Harmonica

As for me, as previously alluded to, I am doing great!
The Monday preparation day is a little weird,
but I am sure that will become comfortable after a few
weeks.  This week is the last week of soldes
so I think we may just walk around and look at stores
and see if there is anything that we want for cheap
before everything returns to its ridiculous prices.
Last week I bought a couple of really cool ties for
about 4€ each.  Today I think I am going to buy a
harmonica, yes they are allowed, and am going to try
to learn hymns on one in my spare time at night.
Yesterday was my 5 month mark, and I am continually
surprised with how fast time is flying buy!
I am so glad to be here serving the Lord, but
before I know it, I will be back at home,
commencing my studies.  That's a crazy thought.
I was a little excited to maybe go somewhere different,
but I am excited to be staying here in Metz;
there is a lot of good work, and a lot of good
possibilities I see coming in the near future.
Like I said, we see miracles every day.
On Friday, we really felt like we needed
to add another ami that day, but we didn't know who
or where to look to.  The sisters were taken out
of Metz lasttransfer so now it is just
Elder McKnight and I in Metz. But we had
acquired their area book when they left so
there were tons of old amis and potential
investigators. We only had 15 minutes before
our scheduled rendez-vous andright before
we started calling, I felt like I
should change the order. 
We only had time to call two people,
but the second person we called answered and we
scheduled a rendez-vous with her right
after the one we had.
So, we had a member already with us, and taught
this women,added her, and found the
new ami we were looking for!
Things like this happen every day; it is amazing.
I love being here and I can't tell you
how true this gospel is.
God is there and he is our loving heavenly father.
He did send his only begotten son, Jesus Christ
to this earth to suffer for us, and I know that
Jesus Christ and God the Eternal Father did, indeed,
appear to Joseph Smith and the fullness of the
gospel of the Jesus Christ was restored to this earth!
I Love this, and I love talking about it
to people every day.

Your Loving Son,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Miracles

I am doing great! 

We didn't receive a call from President Peterson on Tuesday 
so that means that I will be here in Metz for another 6 
weeks with Elder McKnight!  Although I do like to travel 
around and see new places, I love Metz, which is 
argumentatively the most beautiful city in the mission 
architecture wise, and I love Elder McKnight, and 
I am excited to continue the upward trend of work we 
have been having here in Metz!  
We had so many miracles this week, too many to write about!  
I can't tell you how many people stopped us on the street 
and asked us to tell them about what we are doing and 
about our church; it was great!

One instance in particular was on Saturday, when we had 
a scheduled rendez-vous with a less active who had bailed 
on us the last 4 times.  On our way there we 
felt inspired to call a former ami who had also bailed 
on the previous 4 rendez-vous; but, he answered and we 
set one up for an hour after our rendez-vous with Albert, 
the less active. Well, we got to Albert's and he was 
there, with two people he wanted us to teach!  So we 
shared a lesson on the atonement and added the two 
women there as amis!  Then, as we walked to our 
other sketchy rendez-vous, a man stopped us in the road 
and asked us if we had another Bible.  After explaining 
that no, we believe in the Bible, but we also 
have another book of Scripture, the Book of Mormon, 
we asked if we could come in and talk more and he said yes!  
That really doesn't happen here.  We talked about 
the restoration as he poured us glass after glass of coke!  
It was amazing.  We have another rendev-vous with him and 
his wife, they are both Portuguese, this Thursday!  
Things like that have been happening all week and there 
is no other way to explain it but miracles from God!  
I am so lucky to be able to be doing this work!

Our car broke down and we had to have it fixed.

I will be writing you this Monday because that will be my 
new preparation day, so, if you would like to write 
on Sunday that would be great!

Je t'aime
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

I am doing wonderful!

My week was very good.  We are continuing to work hard,
and this week we changed our focus onto the area book
(the book where we, and previous missionaries who 
served in metz, record our lessons taught, potential
investigators, etc.)  We are trying to find people who
had previously been in contact with the missionaries and
see if they had just been forgotten, if the had a change of 
heart, and any other things that we can help them out with. 
We have already seen a lot of success with that and are
scheduling a lot of rendez-vous with a 
lot of people.  The work is moving forward, which is great!

Both of you had mentioned sending ensigns, or other
church magazines since the ones I read are old. 
Thank you so much for your concern but we actually get the 
latest one at zone conference and at interviews, both of
which are once every six weeks, so I should be good. 
There are tons of old magazines in the apartment. 
And as for other church books go, we can only read the
standard works and also the missionary library (true to the faith,
our search for happiness, our heritage, and Jesus the Christ
(which I brought all of)).  We get an hour of personal study
from 8 to 9, and then companion study from 9 to 10, so 
I get plenty of time to study which is great.  I read the
Book of Mormon every morning for 20 minutes, and I on
my second way through since I have been out and 
I am just starting Jacob; I read Preach my Gospel for 10 minutes;
I am reading the whole new testament and I am just finishing
up Mark right now, and for the last 10 minutes and any other
free time I read the missionary library.  I 
actually just finished Our Heritage today, and I have already
read our search for happiness, and true to the faith,
so I am starting Jesus the Christ tomorrow which is
probably 4 times the size of the others combined, with 
probably that much more to learn!  So I am excited!

the end of the transfer is a week from today, so I will know 
next Tuesday whether I am staying in Metz another
6 weeks or going somewhere else!  I will keep you informed!

Love,
Elder Clayton "Bubba" Welch

Salut

Salut

I am doing great!
Thanks for both of your encouragement to buy a new suit.
I have been thinking about that, and actually they are 
not as expensive as you would think here; 
probably 80€ for a nice suit and you can find some for 
around 40.  But I think I might just wait a little bit 
and see how it goes.  If I do decide to I will 
let you know.  Was there anything either of you wanted 
from "soldes."  I bought a couple of new ties for 6€ 
the other day so if you want something I can get it 
for you and send it.
As for the work here, everything is going well.  
We have  actually turned a lot of our focus towards member 
work and are trying hard to work with members on 
trying to find new people to teach.  
Its a little hard right now because a lot 
of our amis are on "vacance" or  vacation for the next 
couple of months.  And in Europe when people have vacation 
they go on vacation, for the whole time!  So, 
we are having a lot of fallen rendezvous as a result of 
people just up and going.  But all is still well.
We do have one ami who is awesome and I know will be 
baptized eventually, but I don't know when.  
Her name is Vanessa and her husband is a member
of the church, but hasn't really been active since his
baptism 30 years ago when he was 20.  They live and
work at an equestrian center where they teach
horse riding lessons.  He says he knows that this is
the true church and it is always so awesome to
see him bear testimony of it to her. 
She is working on recognizing 
the spirit and the answer to her prayers that this 
is the true church. Like I said, everything is going very well.  
I love being out here and I am starting to be able to 
communicate with people alright, and pretty much can get 
through a conversation with anyone, even if it takes a while.  
Thank you so much for your support

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

New P Day starting July 28th-Monday's

As for me, things are great!  
Oh, and before I forget, they are changing our 
preparation days to Monday starting the 28th, 
just so you know.  And yes pops, I 
do read ALL of both your emails, sorry if I 
don't answer all your questions, its 
hard to remember them all.  Thanks for the 
list of questions, I will just 
paste the list and answer them.

* Have you gotten your replacement debit card yet?  
Yeah, I did.  Thank you so much.  I got it over a week ago, 
sorry for forgetting to tell you.  I just haven't had to use it.  
But I am probably going to today.  
In France, there are never sales during the year; 
but, twice a year, they have a 
month long thing cold "soldes" or sales in 
English where country wide everything 
goes 50 percent off, literally, 50 percent off.  
It is ridiculous.  I don't know 
why anyone would buy anything any other 
time of the year.  So I think I might 
get some shirts and a couple ties today if that is OK.  
If there is anything you 
guys want just let me know and I will 
get it for you and send it home.


* Did you get your suits taken in?
I haven't yet, but I am trying!  
I don't really know where to get it done at.  I 
yellow paged tailors and the one I stopped 
by said he could do it, but not for a 
month because of soldes, 
so we will have to see.  They really are 
pretty big on me now so it would be nice 
to get  them taken in.  I am going to keep looking 
though.  I think at Christmas time, or the 
next soldes, I might want to get a 
French suit; they really aren't too much.  
But I will let you know when I do and 
how much it will cost.

* How's the French coming?
It is coming OK.  I can communicate with 
people enough to get by, and I can 
understand almost everything.  
I am still working hard on it though.  It is 
definitely prevalent that the Lord's 
hand is helping me out!

* Did your baptism of St. Cyr actually happen 
last Sunday? If so, how did it go?
YES!  I had my first baptism last Sunday!  
The branch president baptized him.  
It was amazing.  I have pictures of him and 
the branch president on my camera.  
They really encourage us to have ward 
and branch members baptize converts 
because it is a much better integration 
into the church and more fellowshipping 
is involved.  But it went so well!  
I will send you a copy of the program and 
pictures soon.  I am surprised with the success 
I have already had.  That was the 
first person either of my companions have 
taught that has been baptized and they 
have both been out over a year!  
Hopefully I will keep seeing success.

* Are you getting enough to eat - 
I'm concerned you've lost so much weight?
haha, yes;  I am getting more than enough.  
I have lost it in my neck and 
shoulders mainly so I am still as big as ever, 
no worries.  But I am eating 
well, and I try to eat an orange and a yogurt 
every day, even though I have 
gotten in the habit of drinking coke again, 
but it is nice to have.

* How are you and your companion getting along 
- are you legends yet?
We are getting along so well!  
I love Elder McKnight, we have so much in common.  
We are doing a lot of good things here in Metz, 
and its funny you ask that; we 
haven't become legends yet, but we did 
accomplish something this week.
Our year wide goal this year in our mission 
is to "reverse the trend" meaning 
that in the last 5 years, there have been 
less and less baptisms every quarter.  
So our goal this year is to have more than 
the same quarter the year previous, 
and to also beat the last months baptismal number.  
So, we had 28 first quarter 
and we needed 29 this quarter, which ended yesterday.  
Well, we only had 9 going 
into June so it looked bad but we got 18 more 
going into Sunday.  A ville in St. 
Etiene had one Sunday morning and then ours 
in the afternoon made  it 29!  The 
day before the end of the quarter. 
 It was amazing.  You cant say the Lord 
didn't help us.  I know we only achieved  
this goal because of the help of our 
Heavenly Father.  So, we haven't become 
legends yet, but people were calling us 
from all over the mission thanking us for 
getting the baptism we needed.  
I love this work.

Remember I love you 
and that there is nowhere else I would rather be!