February 11, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well my first week in Chile has passed. Technically I still have one more day but oh well. So far it has been the hardest thing that I have done. Not the physical work but the mental and emotional toll has been great. I have been so frustrated with the language. The people speak unbelievably fast and I can only pick up one or two words each sentence, if that. So I kinda leave my companion hanging out to dry because I don't know what the people are saying. My companion is Elder Zumaeta, he is from Peru, and he doesn't speak a word of english. So it is super hard to communicate. I want to help so bad but I really can't do much. I got super down on Friday just because of the language. But I am continuing to work hard and do what I'm supposed to.  The food here so far has been relatively normal, nothing too mind-blowing.

Well we are in a whitewash which means that all of the missionaries for our sector/area are new. So that means we have to go contacting and meet with the members alot. We have taught a few lessons. One with a man named Pedro. He has one leg and is in a wheelchair. We found out about 30 minutes after our lesson with him that he is an inactive member. Either way he was pretty stubborn about changing his life. We also taught 2 young girls Nora (17) and Javiera (16). They have met with quite a few missionaries but haven't ever progressed much. Javiera believes all the things the missionaries have told her but she hasn't received an answer. So we are going to teach them how to recognize the answers they receive. Besides that not much else has happened. I haven't taken very many pictures because we have a lot of flaites (gangsters) in our area. A lot of them are just a bunch of young-ish boys who give us a hard time, but my companion said try not to carry my camera much just in case we get robbed.  I love and miss all of you a bunch. I pray for you every night that the Lord will watch over you. I hope that you all have a fantastic week.

With love,

Elder Jayson Welker

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February 8, 2013

Here is a picture that was sent of Jayson, the Mission President and his wife.

January 30, 2013

Hola Everyone

Another week has come and gone very rapidly! I'm down to 5 days left! The weather was the same here for awhile but it has been snowing pretty consistently here over the last 2 1/2 days so about 6 inches or so is my guess. Elder Olson was sick pretty much until about Saturday afternoon. We spent like 4 hours at the hospital with him on Friday and they never figured out what was wrong. But he is better now. While at the hospital we met a lady from Santiago and we talked with her for a bit about general stuff. So that was pretty cool. But it sucked that we couldn't go to class. It really sucks just being shut up inside your room all day. I have seen Rudy Bowman and Caleb Pulsipher at the MTC. Jeremy and Sheri thank you so much for the package! The food here is so bland and disgusting now. You can only eat the same thing everyday for so long. But I know I will miss it in about 10 days. Elder Clayton from the 70 and his wife spoke to us last night. He talked a lot about how important companionships are and why we need them. On Sunday we were able to watch a "movie" about the construction of the Salt Lake City Temple. It was super interesting. I never realized how much actually happened to hinder the progress of it but it made me want to go through it when I get back. We also saw a clip from a devotional given by Elder Bednar and the thing that stood out to me was when he said: "Work hard and do everything you can, and expect nothing, and then PERHAPS something will come from it if it is the Lord's will. And that success is a gift of God." It was a pretty cool talk. Not much else happened this week because Elder Olson was sick. So I fly out of SLC at 1 pm Monday and fly to Atlanta Georgia. And then we fly to Santiago from there and it's like a 10 or 11 hour flight. So lots of time to practice Spanish and read the Scriptures. I may not be able to email home next week because I might miss our PDAY so I'm not sure so don't be alarmed if I don't email. Which would mean that I will have a bunch the next time. I love and miss you all very much and I pray for you all every night. I hope that everyone has a good week!

With love,

Elder Jayson Welker

Remember who you are and the family name you bear

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January 23, 2013

Hola Everyone,

This week has been pretty slow here unfortunately. My companion, Elder Olson, has been sick the last 3 days so we've had to stay in our room all day long. It definitely sucked but I was able to get a lot of study in. I finished my goal of reading the Standard Works (Old & New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price) before I left for Chile, earlier this morning. The Elder that I play basketball with left this morning. He's going to Fresno, CA so Larry Gelwicks (sp?) is his mission president which is pretty cool. There is an Elder Griffen that is a year younger than me from Minico that is in our zone and he is also going to Fresno. He got here last week. We get 4 new Hermanas and 6 new Elders today so that is pretty cool. Oh on Sunday I had to give a talk about how the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ, and I received a lot of compliments on my Spanish. So there is some progress there I guess. We should be receiving our travel plans either tomorrow or Friday so that's kind of scary to think about. I'm down to about 10 full days left until I am absolutely immersed in Spanish. I'm super excited though! The weather here is still absolutely brutally cold. So my skin is cracking and stuff, so it basically sucks and makes my life miserable. It's crazy how fast time has gone by. I'm almost out of time but I want to tell you all how much I love and miss each one of you. I hope that you all have a great week. 

With love,

Elder Jayson Welker

Remember who you are and the family name you bear

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Remember who you are and who you represent

January 16, 2013

Hola Everyone

It seems like just yesterday I was writing my email last week. Time sure is flying by. The weather here has been absolutely freezing! Hardly gets above 20 degrees. Absolutely brutal. We finished all of our grammar principles for Spanish earlier this week. That doesn't mean that I have the slightest clue about what is going on though. But I still continue to progress in the gospel and in the language with the help of our Savior. We are now the oldest district in our zone. The last of the district above us left yesterday. There is a Hermana Hansen (Sister) that is going to Tyler's mission and an Elder Iverson who went to high school with Tyler and sang in choir together. Today we get 5 new Elders and 6 new Hermanas. Pretty exciting! Well I'm almost out of time so I'll quickly finish up. Last night Elder Holland spoke at our devotional. It was super awesome! He talked about missionary work like pretty much everyone does. But he said some interesting things. He said, "The missionaries of old kept working even though they knew that they would not succeed because they knew that we would...and that we have to be "better" missionaries than those of old." Pretty daunting task. But the thing that stuck out to me the most was when he said, "Work as hard as you can until someone has to tap you on the shoulder and tell you that your 2 years are over and it's time to go home." It immediately reminded me of what Coach Kunz told me about baseball: "Work hard and keep playing playing, and make someone take the jersey off your back and buy you a ticket home" I had never really thought of applying it to missionary work but it works. I love and miss all of you very much. I hope that all of you have a good week!

With love,

Elder Jayson Welker

Remember who you are and the family name you bear

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Remember who you are and who you represent

January 9, 2013

Hola Everyone,

Can't believe that another week has passed us by! Crazy! This week there was a bit of a stomach flu scare. I never got sick thankfully. Elder Falabella of the 70 spoke to us last night and it was pretty good. He talked a lot about goals and stuff. But the thing that stuck out to me was he said something about making adjustments and it made me think back to the way I was raised. Starting with my parents and then everything all of my coaches taught me throughout sports. If something isn't working or if you see something before it happens, making the adjustment makes all the difference in the world. It made me think of the quote my John Wooden: "If you do as you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." I had never thought of applying it to missionary work but it works all the same. My companion and I continue to work hard and have good lessons throughout the week. We also continue to play ball every day. We created a new word in Spanish "pelotando". It means "balling or ballin"The word "pelota" is a noun and it means ball in Spanish and the "-ando" adds "-ing" to the end of -ar verbs so it doesn't really work but its still pretty cool. We aren't getting any new missionaries this week which is pretty surprising. We also lost one of the counselors in our branch presidency to the creation of 4 new branches. Kinda sad but we got a new counselor and he seems like he will do well. There really wasn't much else to talk about this week. I'm sorry everyone. Hopefully there will be more this coming week. Love and miss you all. Hope you all have a good week.

With love,

Elder Jayson Welker

Remember who you are and the family name you bear

Return with Honor

Remember who you are and who you represent