I Am Taller Than My Bed....

Hey Family

I am going to try and say everything I can in this email.  I am still doing well here and the weather has improved, we have entered winter months and it is still hot down here, all my friends are throwing on coats and beanies and stuff and when I don’t,  I am getting these weird looks from people like I am crazy!!  I just laugh haha!!  The water here is fine the mission office purifies the water for us so we are good there!!  No, I have not seen any vitamins so no I have not been able to buy any!!  I can say that I have one heck of a farmers tan though haha!!   I have now eaten a whole fish tail, bones, and even the head with the eyes!!  To be honest it was not bad it was actually ok haha  My shoes are good and are holding up well I bought some shoe polish to help maintain them a little better!!  I have not yet received that package yet but I am waiting for it with all eagerness!!  I don't have too many experiences this time that I am going to put down!!  Dad it looks like you have some fun times coming up especially being able to speak hahaha!!  That is cool that Nicole and Luke are going to be sealed that is awesome!!  I have been keeping in contact with all my friends even Parker and they are all doing well!! 

I am glad that dad enjoyed the baseball game, but to be honest I have never liked it. They took us to one on the national jamboree trip and I got bored after the first inning haha.  I hope hats off to Broadway goes well and it is a success.  Record it for me so I can watch Kaden and Caleb!!  My Training takes 12 weeks so I still have 5 to go but it is ok because I love my trainer!!  The President does not do transfers here normally; people here said that some of them have been in the same area for 7 months, so we will see.  I have now killed 21 spiders in my flat which is a house, and this morning I found another big friend in our kitchen.  He is a fast one I have tried 3 times now to catch him and dispose of him.  He is a smart one!!  I did read those scripture passages that Dad gave me thank you and thanks Mom for the quotes!! Yes I have to sleep in a bug net and it sucks because the bed and the net are a foot shorter than me so my feet hang off the bed really far!!  I have had to put my suit case at the end of the bed so that my feet can lay on something!!  It is good to hear from you guys and I hope everything goes well this week for you!!  I will send some pics of these spiders haha!! Anyway Love you guys

Elder Welling  

It's Very Cold Man..... No this is Hot.....

Hey Family,

I am doing great here in Zambia.  The work is awesome and I am doing great!!  I had an ok Easter, It’s definitely is not like home but it is ok!!  I got up went to church and then we did some teaching that is about how everyday goes except for Mondays.  I have not watched conference yet but it should be here this week!!  The homesickness is not bad but I am definitely dealing with it well!!  I have decided that the work itself is not the hard part about missions it is the stress factor.  The physical aspect of the work is easy but the mind and spirituality of the work is the hardest!!  Anyway I ate dried caterpillars again this week and it is ok because I am starting to make them apart of my regular diet haha.  I have not yet received the package but I want it to come soon!!  When it arrives I will tell you what I got!!  

I had a pretty cool experience this week!! I was in a lesson with a guy that was investigating the church and we had a lesson on the restoration and why we don’t worship Joseph Smith.  I can say that both me and my companion didn’t know what had happened but you could see the guy search his feelings about the message and we could definitely feel a strong presence there.  It was a pretty cool thing.  I am definitely keeping a journal and things to help ease feelings!!  So it isn’t too bad!!  I am in a moderate area some poor some rich it varies in some cases.  We walk everywhere and the winter months are almost here!!  

My companion and I walk outside every day and he turns to me and says it’s very cold man!!  I just turn and look at him and say man this is a hot summer day where I come from haha!! It is quite funny!!  I hope you guys have had a great Easter and they don’t really celebrate it here like we do so it was different.  I have killed 3 spiders this week and I even got my big friend that lived in our bathroom. Anyway I hope you guys have a good week and all will be well!!  I am getting over the homesickness now and it is getting better!! Love you guys!!!

Elder Welling

You Can Eat the Whole Fish...

Hello Family,

I am doing great here and I am loving it, even though I get a little homesick every so often.  I wish I could be in contact all the time with other people while I am here but it is ok.  I have not watched conference but I am excited to be able to watch it this week.  Yes the spiders are huge, even the small ones are like 4 quarters put together to make a square, those are the small ones.  Who knows what kind they are, but I have killed about 20 and believe me they move FAST!   The shower where I shower I have a huge friend who is very tricky and smart, he likes to hide from me.  Every time I go in there I sneak in so that I can maybe catch him and kill him.  It is creepy because it is hard to fall asleep knowing there are a billion of these things crawling around the walls.

I had to talk in church already and it was on Mosiah 3:19.  Church here is different from home, we don’t have a pianist and there are definitely different ways to handle things on a Sunday.  There are only about about 100 members and we don’t have a pianist so we sing accapella.   The work is going forth and me and my companion still like each other so we are doing well.   No the members do not feed us American style food.  The food here is ok I have conformed that you can eat the whole fish including the skin and the tail and even most of the head, minus the bones of course.  The meat down here is really bad it tastes nothing like home.  Yes I am eating fruits and veggies but not very often by the way guavas are very weird.  I am not sure if I can buy multi-vitamins, I haven’t looked so I will look today.  I would sure like some American candy  Haha   My companion loves what I brought from the MTC and they only have kit kat, twix and snickers here. 

The people here are fascinated with how white and tall I am, they call whites mezoungoo which is white haha and I am the tallest missionary here. Yes Soccer is way fun and is what I pictured.  Bball is weird because they have those ratty outdoor hoops so they are not all right sizes. I love soccer and I can’t wait to play today.  My companion tells me I am the first American that knows how to play soccer correctly and well.  Sports here are awesome and I am excited to be able to go and play today.  Waiting a week to be able to play for only 2 hours is killing me.  I do get to interact with the children in town at the church but for the most part it is just when we play ball on Mondays. 

The Teaching is awesome and yes I am loving it, it is cool to see the faces of the people when they understand the teachings.

 I hope Katie will have fun over there looking at all the Church sites.  That is too bad to hear about sister Eyre, we went there every week.  How old was she because she was pretty old when we were going over there.

 Yes I definitely need to study the bible a lot more and I am getting better at studying I can’t believe how much I am learning about the scriptures.  I have been talking to friends that are on missions and all other people that send me an email.  Any way i am trying to send pics but they are just not loading in time so I will definitely keep trying.  I hope everything is going good and that everyone is doing good there.  Love you guys.  Have a good week guys.

Elder Welling

Still Holding Strong...

Hey Family,

Well another week down and I am still holding strong.  I will admit I get a little home sick at nights when we are eating dinner and there is nothing else to do, but the work is awesome.  I hope this email will answer all the questions that you guys have asked me but If not I will try to do better next time.  The heat is still killer down here and my companion every night pulls this heavy blanket over him and I look at him and think how do you people do that.  I can honestly say I want the cold back.  Hand washing our clothes sucks very much and I am not going to ever be used to doing it.  haha.  I have made pancakes a lot this week and my companion really likes them.  The only problem is the syrup down here sucks so I eat mine plain.  I am still taking the malaria pills religiously so I hope I can stay healthy.  Yes mom I am taking care of all my personal hygiene stuff so don’t worry haha.  Tell Grandpa Welling happy birthday for me wish I could have been there to help celebrate.  I don’t know where the email went that I got from Sister Falco, but my companion does know Carly and he is excited to see her when she gets here.  Prom looks fun and nice photo of Dad and Katie. btw.  Hope conference was good and you all enjoyed it.  I don’t get to watch it here for 2 more weeks.  

It is nice to hear from everybody at home and I have learned to type really fast so the more the better.  I have been able to answer about 30 emails in an hour and a half, so keep them coming.  I still like my companion he is awesome and we are doing well.  People down here know the bible like the back of their hands and the work is getting tough because of it.  I hope you guys have a good week and I will talk to you guys later I love and miss all of you.  Also as you can see I don’t talk much haha

Elder Welling