died in order to save us of the one thing that holds us back in life, ourselves. if you don't believe or are unwilling to follow i promise you that your life is incomplete. i can promise you that the pleasures of this life have no meaning in the eternities and that the happiness that only god can offer is within your reach you just have to be willing to extend your hand and take his.
 
i love you all i miss you all but remember i am always working as hard as i can.
 
Elder Landon R. Welch

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