July 29, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well this week went by a little bit faster but it was still slow. Our only solid investigator was out of town all week so we spent a lot of time contacting. I'm going to be honest, I hate contacting haha but it is what my companion likes to do so instead of fighting it, I just go along with it. President Warne says that we are going to be changing some things in the mission so we'll see how that goes. I haven't been feeling the best the last couple of days but not bad enough to go out and work. The town I'm in, Licantén, reminds me a lot of Grace. It is pure country and we ride bikes alot. I'm not a big fan of bikes either, they make my legs hurt. But that's about all that happened this week. My spanish is getting better for those of you who are curious. I still don't understand a lot of what chileans say but most of the other latins, yes I can understand. For the most part anyways. I love and miss you all! Have a great week!

With love,

Elder Jayson Welker

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this is a picture to show you how cold it is in our house

July 22, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well this week went super slow for me. My new companion is Elder Allaucca and he is from Peru. We have the same amount of time in the mission. My sector is called Licantén and it's a 2 hour bus ride to Curico for our District Class every Wednesday. We had a baptism on Saturday with a kid named Ivan. He used to be atheist. So quite the turn around for him and he is already talking about wanting to serve a mission. We are really going to focus on another young kid that is friends with Ivan, Cristian. He wants to get baptized, just waiting on his dad's permission. We found a lady named Leticia and she is super prepared by the Lord. She was super sick on Saturday when we went over to teach her. She could hardly sit up in her bed. So we offered to give her a blessing, she accepted. Literally 5 minutes after we left, she was up walking around and feeling much better. I know that the power of the priesthood is real. I've seen too many miracles and heard too many blessings to be told otherwise. That's about all for this week. Have a great week. I love and miss you.

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

July 15, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well I'm getting changed tomorrow. I'm going about 5 hours south to a small town called Licanten. It was part of the mission from Concepcion. So I'm kinda nervous because there aren't very many missionaries going south from so nobody knows anything about anyone. They have changed things a little bit here in the mission. We find out changes on Saturday now instead of Friday and we go to our new sectors on Tuesday instead of Monday. This last change went by unbelievably fast. It literally feels like a few days ago that I picked up Elder Reed. This week was pretty slow for teaching purposes but we were able to teach Jimmy (who got baptized 4 months ago) for the first time in almost 3 months. It went well but he still hasn't come to church since he got confirmed. It's really sad. Another family of inactives came to church again yesterday! So that was awesome to see them continue to come back. My time in San Francisco was difficult, very difficult; but it has taught me alot about who I am and what my purpose is as a missionary. I have grown to love the people here in this sector and I will never forget them or what they did for me. Well that's about all for this week. Should be some more exciting stuff to write about next week with the new companion and sector. I hope you all have a great week! Love and miss you!

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

p.s. here is a picture that I took with a young girl in the mall today. I laughed to myself. Representing the Dirty 'Scow 7000 miles away! Definition of dedication

July 8, 2013

Hola Everyone

This week went by fairly quick. We are now in the last week of this change I have no idea where the time went. I completed 7 months on Friday and I can't believe how fast it is going. I feel like I have so much time left but the time just creeps up on me and before I know it another month has passed. This week there was a family from the branch that got sealed in the temple so that was a cool experience for them. Elizabeth told us that Felipe has interest in the church but still isn't ready to listen to us yet, and her other two went just to support her. But hopefully later on down the road they can join. We are still working with the inactives alot. None of them showed up to church on Sunday which was a huge bummer but I continue to pray for them. We had zone conference this week and finally met our new mission president and his wife. President Warne seems really ready to get to work. We found out that we have to have side bags by August 1 which kinda sucks (world wide missionary change) but there's a reason for it I guess. That's about it for this week. I hope that next week I can have some more stuff to write about. I love and miss 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

here is a picture of one of my good friends in the mission, Elder Anderson. He goes home next change and he was my first zone leader. He is the man!

Jayson with the new Mission President

Here is a picture that was sent of Jayson with the new mission president and his wife.

July 1, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well another week has come and gone here in San Francisco de Mostazal. Time just keeps going by faster and faster. Our new mission president got here this last week and President MacArthur and his wife left on Friday. I haven't had the chance to meet them yet be we have a conference on Wednesday. We didn't have very many lessons this week for some reason. I'm not sure what happened. All 3 of Elizabeth's older sons (Felipe, David, Diego) came to church yesterday so that was cool. We are hoping to set baptismal dates with them this week. Felipe is qualified to be baptized as soon as he decides to take the lessons. Chile had elections yesterday (for primaries) so we only had 1 hour of church. It's against national law to have a public meeting over an hour on this day. But it really wasn't THE day of voting so we should have had all of church but the leaders kind of called it off on their own...they kind of do their own thing sometimes. Elder Reed got his baseball glove today so we're hoping to find some time to play catch, finally! Yesterday at lunch some members gave us some oranges and they were absolutely massive. The picture doesn't do it justice for how big they were but oh well. And I traded my Pete Rose tie (on the right) to Reed for the best tie ever created (on the left). That's about all that happened this week. I love and miss 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

June 24, 2013

Hola Everyone

This week was a little bit slower. My companion wasn't feeling very good this week so we spent quite a bit of time in Rancagua at the hospital and at the office talking to the mission nurse. He is feeling much better now. We weren't able to teach either Felipe or Chirstopher this week. We saw them for a few minutes in the streets but that was about it. We had some good lessons with some inactive families. We got 3 of them to come to church yesterday so that was a positive. We actually eat lunch with them on Sundays and yesterday we had a pretty cool experience. One of the daughters of the older lady in the ward, told us she wouldn't ever come back to church because she has never liked it. We just told her that she was still welcome every week. And about 10 seconds after that she told us that she was going to come this next week because she felt someone touch the back of her head and tell her in her mind that she needed to go. So that was pretty cool. Today for PDAY we had a huge activity with the whole mission before it splits up at the end of this week. So I got to see Elder Olson and Elder Salmon one last time. It was a lot of fun. Olson and I spent a lot of time catching up and talking about experiences that we've had. That guy is a huge example to me. He has so much faith and patience. I'm going to miss him a ton. That is about all that happened this week. I love and miss 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

p.s. here is a picture of me, olson and doyle (MTC District) and Elder Tate Harding from Pocatello

June 17, 2013

Hola Everyone

This week was pretty good! Well actually yesterday pretty much. We finally had a coordination meeting with the branch mission leader, after 14 weeks of trying. He has completely changed his attitude lately and has a lot of drive to fulfill his calling and help us. Also we will be helping show the brethren in the branch how to do their home teaching this week so that is good too. But the best thing that happened was that an inactive family, that Elder Salmon and I had been teaching since last change, finally came back to church!! ¡¡Por fin!! (finally) I was so excited to see them walk in to the church! They had told us the night before that they couldn't come because they had to go to Santiago, but they came!!! You have no idea how pumped I was! I was smiling from ear to ear! We taught Felipe a small lesson on the 10 commandments on Tuesday. Things are starting to look a little bit brighter here in San Francisco de Mostazal. I hope all is well and that you all have a great week! Love and miss you all!

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

June 10, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well I completed 6 months in the mission on Wednesday! I really can't believe that I have been out for that long. At times it feels like the time is going so slow, but overall it has passed by so quickly. 1/4 of the way done...absolutely blows my mind! Elder Reed and I are doing well. We are really close to getting one of our inactive families to come back to church. We thought that they were coming for sure yesterday but they didn't unfortunately. Felipe continues coming to church but we still haven't been able to teach him much yet. I really hope we can soon. We found a guy named Christopher on Friday (Elder Salmon and I had played soccer with him once) and we helped him with his english homework. He also told us that he would come to church on Sunday but he didn't. But he seemed pretty intrigued by our way of life so hopefully that is a start to us helping him. We have helped the branch start doing their home teaching and visiting teaching and we are supposed to be going out on splits this week with a few members to show them how to do it. So there has been a little progress here in San Francisco! "...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." That's about it for this week. I love and miss you all! Have a great week and remember all that the Lord has done for you!

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

June 3, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well we had changes this week. I thought that we were going to get white washed from what President had told me in our interviews 2 weeks ago but we didn't. Elder Salmon went up north to Santiago (so he'll be in the Santiago South Mission) and I'm staying in San Francisco so I'll still be in the Rancagua Mission. My new companion is Elder Reed and he is from Arizona. We really didn't have much going on this last week. We were still working with the less actives and trying to get them to come back, nothing to show yet, but hopefully soon. Felipe still hasn't decided to listen to us yet, I hope that my purpose for staying here is to help him. We went around to some of the members yesterday so Elder Salmon could say goodbye. It took a long time and everyone made us food. I felt like I was going to throw up because we had to eat like everything that they gave us. Our ciber has been closed for over a week now and I'm not sure why so no pictures again this week, sorry. Hopefully next week. Not much else really happened this week. I love and miss 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

May 28, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well this week went by pretty quickly. We didn't have very much success with finding people. We had some good lessons with some of the members that are inactive in the area so that was a positive. We are working hard with 2 inactive families to try and get them to come back to church, but right now it's been a little bit of a struggle. But we're going to continue working hard with them. We had a movie night in the church on Saturday with the branch and we had 30 people or so show up which is almost as many as come to church. We watched The Testaments and the members absolutely loved it. One of the Hermanas in the branch made popcorn for everyone and made sopapillas too. They were really good. Elizabeth's son Felipe came to church again but he is still hesitant about us teaching him. Hopefully he comes around soon. I'm about 99% sure that this is my last week with Elder Salmon. We have changes next week and wherever you are this next change will determine what mission you will be in starting in July. So we will see where I end up. Today is President MacArthur's birthday so a bunch of missionaries went to the office and surprised him. And on the way there a car drove right through a huge puddle of water and splashed us. So I'm currently soaking wet ha. But that's just about everything that happened this week. I love and miss 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

sorry everyone that this is late, the internet wasn't working well yesterday so that's why it is today

May 28, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well this week went by pretty quickly. We didn't have very much success with finding people. We had some good lessons with some of the members that are inactive in the area so that was a positive. We are working hard with 2 inactive families to try and get them to come back to church, but right now it's been a little bit of a struggle. But we're going to continue working hard with them. We had a movie night in the church on Saturday with the branch and we had 30 people or so show up which is almost as many as come to church. We watched The Testaments and the members absolutely loved it. One of the Hermanas in the branch made popcorn for everyone and made sopapillas too. They were really good. Elizabeth's son Felipe came to church again but he is still hesitant about us teaching him. Hopefully he comes around soon. I'm about 99% sure that this is my last week with Elder Salmon. We have changes next week and wherever you are this next change will determine what mission you will be in starting in July. So we will see where I end up. Today is President MacArthur's birthday so a bunch of missionaries went to the office and surprised him. And on the way there a car drove right through a huge puddle of water and splashed us. So I'm currently soaking wet ha. But that's just about everything that happened this week. I love and miss 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

sorry everyone that this is late, the internet wasn't working well yesterday so that's why it is today

May 20, 2013

Hola Everyone

Well this week went by really fast. We had to go to Santiago to take out my carnet (visa thing) on Thursday. So we went up Wednesday night and stayed with some other Elders. But Wed. night we went to the Bishop's house of Elder Salmon's last sector to visit them. They are pretty cool. We had a good time. We taught them how to play Spoons and we made brownies with them. They absolutely loved them. On Friday night we were at Elizabeth's house and a thunderstorm started. It absolutely poured for about 45 minutes. Some of the streets had standing water. Some of Elizabeth's family wants to come to church to see what it is like so that's a good sign. For PDay today all the missionaries made food from their countries. We made chili cheese fries (for some reason). It was a lot of fun and the food was pretty good for the most part. Not much else really happened this week. We are continuing to work and strengthen the branch so hopefully we see some results from that soon. I love and miss you all and hope that you have a great 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