Over the Top!

Hey Y'all!

Transfers are THIS WEEK, but I have good news! I'm staying here in Flatcreek with my amazing trainer Sister Kanongata'a. :D This will be her last transfer in the mission field, so I will have the honor of sending her home. We also have been given the unexpected responsibility of being Sister Training Leaders at the start of this new transfer. As STL's we are in charge of training and serving all of the sister missionaries in our zone. We go on exchanges with them and help them in any way that we can. I honestly have no idea why they trust me to do this after only 3 months out here, but I will do my best! I feel this will be more of a learning opportunity for me, than for the other sister missionaries, haha! Wish us luck!

This past week has been so over-the-top! To start off, we helped some amazing people in our ward move out. Well... I guess we didn't really help. They asked for us and the biking Elder missionaries to come help, but had a moving company move everything out! We arrived first before the elders, and all we did was load literally the remainder of their food and cleaning supplies from their pantry, fridge, and freezer, into our car. We now have so much food and supplies that we can barely fit it all in our kitchen! AHH!!! Everyone told me I would hardly have any food on my mission, that is a TOTAL LIE here in Flatcreek!

We did have an amazing amount of miracles here to balance the amazing amount of food we got. The first person is an investigator named H* and her little daughter T*. H* was an investigator from before I got out here in the field, but she is so hard to see because she works a LOT. However, we had the fortune for seeing her three times this last week. Our first meeting with her was amazing, and we were able to set up a return appointment the next day with a member. That next visit was golden! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then invited her to baptism, in which she accepted! :D She also accepted the commitment to come to church and read the Book of Mormon with her daughter. When we saw her next, we testified of the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and she re-committed to reading the book of Mormon. Unfortunately, Heather is in a difficult position at home. She is a single mother living with her sister and her family. The sister's family is very anti-Mormon and do not like us very much. When they found out that Heather was coming to church on Sunday, they popped it on her last minute that her cousin was being baptized in their church and that she should come to that. Unfortunately, H* couldn't come to church yesterday because of that very reason. It is gong to be hard teaching H* and T* in this situation, but pray for her anyway! She is so ready and willing to accept the gospel, her only hold-back is her family!

Another amazing miracle that happened came from a referral that we got from the District Leaders. They referred us to this older widow named C*. We went to see her on Wednesday, and had a great lesson.  At first, she was very suspicious of us, but after a short while she opened up. We testified the importance of eternal families and we shared with her about our families. She has two sons who have gone a little wayward, one hasn't spoken to or seen her in three years. The other sees her all of the time, but does drugs and she is very worried about him. The spirit was so strong as we all testified, I shared the story of the prodigal son as well. By the end of the lesson, she had invited us into her house, taken a Book of Mormon with promises to read it, and set up a return appointment for us to wash her car and share our message of the restoration. YAY! :D However, the funniest part of the lesson was when she discovered that I'm 19. Se kept staring at me, then shaking her head, then staring at me, and then saying that I look more like I'm 12 or 13. Hahahaha! Short people problems. :P 

To put this week over the top, we had the very special opportunity to attend the temple with one of Sister K's recent converts. It was his first time entering the temple, and we did baptism's for the dead. The spirit was felt so strongly there, and to see the look on this recent convert's face was amazing. He is not a man of many words, but you could tell that he really felt the spirit in the temple and wanted to return. This was an amazing step to see! I have yet to baptize a convert, but I'm glad to have seen the progression of the ones here in Flatcreek and Peechtree City! It's beautiful!

This week has been absolutely amazing and spiritually up lifting. As I leave Ya'll I wan't to share with Ya'll my testimony of missionary work. This past week I have seen what missionary work can do for the lives of those who'm we teach. You can seriously see the light come into their eyes as they accept the gospel more and more, but you can also see that same light leave when they reject this amazing message. However discouraging or disappointing life may be right now. No matter how many doors I get slammed in my face, or how many people who reject me, I am gonna keep moving. Why? Because this is the TRUE and EVERLASTING gospel. We have a special message of God's love for us that all of us have been charged to spread in these great and last days. Missionary work is hard, long, and sometimes discouraging, but the rewards that come from it are countless to both us and the people who's lives we change. I hope to continue seeing that as I experience more and more of my mission.

Y'alls Southern Bell,

Sister Welch