The Robbery...

Hello Family,

I don’t have too many pics this week so I will send them next week hopefully!!  I am doing ok and I am not too shaken from the robbery!!  Anyway to get this out, the week has been good, we have a person that will be baptized not this Sunday but next so it will be awesome!!  His name is Brother Bogani, he is a soccer player and very cool!!  I won’t lie, I love Africa and I love the people here most of the time!  This mission has been awesome, for the time that I have been here!  I have been doing a lot of work.  Africa is starting to get heated again and I am starting to die!!  It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun at the Checketts reunion and all the fun things that happened!!  Anyway, The Robbery!!!  So it was about 4 weeks ago there was a flat broken into of four other missionaries and a lot of things were stolen!!!  I was very surprised to hear that and now a little more cautious about people watching us!!  Anyway about three weeks ago a guy came to our house and before anything was said he says "Is this the Church of Jesus Christ"  and of course we said yes we then he started just asking random questions and other things!!  We slammed the gate and locked it!!  At that point I knew that we could have a brake in in the future!!  I started to think of places that if a robbery did happen, where a thief would not look for things!!  Then it hit me thieves brake into things but fail to look outside for things!!!

Well I started hiding any electronics and anything else that was small and valuable outside!!!  There is a stack of bricks just outside our flat, I removed some and made a little hole in them then made it look like it was a crappy stacking job!!  Every morning before I leave I put all the electronics and little things there!!  Luckily that little trick paid off and I still have all the electronics, sd cards and flash drives that I had!!!  My companion is the one that took the beating though he had a lot of stuff stolen!!!  Now the list of items that were stolen from me!!  My MTC sweat shirt which I would ask if someone could go buy me another one from the MTC? Please!!!  My nice Ogio shoulder bag is gone!!  Oh and my nice baptismal clothes and the bag to go with them and the nice white tie!!!  Then just some souvenirs and some money!!  My companion lost a camera which I had bought him 3 days earlier, $1000 US is the equivalent in Ugandan money and his suit!!!  All in all it was very frustrating, they hopped the wall and cut both locks with a torch and busted the door which is still not fixed!!

Anyway I want to let you know that I am ok and that all is well here, have a good week family and Dad the shaving is good and the hygiene stuff is taken care of no worries!!  Anyway I will use some money to get a back pack and that may be all!!!  Love all of you and have a great Monday!!!!!

Elder Welling

Questions for the Week..

Has the mission safeguarded the apartment so that can't happen again?

Not really, my companion and I are just trying to sleep lightly so that we can hear the door if it opens at night!!!

Are the police helping?

The police here are not much help, plus they don't carry any force

Are you all right?

I am good just really ticked!!

How on earth did you pick up such a strong African accent in such a short time?

Well I live with one and I am conversing with them 24/7 hahahaha

When are the next transfers?

They should be coming very soon!!  My companion is seriously now my best friend and it is going to be hard for me to get a new one!!

The Work Is Progressing...

Hello Family!!

I am doing well and yes I am still loving my mission!!  It is going by a lot faster than expected though!!  Anyway I am still not transferred so I might get to still see all these people get baptized it will be fun!! I am excited because there are a lot of people that are starting to open up and listen to the gospel!!  It is fun watching people progress also, especially when they figure out for themselves of the truthfulness of the gospel!!  The days are starting to turn into weeks and it is weird how fast everything is going!!  It is weird to hear how everyone is doing back there and how they are growing!!  I am still with the same companion but that is ok he is one of the coolest guys ever!!  Especially when he puts on those Hollywood glasses he wears!!

Anyway I hope you guys are having fun as I can see through all the emails I have been getting!!  Lagoon sounded fun, wish I could have gone!!  All these reunions that are coming up and it is weird to be missing all of them, but in turn it is ok!!  I don’t have too many stories to tell or experiences same old mission work going on here!!  Although it is starting to head towards the hotter months of the year and I am starting to die here!!  I wish they had air conditioning here!!  Unfortunately this weather sucks but the work is still good!! 

Yes the package was awesome the cookies were still intact and none of the bottles were leaking!!!  I didn’t know there was a recipe in the boxes but I made syrup by guessing and surprisingly it worked well and tasted almost as good as home!!  The jerky disappeared and yes I shared but not too much of it!!  I am not lying when I say I ate both packages within 6 hours it was cool!!  I hope you all are having fun with the families and that all of you will have a good week!!  Love all of you!!!

Elder Welling 

All Is Well.... and Letter from Skidmore's

Hello Family!!

Sounds like all of you have had a great week!!  I have had a pretty good week and all has been going good!!  We now have two investigators that will be getting baptized very soon and we are doing well!!  The mission is awesome and it is moving along very well!!  We are working on a family which we found but we will see how that one goes!!  Transfers are coming up here next week not sure if I will be affected but I am hoping that I don’t get transferred until later plus I like the current companion so I am not really ready to leave!!  Anyway other than this all is going well and I am having fun!!  I got the package by the way and it was awesome!!  The jerky is finished, I finished it the first two nights I had it and then I slowed back down!!  It has been a while since I have had jerky!!  

I am going to miss the family reunions but I hope that you guys have a lot of fun for me!!  And my opinion on the tradition part, I like the Bar J Wranglers idea I haven’t seen them since I was little!!  But I also like the Bear Lake Idea so either one will be awesome!!!  Oh and mom Yes I will want to try water skiing.  When I went with Matthew on his family reunions, if you remember we went tubing and wake boarding and even skiing!!  So I will be looking forward to that!!  So tell grandpa not to worry, I will do it when i get back!!  

That is weird that summer is practically over there and that you will be moving towards OCTOBER anyway and it is weird to think that school is already starting again but I hope you guys are getting everything done!!  Yes Caleb, Nathan and Kaden are all going to be just as good as I was and maybe even better.   That was a funny story about Caleb I wish I could have been there to watch his games!!  Hopefully I won’t miss them in the summer after next anyway have a good week family and I hope everything goes well!!!  Oh and have fun with Jill’s family!!!!!!

Elder Welling


From Elder Skidmore...

     It is nice to know someone other than our kids are looking at my blog.  I would love to write about all the wonderful missionaries here in Zambia but I sort of feel like I might show favorites or be critical so I am a little careful.  Elder Welling is an outstanding missionary.  His gospel knowledge and skill at teaching improves daily.  I love to watch these young missionaries catch the vision of their work and rediscover scriptures and the information in "Preach My Gospel".  I will tell you his flat is "not the best" but it is safe and pretty clean.  From the first day Elder Welling has had a great attitude and his many new experiences just flow over him like it is no big deal.  If you have any more children like him, just send them over.

All the best,

Elder David Skidmore

Baptism and Crazy Pics..

Hey family,

I don’t have much to say this week so I am going to keep it brief and I will send plenty of pics instead!!  My week was good and all is going well here!!!  It sounds like you guys had a fun fourth of July to bad I missed the war zone of Evanston anyway have a good week love you all and here are the pics of the week!!  Africa is great and I am loving mission!!  Oh and I baked a cake from scratch I felt pretty proud of myself!!!

Is Africa starting to feel like home?

I am getting used to it but the driving on the left side of the road is still weird!!

Does the food taste fresher and better there that you buy in the open markets?

The fruits and vegies are very good and tasty but the meat is still weird!!

Elder Welling

Mathew and Luka - Baptized June 29th 

Some Crazy Pics