Training Goes On...

Hey Family,

I hope everything is going ok and everything will start to slow down!!  Time rushes I can definitely see!!!  To start, yes I know the elder that mom has mentioned I saw him last pday he is cool not quite as tall as me but yes I saw him and he is doing well!!  Anyway my companion Elder Bakari is cool he is an awesome guy and loves the gospel!!!  His language is Swahili, something like that don’t kill me for spelling!!  He does not speak too good of English but he will learn.  I am in a flat with three Africans I am the only white guy there hahahha!!!  He has cooked and he cooks nice!!  The food here is good and now I am used to it, so it is ok!!!  Um I have not cooked too many things since he came, but I think the house that I am staying in, likes the cakes that I can make from scratch!!!  If you could give me a frosting recipe that would be awesome!!!

For the package um just the same brownies I really like the jerky and anything else you can think of!!  I also have a request for my birthday and Christmas!!  We play a lot of soccer down here and they have cleats that are really nice for only like $60 which is awesome so I was wondering if I could use some of that money for some cleats to play in, the bball shoes I brought are not helping!!  Anyway we had a recently baptized person get the Aaronic priesthood it was awesome to see!!  We are working on a lot of people right now but it is harder than usual because my companion only bears his testimony in English he can’t quite teach yet!!!  Other than this the work is going good!!!

Dad you talked about that group that has some church songs and some good music could maybe I get some of those songs in the next package you send me!!  That would be cool!!  Anyways I am going to just start uploading the photos onto Facebook it is easier and faster so if you can have someone get them off of there and put them on the blog that would be fun!!  I hope you all had fun school shopping and it kind of sucks that school is starting but right now I wish I was there because it is getting hotter here and there you will be heading into some cold weather!!!  I don’t know if I have answered all the questions but I hope I got most of them!!!  I don’t know why there hasn’t been money taken out that seems odd most of it should have when i bought the suit!!  That is cool that the younger guys get to play tackle I am sure Caleb looks funny!!  Tell them I say Hi!!!  Anyway I think that is all I have for this week guys have a great day and a great week!!  Love you all!!!

Elder Welling

Training New Companion...

Hi Family,

Well the week was great and all has been going good!!!  The new companion is good and he is shorter than usual and big!!  His name is Elder Bakari and I am training him!!!  He doesn’t speak English very well so they asked me to teach him and help him with English as well!!!!  He is a different character than Elder Mwambu!!!  I got Elder Mwambu his suit and it looks awesome!!  I was actually thinking on just switching him suits haha!!  It is a really nice suit, when I get the card reader working I will send pics!!  Brother Bongani has now been baptized and confirmed it was sweet!!  I didn’t do the confirmation but it was ok it was still cool!!  The work is pretty hard when you are training but I think I can manage!!  There are not really any crazy stories going on here but soccer is definitely high level down here so it is awesome to be able to play!!  The weather down here is pretty hot and getting hotter!!  We will see how things go as time goes on!!!  As of right now everyone that I know and have seen is getting transferred to Malawi!!  So it is getting hard with all these new faces!!!

I love the card board cut out haha it was weird seeing myself there but I wasn’t really there!!  All those pics are very funny and I wish I could have been there!!  It doesn’t make me homesick too bad; I will get over it, I am more homesick about what is coming in two months!!!  Everyone knows what that is!!  Anyway it looks like everybody had a fun time and I wish I could have been a part of the fish catching phenomenon that would have been awesome!!!  From what I can tell, Caleb put on a fish catching clinic and Kaden showed everyone up haha!!!  I say well done to the two little bros for their skills!!  I will give a little credit to the father baiting the fish and catching them as they come in!!!  hahaha  The pic with me and Jeff in the porta potty is not cool haha I don’t go to the bathroom with another man for that matter hahaha  I like the super hero one it is pretty awesome!!!  It isn’t the same seeing everyone there and I am not there!! 

Anyway, what all is happening there other than the reunion!!  haha I know that I shouldn’t ask, but when is the first elk meeting?  haha I am documenting this very carefully!!!  Tell everyone that I said hi and that I hope they are all doing well!!  I know I don’t write a lot and I am sorry but I try to get everything out in a short time!! Plus I am really lazy in writing things too!!  So I am sorry for that!!  To be honest about the pen it sounds very nice and I wish I could have you send it but Jay got me that nice pen before I left and i think I will finish with this one!!  So save it for me and I will use it when I get home!!  I will say my zone leader is from Idaho and loves the same things as me!!  Especially hunting we spent a whole pday talking about how we were going to miss the hunting seasons and stuff like that!!  Have a great week family and love you all, oh mom if you could send deodorant that would be nice here they just use the spray stuff in place of the deodorant and it is really weird thanks!!!  Love you all!!!!

Elder Welling

 Elder Welling, Elder Mwambu, Elder Packer (AP)

Purchasing New Beds with Elder Skidmore

Transfers this week...

Hey Mom and Dad,

I am doing well this week and I am getting back into the swing of things after the robbery!!  First of all there are two more elders with us and their names are Elder Mwaba and Elder Ouma,  Anyway I am going to be training a new Elder on Thursday and all those types of things!!! All I know is that he is Tanzanian and does not speak English very well.  Also I want to do something for my companion before he leaves I want you to put some money on the card, take it out of my savings please. I want to buy my companion a suit since the mission won’t reimburse him a suit.  I know that you won’t get to reply to this but that is what I am going to do so if you could put that on before tomorrow that would be great.

We had a baptism yesterday that I would love to send you some pics but this computer station is in the ghetto and sucks!!  His name is Brother Bongani Hakonze and is 19 years old and wants to serve a mission.

Elder Mwambu is being transferred to Malawi on Friday.  Yeah we are good and all is ready to go for the week!!!  If possible we are hoping for another baptism soon!!  Malawi is awesome or so I have heard!!  I am also going to start using Facebook just so you and mom are not alarmed so that I can start keeping track of the recent baptisms and companions there!!

Well I am glad you guys had a great week and all things went well!! I am going to miss the family reunion but you guys have fun!!!  Thank you and love you guys and have a great week!!!

Elder Welling

Dear, Sister Welling ,

 Am deeply grateful for your concern !! Jobs story in the bible was interesting to me to read but when all that I had was taken, this has been the hardest pill for me to swallow!! I surely believe job had great faith! Prophet Joseph Smith, for him to soldier on, it all required faith? I am just very far from these great examples of prophets! I still have much ,,much for me to work on my faith! No lies I am and will always be grateful for Elder Welling! He has been so kind, comforting  and loving to me! Our stay together has been memorable and will always be when I look back on my mission! He did help and teach me lot more than you would expect in a reserves case !! I got transferred to Malawi and I leave him in the area to train! Purchasing me a suit jacket here in Zambia is fine with me and I am thankful for that? Am not certain of how much it equates in us dollars but Colton and i will find out the right price. Thanks again for your kindness and love!!

With love

Elder Eriya Mwambu

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