Walking to Church

I will try to answer those
questions.  You both said that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables;
thats true.  I am not going to lie, it is a lot easier to spend money on
junk food, but I do try to buy some tomatoes each week,
and occasionally oranges, and we buy yogurt with
fruit in it each week which I eat every morning
for breakfast.  I am not running every morning with my companion,
but I am getting up every morning and exercising
(I do jumping jacks, stretch, push ups, sit ups, etc) so no worries.

I like that I have lost a little weight.  But we did play football here in Nancy
again today as a zone which was really fun.  I had a ton of td's
but I am really sore.  I have already started taking some  ibuprofen .
The Olympics sounded great.  I didn't really see any, just like glimpses
while at rendez-vous,   I would love to go to them someday.  Where are the 
next ones for the winter?

The French is actually coming very well.  Some days seem better
than others. I don't know if I am fluent, it depends on what you call fluent? 
I can have a conversation with anyone about anything; although
some topics are hard to talk about in English, let alone in French. 
I wouldn't say my vocabulary is big by any means, and the
masculine/feminine kills me, but it is coming well. 
I am actually going up to Luxembourg right after
I get off this computer.  I am going on an exchange with Elder Dyer,
one of the two Elders up there, so I am stoked for that. 
I will be there for a day.The work here is going soo well. 
I am going to try to send you pictures of this family that we have the
baptismal dates for.  They are honestly the greatest 
family I have met on my mission.  I love them to death. 
We have been having to find them rides to church because
the bus system is very sparse on Sundays, most 
things are closed in France on Sundays which is very nice,
but it makes it hard for them to get to church. 
We couldn't find them a ride so I called them 
Saturday night and asked them if they would walk with us. 
We get to their apartment at 8 Sunday morning, and they
were still sleeping!  So they get up and hurry and get ready
and we leave. We all walk; Elder McKnight, myself,
Andrea(the mom), Gerald (10), Audry (10), and Arnold (8),
for an hour and end up being 30 minutes late to church,
which is fine because sacrament is last. 
It was hilarious though.  The lesson for primary was on repentance
so they had the kids run around this course outside with a backpack
filled with bottled waters and timed them, and then had them run
without it and show how much more productive we can be after we
repent and don't have that burden anymore.  It was 
a good lesson but it was just hilarious because they had walked
an hour and then had to run around.  But they are great. 
They will be baptized, along with the aunt who is in Paris for a
couple of weeks, on the 13th.  I don't know if I will still be here for it,
because transfers are next week.   I pray that I will.  I hope
I will be close enough to come back for it.  After church though 
they had us over for lunch.  Every time we are over there
they give us coke, its great!  That is where a lot of our focus is going
but we are still teaching about 10-13 lessons a week,
which is pretty unheard of in our mission.  We are 
just so blessed to have the Lord's hand guiding us in this work.
I love being a missionary.  I cant believe it is 1/4 done. 
It seems like just yesterday I was at home. 
But I know I am where I need to be and will be blessed for it. 
And you will be blessed for sending me.

Have a wonderful week and I look forward to hearing from you  !

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Exploding

Thank you so much for your emails!  As usual, they were great.

I am not going to lie, I have not been 
eating the best lately, but not poorly either.
I make a lot of Asian stir fry, white sauce pasta and baguettes,
and burritos (usually curry.)  My weight seems 
to be staying the same and there are no health problems here.  
That's sweet that you get to have your teeth cleaned this week mom. 
That is not really something missionaries do, at least not here. 
I know one missionary who went to a dentist.  
All I know is it cost him an arm and a leg. 
But I am not worried about it.  I use a fluoride toothpaste
every night and use mouthwash about 3 times a day, 
so all is good.  I am just about to open my second
fluoride toothpaste, so I should be fine with that for another
6 months.  I can buy toothbrushes here.

The work here is so great!  We added the son of the family
we are baptizing to the list, he turns 8 in a week or two. 
So that makes in 6 baptismal dates for 
us and they are all strong!  One of them will be baptized
on the 31, the mom and her 3 kids will be baptized on the
14Th along with the daughter of the less active who is coming back. 
It is so sweet!  We taught the family and the aunt 
tithing, word of wisdom, law of chastity, and keeping the
Sabbath day holy in the same rendez-vous and they accepted
 them all with such strong faith!  I love these people!

Its funny, we are actually on our way to becoming legends. 
At the last zone leader council, where the zone leaders meet
in Geneva once a month with president, Elder Greaves,
the assistant and my buddy from junior high, got up 
and told everyone how Metz was "exploding!" 
So there are definitely great things going on! 
I love being here, it is so sweet!

Our president tries to have you stay for four transfers,
but I am pretty positive I will be switching in a couple of weeks.

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Alma 26:22

There is a really good parable written on the
Lord's hand in our lives; its called,
"the parable of the unwise bee," by James E. Talmage.
I would highly recommend it.

I probably should tell you a little about my week and also 
clear up the whole legality thing.
Sorry about the confusion with the 'legality!'
I forget that I am not in America where words that may
be the same have different meanings.  Legality is just a 
process every person living in France who is
not a citizen must do.  When anyone first arrives,
they must apply for a 'carte de sèjour,' a card simillar to a 
green card.  First off, you receive a recipicè, and
that is what I currently have.  After I have my medical visit
to make sure that I am healthy enough to 
live in France, and buys 'stamps,' they are like 100 €,
I will get my carte de sèjour.  It is just standard french
legality issues, so nothing at all to worry 
about.

This week went very well!
It was nice to see all the missionaries in my zone 
and the nancy south zone, along with President Peterson
and his wife, and the assistants to the president.
The topic was on repentance and it was way good!  
Our mission has been asked to memorize Alma 26:22,
which basically sums up our conference.
And yes, I did play my harmonica as a special musical number
while my companion played piano.  It was pretty rad.
I was very nervous though.
You had both mentioned the miracles that I had last week,
and its sweet that you both mentioned how cool it would
be if all those people were baptized.  Well, good news!
We set 5 more baptismal dates here this week!
The sweet African familly: Adria, her aunt Sophie, and
her two kids who are old enough Gerald and 
Audrey.  And also Lydie, the daughter-in-law to
the member who we are working on reactivating.
It is so sweet!  I am so lucky to have this opportunity to be 
here doing this amazing work!  Thank you so much
for giving me this opportunity and for paying for my mission.  

Are you guys watching the Olympics?
I haven't really heard too much but there 
sure are less people on the streets.

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Best Day and harmonica music

As for me, the work is great.  Saturday was probably 
the best day of my mission thus far.  Each Saturday  
the wards in France have "samedi sportiff," or "sport 
Saturday," where members, the missionaries, and 
investigators go and play sports, usually soccer, 
for an hour or too.  I haven't gone to much because 
there is always something else to be doing, but 
we went to that in hopes of talking to a prospective 
investigator.  It was fun, but we had not had the success 
we had hoped with the person; but it was still good. 

Then, we searched the sister's area book since there
are currently no sister missionaries in Metz 
and tried to find people we could pass by. 
While doing this we received a text message from a
less active women whom we are currently in the process of 
reactivating along with her son, which is going very well. 
But the message said, "my daughter in law wants to be
a member.  We are blessed!  see you 
Sunday!" Naturally, we called her right away and got
a rendez-vouz with her and her daughter-in-law.

As we continued to look at these former amis prior to our 
rendez-vous we placed them on a map and prayed about
who we should visit based on geographical location and
where it would be the most time efficient, and most 
importantly to where the Lord would have better
prepared the people to accept our message. 
The first person we decided to stop by was a women
who had a baptismal date years ago, but had canceled
it because she wanted to make sure she 
knew for herself; she hadn't been contacted by
the missionaries for over 2 years!  
We didn't know her address, just the road, her name,
and that she was African.  We went to the road and
on the balcony there was an African woman waving at us!  
We asked if she was Andrea, and she said no, but
that that was her daughter.  They invited us in and we
rethought the restoration over Coke, I just love people 
who give me coke!  There also were her 3 kids
there who are the coolest kids I have met here;
they are 7, 10, and 11.  When we were walking out
some French punks tried starting something with us,
not a big deal, French kids are all talk, and the
10 year old kid yells from the balcony at them,
"hey, give them some respect!"  It was so sweet.

Then, we had our rendez-vous with the inactive women.
It went so well and they too gave us coke!  We haven't
fixed a date yet, but she will probably be baptized 
in 4 weeks. All them went to church, which was great!
It was such a good testimony meeting!

Last night we had interviews with the President
and his wife; they are soo awesome!  He used to
be the COO of Freddy Mack.  So, last night we stayed
in Nancy with 6 other elders, then, this morning took
a train back to Metz because I had to do some legality,
then, we took the train back to Nancy because we are 
having a Zone football game; 10 Elders. 
And yes, American football!  It is going to be a blast! 
We are staying here again tonight because we have
zone conference tomorrow, so I will be seeing
President Peterson again tomorrow. Oh, 
and you know how I mentioned buying a harmonica
last week, I am playing souviens-tois on it tomorrow
as the special musical number at the conference; 
haha.  Wish me luck!

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch