A Day In the Life of a Missionary

Our district before transfers.
The two elders sitting in the chair were our district leader and his companion, who is now our new district leader.

Hey Y'all!

This week has been pretty awesome! :D We've had lots of cool miracles and many great times. It makes me so glad to be out here on my mission in Georgia, serving God's children here and bringing them closer to the gospel.

To start off, I would love to share a wonderful miracle that happened last night. The youth in the stake had a fireside where a man, brother Chapman, came and talked to them. He is a former BYU basketball player who shared his conversion story as he went to BYU for school. This man was funny and spiritual, and really connected well with the youth. But the real miracle was that we had two investigators from a part-member family there. One of these investigators is a teenager who is VERY into sports. The other is in college and also loves sports. When we first left with this family to the fireside, they really did not want to go. But by the time it was over, they were beaming! :D We asked if they wanted to shake Brother Chapman's hand after, and they teenager especially smiled so big and almost ran to the speaker! I am positive that this fireside influenced them for the better. I sincerely hope that they listened to this man's conversion story and felt the sweet whispering of the spirit telling testifying of truth. I am so thankful for the members for taking these boy's. :D

Flowers given to us by "H" and her daughter "T".

The rest of this week has been up and down. "H", the woman who was planning to come to church yesterday, canceled again on us. We know she is willing and ready to accept the gospel, but it is so disappointing when they don't come to church. My heart drops every time when I look at those doors to the chapel and do not see our amazing investigators come. I can only imagine how Heavenly Father feels when we don't come to church.

We are hoping to take this investigator on a church tour, to show her the significance of church attendance and especially taking the sacrament. Please keep "H" and "T" in your prayers, they really need it!

Our investigator "Miss C" asked to discontinue the lessons. This was disappointing, but perhaps it is for the better at this time. However, I know that as one door is closed, our Heavenly Father opens others, and that is exactly what he did. :)

We were out trying to contact some potential investigators in a trailer park, when we came across a former investigator's son, "E". We hadn't contacted them for a while, but "E" was very excited to see us and offered to go ask his mom if we could pray with them. We enthusiastically agreed and were even able to get in and share a piece of the restored gospel. This family claims to be Jewish, but they don't appear to be practicing. The father of the children also says he is a Jehovah's Witness, but we have yet to meet him. The family listened to the lesson, and seamed interested. The mother even asked us what will happen when we die. We opened our Book of Mormon, and gave her a chapter in Alma to read that perfectly answered her question. We were also able to set up a return appointment to come back and help her son, "E" as he sets goals to be a better listener! What a blessing! :D

Another big miracle happened while we were outside waiting for a member to pick us up. For all those of you who don't know, we do have a car in our companionship, but one of the rules of the car is that we have a certain number of miles we are allowed to drive per month. This month we were almost out of miles for this last week which has never happened before. This is an important note, because if we hadn't of been out of miles and waiting for that member, this miracle would never have happened. As we were waiting outside, a potential investigator, and our downstairs neighbor, "R" showed up. We haven't been able to contact him much for various reasons, so we jumped at the opportunity to talk with him. We asked him if he was reading the Book of Mormon that we gave him my first day in the field. He said yes, and we continued to have a great conversation. He is Baptist, and was spending the whole week going to this religious revival and even singing in a choir! "R" opened up to us so much more, and we learned a lot about the trials the Lord has put in his life. At the end, we were able to pray with him and asked him to continue reading the Book of Mormon. He didn't want to set up a return appointment yet, but we hope to set one up next week. This just shows how the Lord works to put people in our way to teach, in every moment.

Before I leave Ya'll I want to share a scripture I came across in my studies. It's Moroni 10: 32  "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

When I read this scripture, it hit me. All we need to do is come to Christ, our savior and redeemer, and he will perfect us. Love God with all of our hearts, might, mind, and strength. Give Him your all, and he will give you even more. By his grace, we WILL be made perfect. That message is so amazing and so powerful. They want us to return back to live with them so badly, that they are telling us exactly what to do. If we follow our savior, love our God, and keep the commandments, then we will live with them and our families for eternity in the Celestial kingdom. I know that is true, and with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, I will testify and declare it to as many people as I can. That is my life, for the next 15 months. And I love it. :)

Y'all's Southern Bell,

Sister Welch

Destine, a returned missionary from our ward, and her little nieces.