Not Much to do During Elections...

Hey Family,

Things are going good here and doing well!!  This week was pretty boring we were in the flat for a long time and it was kind of weird!!  We were in the flat for 4 days and it was very boring I can tell you it is hard to study for more than 4 hours straight!!  We didn’t do a lot but it has been crazy fun there because there are 4 elders that are there so we messed around a lot!!  Other than that the comp is doing good and getting himself prepared to go home here in a few weeks!!  I think he is pretty excited to go home now so it is pretty good!!  I will most likely have a new comp when he goes and it possibly will be somebody to train as well so it will be interesting to see how that goes!!  The rain has been pretty good at staying on top of things it has rained every day this week but the time does vary and it is raining very hard even now as I am writing this!!  

It will be pretty fun, for tomorrow is Zone Conference which will be fun, there is a general authority here from the seventy named Elder Cook!!  He has been here before so it is not new, but it will be fun to see him from a different area!!  I don’t have any pics for this week seeing that we were in a lot this week!!  Hopefully I will be able to get some more in the upcoming weeks!!  The basketball statistics are very fun to listen to so they do not bore me!!  I wish I could have been there to watch boys sweep Rock Springs I hate that team haha  That is good that they all were able to beat Green River!!  

So if you could tell Carly congratulations for me and hi!!  You didn’t mention to who but I think if I am correct I already know who it is so it is all good!!  Although pretty funny story, there is this small kid who is in our complex that likes to come over and mess with us and hang with us every night which is pretty funny because he is only 4-5!!  Well we usually keep our doors open so us elders can just go back and forth between the flats and stuff!!  Well one of the mornings one of the elders had woken up, this last week and right when he woke up he walks into the sitting room and there is the small child just sitting there!! He yells at the top of his lung good morning completely surprising the elder and runs out!!  I thought it was pretty funny!!  Anyway it will be good to finally get those books I am excited to read them!!  I hope that everybody will have a good week and a great Monday Love you all!!

Elder Welling

Elder Chichoka and I - at last zone conference

Flooding and Elections....

Hey Family,

So things are going pretty good here and all is well!!  So to talk about the flooding first it has been crazy to hear about all the stuff that is going on down in Malawi and for the deaths and homeless it is crazy!!  I am not sure what the mission is doing about it because they really haven’t told us much I heard about all this from the locals and even some of the missionaries!!  I am pretty sure they are keeping the missionaries there for a purpose because none of them have come to Zambia yet!!  So the new area is pretty good and no the market is a bunch of wooden stands with thousands of people walking around and looking at things!!  It is pretty funny because me and this other elder in my district are the only white people to ever walk through it so we get a lot of people just staring at us as we walk by!!

This week has been good and we are teaching a lot of people still!!  We hope to have a few more for baptism in the upcoming weeks!!  It will be nice if they can!!  The area is big but not as active as Lusaka!!  So it is pretty weird!!  The flooding here is not as bad as the one in Malawi but there is flooding here and it is a lot of water!!  Sometimes the water reaches the knee almost and that is just in the roads that doesn’t even count for the sides of the roads!!  It rains a lot here and yes it is normal in the rainy season to get this much rain!!  I was not here last year but this year even the rainy season has been little which means I probably don’t want to be here for when the rainy season is in its fullest!!  

This week will be a little slow though because there is elections for the new president this week and because of all the protests and rallies and things we won’t get out till probably Thursday or even Friday!!!  I am not sure what I am going to do because it will be pretty boring in the flat!!  We will see how it goes though!!  Anyway the bathroom looks a lot different and in fact it looks as though it is in a new house haha!!  It is going to be a little weird getting back and seeing it again!!  I also think it is cool that the teams were able to beat all the Jackson teams!!  I am a little jealous that you were able to go to see the elk and go to Bubbas!!  I like that place and I like Jackson in general!!  

Anyway I am glad things are going well and everyone is enjoying there!!  I heard that Caleb is a little Michael Jordan which is funny but I would love to watch him play haha!!  I hope that everyone is going to have a good week and a great Monday Love you all!!!!

Elder Welling

Chilling and Working in Ndola...

Hello family!!

So the week has been good and very fun!!!  There was a lot that happened this week!!  The First district meeting in Ndola here was quite good and we were able to learn a lot of things!!  It is weird being in a meeting house and not having a lot of people at church but I will get used to it!!  This was the first week the entire mission that I have missed church my companion was really sick and was not doing well!!  Other than that we also had some 3 baptisms this week which was awesome those pics will be in the drop box so you will be able to have those!!  It was pretty sweet to see these ones get baptized one was being taught all the way back to some old missionaries so it was cool!!  The new area is bigger than the last and we are still walking so it is crazy!!  It has more poverty than the last one though and we live right next to a market so it is also very weird!!  The new comp is pretty awesome though he is from Tanzania just like Elder Bakari was so it is pretty cool!!  I won’t have him for long because he is going home in 4 weeks and then I will get a new comp and possibly be training again there are new elders coming the day he goes home!!

The area is actually easier to teach I found and it is pretty sweet!!   There are only two branches here and they are very small!!  They will get bigger eventually over time so we will see how it goes!!  There is no senior couple in this area only 45 minutes away is the nearest couple!  Also it wasn’t hard to jump into the new area as a district leader it was actually not bad for some reason!!!  Though things are going well and it is fun here!!  We have a lot of things coming up in the future we could have an apostle coming in the next couple of months and an 70 so it will be pretty fun the next couple of weeks and pretty close I will be a year and it will be all downhill from there!!

Well the stories from home are pretty awesome I would have loved to see grandpa and Nate get wet from that toilet experience that would have been awesome!!  I am also sad that I am missing all the bball games and things that are going on!!!  Anyway there wasn’t too much else that has gone on this week so I will talk to everyone next week have a good week to everyone and also good luck with all the sporting things Love you all!!!

Elder Welling

Questions:

1. Do we still send packages to the mission home in Lusaka?
Yes still send them there because then they will be delivered up here to me!!
 2. How is the new companion?
The new comp is good he is awesome but he goes home in 4 weeks and I will get a new one!!
 3.  Where is he from and what is his family like?
So if you remember Elder Bakari that was from Tanzania this one is Elder Moya also from Tanzania!!  He has two younger siblings from what I know though!!
 4.  What is your new flat like?
It is actually better than the last one and we have a guard and other people inside the complex so it is more secure than the last one!!
 5.  Is the food similar to Libala?
Yeah pretty similar and we live right next to a market so we get all the nice fruits and vegies that we need!!
 6.  What did you have to do in your new branch on Sunday?
Well it is just a house that is made into a meeting house so it is weird and the attendants are low but it is good!!
 7.  We will be sending your package here in the next few weeks, besides retainers and mango pieces, what do you want?
Jerky of course and some more of those spices you sent the first couple of weeks including the powdered vanilla!! Thank you!!
 8.  How large is your area and are you still walking everywhere?
Yes we still walk everywhere and it is bigger than the last area I am in so it is a lot more walking!!
 9.  What do you like best about your new area?
Well I like it better in a sense that it is new and I now have a lot more to do in learning the names and place of people but also that there is a lot less opposition here than where I was!!
 10.  What do you like least about your new area?

Well it is still full of shady characters but it is just fine!!!

Transfer and Random Pictures...

Hey Family

It is good to hear from you and for the emails!! I am glad you were able to have a great new years and things!! First and foremost Yes I think I remember him he was my favorite bus driver when I was small!! I also know the lady he is speaking of she is the mother to the branch President that was in Libala branch before the one now days!! So I did know her and her son really well!! That is cool that he served here for that long it must have been hard for him though back in those days this place was hard to teach!! But it is pretty cool now days!! Oh and I should tell you I am no longer in Lusaka I got transferred on Saturday to copper belt!! Ndola is the town that I am in it is really small and full of trees!!

The branch has maybe 25 members that come and we meet in a meeting house so it is weird!! I went from a chapel to a small home!! The fireworks on new years were not as good as in Evanston but they were here and I enjoyed listening to them!! Also I am still a District Leader here in this town so it is still going!! I got all new people but the weird thing is all the missionaries here in the district besides 2 are older than me on mission!!! It is nice to be in a new area though I feel like I have received a new energy to do even more than before so it is nice!! The new comp is named Elder Moya he was my Zone leader for a while and now I am his District Leader so it is also weird!!

New Year’s there sounds like it was pretty fun too bad I was not there!! Especially the poker game and the candy bar game those are two of my favorite!! I think I could have won if I was there haha Mom was telling me about the cold weather there and it is too bad I would like to be able to use some of that here!! If I brought that here I would enjoy but people here would die!! We didn’t really do anything on New Year’s eve in fact I was in bed by 11 which is weird for me but I didn’t even stay awake for the new year to come in and then the next day we went out to teach so it doesn’t even feel like the new year has even started!!

Well things are starting to speed up here especially time so it is going very fast which is good!! I don’t know if I will but I need you, Dad to look into the international driver’s license and see if you need to go and renew it because if they put me as a zone leader anytime soon I will need to have that ready to go!! Other than this things are going really smooth I have the pics downloaded to drop box you can get them off of there now!! Um Other than that I am still enjoying mission and I am learning a lot here the knowledge continues to grow and get better and better!! It is awesome!! Anyway I hope that you all will have a good week and a great Monday!! Love you all talk to you next week!!!

Elder Welling