• I am serving in the Georgia Atlanta Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from January 26, 2016 to August 1, 2017. This blog contains weekly letters and pictures about my experience.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Angry Old People, and Yellow Cars

Me with Aunty Jan and her niece and nephew who live with her.
Hey Y'all!

Spring is here! We had an very warm week, and because of that everything has started to bloom! It is BEAUTIFUL here in the spring. There is this one tree that grows all over and budds white flowers all over. If you are under a row of them, it's like walking through the gates of heaven, no joke. I've never seen so much green and colors before in my life, it feels! I've also never seen so much yellow before either!
Every spring a certain popular tree releases this yellow pollen that COVERS EVERYTHING! We washed our car last week, and the next day it was covered in yellow pollen! It looked more yellow than gray! the streets get covered with the pollen too, and make everything have a yellow tint to it. I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen this before in my life, but that I LOVE IT!


This week has been crazy! We finally got out after being stuck in the apartment all week, and in return, we were able to see a lot of people. We had an amazing young sister come out with us for almost 6 hours. That was fun. We got to see Miss C* with her, who committed to read the Book of Mormon. We haven't gotten her to pray about it, but we are hoping that we will commit her maybe today when we see her again. Pray for miss C*!

The middle of the week, I'll admit, was a little rough, but it was covered in blessings too. We took our amazing member Auntie Jan out to Fayetteville with us to see our new investigator, P*. He was the old drunk guy that we met with Sister Stallings. I'll admit, P* looked kinda drunk today too, and he was a little out of it. We taught him the Restoration, and immediately after I had quoted to him Joseph Smith's first vision, he interrupted and asked some random question about the Bible. It as weird, and a little funny. But we did bring the spirit in, and committed him to read the BOM again, since he didn't read it last time.

After our visit with P*, we dropped by an old man named J*, who I had never met, but was a possible potential Sister K and her last companion had given a BOM to. He was a BAD idea......... Think of the typical Bible lovin', stubborn, argumentative southern person, then mix it with them trying to be manipulative, and you have Joe. He was trying to pit me and Sister K against each other. He would ask us a question and Auntie Jan would try to explain it, then he would say we should stop talking about it cause it wasn't important. The only important thing was Christ. That man was SO FRUSTRATING!!! Auntie Jan was a big help though, she calmed Sister K down who was really getting annoyed and helped me too cause I was really nervous. After leaving him, we went and cooled off over lunch. THANK YOU AUNTIE JAN!! A funny comment that I'd like to add, is that while J* was reciting his Bible and everything, and he shared with us a piece of information about one of the apostles which sounded incorrect to me. I didn't say anything cause it was for the most part insignificant, even though he was making a big deal out of it. I forgot about it, until I was reading Jesus the Christ and read that one detail about the apostle, discovering that I was actually right and the man was completely wrong. He hinged on that one detail for his whole argument, and I found it incredibly funny that he didn't even get that detail right! Haha!

However frustrating that appointment was, the Lord blessed us for trying our best in the situation. We got a new investigator! The Elders referred us to her, and her name is K*. We had finished an appointment early and had about 45 minutes before seeing the old woman, Miss N*. The referral was close to her, so we decided to check it out. That was a huge blessing, but had a negative repercussion. Little did we know that K* is this old woman, with a big long story and probably has the beginning stages of dementia. She welcomed us in, sat us down, and proceeded to tell us her life story and battle with cancer. She even told us how much she loved the missionaries, and that she had lots of experiences with them. This woman was so prepared! We are way excited to go and teach her. However! K* took a MUCH longer time than we had even guessed possible. We kept trying to get out, when she would pull us back and keep talking. By the time we escaped from her house it was 30 minutes past our appointment with N*. We started racing over to her house and called her on the way. N* was NOT happy. She was very upset in an very passive-aggressive way. She had only agreed to take the lessons to help us out with her teachings, and apparently she has a lot of prejudice against Mormons. Before hanging up on us she stated that "we proved to her everything she thought about Mormons." . . . . Yeah.... I honestly believe that K* was a sign that we shouldn't have been teaching N* yet. Her heart is hard towards the church, and I don't know if it will be softened any time soon.

To end the week, we had an amazing blessing. J*, our investigator, came to Church. This is my first investigator that we have had at church ever! I was so excited! He only stayed for 
Sacrament Meeting, but I counted that as a win. I was so excited to see him there. We asked him how he liked it, and he said he really enjoyed it. Especially the two youth speakers who talked about repentance and the atonement. One was an RM sister from Mexico who did an AMAZING job. We were so happy to have him there.

This past week has been really centered on repentance in our mission. For Zone Conference, we literally talked for 5 hours on just Repentance, what it means, and how we can teach it to our investigators. It was beautiful. On top of that, we watched the new Easter video form the church, #Hallelujah. It was beautiful. The whole video was testimonies of people about Christ and the resurrection and that because of Him, we can all live again with our families. This was an amazing video, and I encourage ya'll to go onto FollowHim.mormon.org to look at the website, watch the video, and share it with someone else. At this Easter time, it is so important to remember everything our Savior has done for us. In companion Study this week, Sister K read to me a scripture that really struck me. It's Matthew 28 5-6 about Christ's resurrection and the angle coming to both Mary's saying that he is risen: "And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. he is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay."

He is risen! I know that is true, with all my heart. My Lord and Savior, the redeemer of the World is alive even now, and because he is, I can live again. He broke the bands of death, did the impossible, and showed us that he is the Son of God. He suffered in the Garden and on the Cross so that He may know our pains and our anguishes. That we don't have to go through this life alone. And then he rose on the third day, and overcame the greatest obstacle the world faces. Because of Him, we can live again. Because of Him, we can see our families and loved ones again in a state of perfection and happiness. Hallelujah! What better message can we share with the world than that of love and repentance! I know that my Savior lives! I am ready to share it with the world, and I challenge ya'll to share it too!

Y'all's Southern Bell,

Sister Welch

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