Photographs and movies

I had a great week here in
Chalon sur Saone this week!
I have recently learned that
Chalon is in deed the city
where the camera was invented,
which is ironic, because I just
came from Lyon where the first
movie or film was created. The
irony is that things, as film,
always seemed to be moving and
although there are difficult times
in the movie, everything works out
in a happy great story (I will share
this happy ending to Lyon in a moment),
and like a picture, Chalon
seems to be never moving BUT as you
examine closely there are great things
commonly over looked.
We were able to fix a baptismal date
with our ami Pierre this week and it
scheduled for the 9th of May, but I
think that will likely change for a
couple of weeks later!
We were actually planning on fixing
another baptismal date this week with a
cousin of the Tongan family who is also
a professional rugby player and whose
girlfriend is a member in Tonga. As
we retaught the importance of authority
on this earth and about baptism and
looked at me and said, "but I was already
baptized," a statement that I hear almost
every week, because people do not
understand the need for correct baptism.
So I said, "yes, but in which church
and with what authority?" He than replied,
"when I was 13, by my cousin, in
your church!" haha, it was so great!
Our ami has already received the first
saving ordinance on earth! Now we are
going to start helping him better
understand this authority and help him
get ready for a temple marriage he
mentioned wanting to have one day
with his girlfriend!
I had mentioned the happy ending to
a movie a little earlier. Well, this is a
happy ending for my stay in Lyon.
Our Jewish investigator Landry,
whom I had been teaching for a couple
of months had decided to be baptized
the night before I left Lyons, and
just this last Saturday, the mission
President gave me permission to go
back to Lyons to see his baptism!
It was one of the most amazing baptisms
I have ever seen! He even invited
five of his way cool friends to
watch and talk with us afterward!
Afterward, he came up and told me
that he wants to serve a mission in
a year when he will be eligible too!
I can't believe it! It was one of
the most amazing things I had ever
heard! I love the chance I have to
be here and work simply as a tool in
the Lord's hands, but yet still
receiving all of these amazing blessings!
This upcoming week should also go well.
I will be in Dijon tomorrow for
interviews and then this week we have
a bunch of rendez-vous already planned.
I am stoked to see all the great miracles
that will be continued to be poured out
in the upcoming weeks!
Have a great week and
know that I am thinking and praying for you!

Clayton Henderson Welch

It's the spirit not the numbers

I am glad that Jean Marie got a
hold of you. I was trying all
day to find a way to email you
on Monday because I didn't even
know you were in transit. I went
to all 5 cyber cafés here and we
even tried using the computer at
the church, but the emails are
down. I get a chance to walk
around outside a lot, despite
having a car, and I am so grateful
for the sun and the beautiful
creations the Lord has given us.
It is warming up here and the trees
are all green and everything is
coming back to life!
That is so great that you had an
average of 127 people at church for
the month! That is more than I think
any ward in the four stakes in our
mission! I think, after the sacrament
and one of the families left, we had
maybe 15 people at church. Its alright
though; its like what one of the members
told me after church, it doesn't
matter how many, it just matters that
the spirit is here with us.
I had a great week here in Chalon sur Saone.
I was able to be in Dijon for a couple of
days for an exchange which was great.
Dijon is one of the more beautiful
cities I have seen on my mission,
apart from Metz and some of the
other cities up in northern France.
We were actually walking right after emails
and this rad man stopped us. He was
standing in front of his hooka bar, which
actually was a way chill place.
He invited us in, and my zone leader
just looked at me, and being the person
I am was way stoked to go in. He gave us
a ton of free herbal tea and it turns
out that he was a Hindu missionary; but
he was a white french guy. He had
actually talked to the missionaries in
the past and knew almost everything
about him. He was one of the most
generous open people I have ever met.
He actually has, once a month, an
open discussion for the public on
religious topics and invites a Muslim,
a Jew, a Hindu, a catholic,
and the Mormon missionaries to come
(the missionaries use to go in the past
but haven't for a while.)! It sounds
like a way cool idea and I would love
the chance to go to it one time,
even if its after my mission.
The week here in Chalon was also way good.
We were driving to a rendez-vous one
day and we saw one of our members with
his friend. Instead of doing what a lot
of members do and pretend like he didn't
see us, he actually starts waving for us
to park our car to talk to him!
He introduced us to his friend and
we set up an appointment where he was
there with us, and then he even came to
church yesterday! His name is Pierre
and we have two rendezvous with him this
week and he already said he would come
to church this Sunday. We plan on inviting
him to be baptized on Wednesday!
Other than that, myself and my companion
are just working hard on trying to
continue finding people to teach.
We have taught more lessons each week here
so I hope that will continue to increase.
The members here are great though.
Even though there are only about 15-20
members each Sunday at church, who each
drive at least an hour from different
directions, they are all so close and
are so anxious to help us! They always
want us to come eat with them, which isn't
very practical, but we do get to like
once or twice a week!
We have a lot of fun stuff planned for
this week as well. We have a bunch of
great rendezvous planned and we will be
watching the last session of conference
tomorrow in Dijon.
It should be an exciting week!

Love,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

A Tuesday email...but a member phone call to keep us from worrying; what a good guy!

As a preface to his email we
wanted to share the story of
how great it is to have a
missionary son that knows he has
a totally neurotic mother who
worries. Because of this he had
his friend/new member the "Mormon
Monk" phone us when he was unable
to send an email on Monday due to
the holiday. We were on the road .
between Utah and Minnesota, but we
had Stephanie checking email for us
all day. The Mom was worried but the Dad
kept reassuring that all was well.
I was worried because if someone tried
to call us about him we weren't home.
So when we returned to Marshall at
12:45am we saw there were messages from
unknown numbers. Worried we listened.
The first French message was from the
Brother Monk. He said he had a message
but he would call back. Okay, I paniced!
Thankfully the next message was from him
saying all was well and Elder Bubba didn't
want us to worry, he was "excellent."
I was soooooo grateful for a missionary
who kknew I would be sick with worry so
he sent a message. What a relief!
So we were pleasantly surprised the next
day when we received this email.
Gotta love that guy:)


Bonjour
I am doing so great!
I am very sorry that I am writing a
little late; it is Tuesday and I am
actually here in Dijon, France, yes,
home of the mustard! I hope you got
the message I had a member asked to
send you yesterday. Apparently the
day after Easter is a huge holiday
in France and literally everything
was closed, including all of the email
places. But, you said that you were
driving back yesterday, so you may
not even have noticed.

I am sorry to hear that grandpops isn't
doing very well. If you could let him
know I am praying for him and that
I love him tons that would be great!
everyone looks great and way happy!
I had a great Easter week here in France.
It truly is a blessing to spend these
holidays that we celebrate in remembrance
of our savior actually entirely
devoted to him. Although holidays aren't
as recognizably different than any
other day of the week, I was able to feel
a joy, and a love from others around
me as people were able to either directly
or indirectly think of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Last week for preparation day I was able
to spend the day in Lyon, visiting the
old city of Lyon; I was able to see a
couple of cathedrals and spend some time
with some really great missionaries.
Throughout the week, we were able to
find two new amis to teach, and I feel
that the Lord is literally directed the
work here. Although it is a little
different that my former area, I know
that there are those ready to accept the
gospel in Chalon. My companion and I
are also finding ways to make everyday
enjoyable and we are having a great time!
My new companion is from Draper, Utah.
He has been out about 6 months and this
is his second city. He is way into the
outdoors and we have tons in common.
This is honestly one of my funnest
transfers yet!
We had zone conference last Friday, so
we spent Thursday afternoon traveling by
train to Lausanne, Switzerland, and then
Friday morning on to Yverdon where we
had our conference. We usually have
two zones together for conference, but
we had three at this last one, so there
about 20 missionaries there. We talked
a lot about obedience, and the importance
of following the spirit. It was a great
conference and I learned tons. I really
enjoyed the trip as well. I love the
chance I have to ride on trains through
the Swiss and french mountains. The
Lord truly is an artist, as this earth
is the greatest and most beautiful
creation there is.
Easter day itself was good. I was
surprised at how small the branch was,
but there was a great spirit, and that
is what really matters. I was able to
translate for the Tongans, which is always
really fun. I am always surprised
about the progress I have made in the
French language.
After church we had a couple of meetings,
and then we went to a members for lunch,
and we actually had salmon which was way
good! We also had like 4 others courses,
which is typical at every meal. We had
salmon, then potatoes, then salad,then pizza,
then cheese and bread, and then desert.
It was way good. We then drove home, had
our weekly planning and had dinner.
It was a really good Easter.
For preperation day I had the great
privilege`of going to the other
large monastery here in France.
I went with the mormon monk and
one of our amis from Lyon who will
be baptised the 25th, to a monastery
of about 65 catholic monks and 20 nuns.
We went to mass with them, ate with
them, and then just hung out and
talked about life. I am always so
surprised with the generosity and
their openness and the desire to
always learn more; they are a great
example to me and have many Christlike
attributes that I would like to emulate.
This morning we had our district
meeting, we do them combined and the
power was out in the church here in
Dijon, and, seeing how we were planning
on watching conference, we had to change
plans. Myself and the other district
leader taught about members and
missionaries and the need for unity.
I feel it went very well.
Right now I am just here in Dijon
for an exchange with the zone leader
so I will be here until tomorrow.
The rest of the week should be great,
although we cont have to many trips
planned. We do have a bunch of lessons
already planned though, and I am very
excited for the great week we will have!

Have a great week and find something
new to do everyday!

Elder Clayton

Happy Easter!

I can't believe how much missions vary.
I can honestly tell you that I eat more
than I need, and that my life mimics that
of a life in America. I am blessed to be
serving in a first world country. So
there is nothing to worry about at all.

I will try to answer your questions real quick:
What is the new city like? It is pretty
small, but it will be good. It is on the
river and there is a lot of castles right
around it.
Why do you have to go to Dijon once a week?
District Meeting.
When you first got to France you said you
can only drive for a year. So does that
mean that your new companion will be driving?
Actually, they said that that is not really
a rule. I don't know but I actually
drive all the time, which is very nice.
Do you still end up walking quite a bit
or just travel by car?
Right not, mainly by car.
Is there a branch or a ward in your city?
Its a branch and most members live about
an hour away. The branch president
actually lives in Lyon and has a special
calling as branch president.

I will probably only be here for one
transfer. My mission president
insinuated that I would only be here
for one, and the former assistant to
the president told me he was 95 percent
sure I was leaving after one transfer.
But either way it doesn't matter,
I am content wherever the Lord needs me.
As for my week, it was a great week.
I spent a lot of time getting used to my
new ville and going to general conference.
I am now in Chalon sur Saone with
Elder Brady who is a stud! I really
like him. We have tons in common and
I am seriously having a great time.
Having a car is a blessing and a curse.
It makes work very effective, but, I do
like public transportation and the chance
to talk to people more often in route
to places.We only had a couple of days to
work in our city, but we did get some
great stuff done. The missionaries in the
past had be house porting in small
surrounding cities for the last couple of
years which isn't really what I have
found success in; so we both decided to
retract all of the apartments that are
right next to the church, hopefully
getting a lot of amis to church.
In our two days we found two new amis
and taught some great lessons. Also,
on Saturday morning we ate at a bbq chez
(at) a less active members house.
They are from Tonga and the dad is a
professional rugby player! It was so
good and we are teaching their friend who
we plan on asking to baptism this week!
We were lucky enough to have the chance
to travel to Lyon actually for general
conference, because we are in the Lyon
stake, and it was wonderful! We watched
the saturday morning session live at
6 o'clock at night, and then Sunday we
watched the priesthood session at 11,
the Saturday evening session at 2, and the
sunday morning session live at 6.
It was soo good! We recorded the Sunday
evening session and will watch that at
our next district meeting. I loved
conference though! I found so much peace
and comfort and also the personal
revelation needed for my life.
I especially liked the talk given Sunday
morning by Jeffrey R. Holland about
feelings of abandonment and also the
talk by Deiter F. Uchdorf about not
worrying about the little things and
little problems that don't matter
in life. I wrote down five questions
I was searching for in my life
and I received the answer to all five,
pretty much directly! Its amazing how
that works! I had also been telling
all the missionaries that Elder Anderson
would be the next apostle so I was
excited to see him called. I had the
spirit confirm to me that this call
was a call from God and I know he is a
special witness of Jesus Christ.
Its also good to have a "frenchy" as
an apostle. He served in Paris and
was the mission president in Bordeaux!
He actually lived for a little bit
working for the church in this mission!
It made the French members here very
excited to see that!

This week will be great as well.
We have zone conference, which is
actually in Yverdon, Switzerland,
so I will be in Switzerland on Thursday
and Friday. I love long train rides.
Other than that we will have a great
week of finding and teaching the people
the Lord has prepared for us in
Chalon sur Saone!

Love always,
Elder Bubba Welch