Life is a blur...

As I sit at the computer writing
this email, trying to think of
everything that happened this week,
my mind draws a blank. This week
is such a blur, and it feels as
though it were yesterday that I
was sitting here writing you.
Time flies. They say it only goes
by faster after you get home from
your mission; I don't know how that
would be possible. All I can tell you
is I love Geneva. I love my companion.
I love my mission.

We had the chance to attend the Lyon
and Nancy zone conferences this last
week which went very well. We would
normally travel with the mission president
and his wife, but we needed to be there
early for a meeting with the zone leaders,
so we left a little earlier. We had our
two and a half hour activity about
using The Book of Mormon, which was great.
All the missionaries were very
engaged, and many expressed learning more
than usual in a proactive setting.
We now know the things we need to change
for the two zone conferences we will
attend this week, doing the same activity.
It is great having the chance to
visit with all the missionaries.

Although the missionary work has been
a little different since I have been here
in Geneva, we did have the chance to
have some great rendez-vous; particularly
with our ami.She is from Brazil and is
about 35 years old. Her cousin is an
inactive member, but is really encouraging
towards her in her pursuit of
finding the truth. It was her birthday
on Wednesday and we watched a 15 minute
film that was made by our mission last
month. It is like the "healing waters"
video in English where the girl gives
her friend a copy of the Book of Mormon,
but made in France, with an original
French song. It is way good. We invited
her to be baptized, and she is praying to
know if that is what she needs to do.
We then had a great lesson with her
last night at a members on prayer.
I really think this week she will get
her answer that she needs to be baptized.

I had the chance to go on an exchange
with this week with the zone leaders here
in Geneva. It was interesting though
because I went with my MTC companion.
It was a great chance to see/work with
him again, and to see the changes and
progress we have both made. It was a
great chance to get out and talk to tons
of people.

Yesterday I went to church to the two
wards again. We get to go to both wards
each week which is great. It is a lot
of people to get to know, but its great
to see so many strong members of the
church. 6 hours seems like a lot of
church, but it flies by. We haven't
started working to much with the members
yet, but we plan on starting that soon.

This week should be another great week.
We will be attending the two zone
conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Then, we have an exchange on Thursday
with the Yverdon zone leaders, and on
Friday with the Annemasse zone leaders
here in Geneva. It should be a busy
week, but it should be packed full of
great things.

The mission presidents wife is great.
She is definitely the mission mom of us
all. She is so caring and is very down
to earth. She helps us so much with all
of the temporal things we need. We
don't really eat there, but she often
times brings us over some yummy treats.

Thank you for reminding me about the
drivers license and also the 90 dollars.
They are actually for the same reason.
I had to go and get a Swiss drivers
license the other day, and the mission
makes you pay 100 francs of it on your
own. They needed me to start driving,
and they wanted me to do it legally.
Good thing though is that is good
til I die, so I have a
European license now.

This should be a great week.
Love,
Elder Clayton Welch

Geneva

I will try to respond to some of
your questions that you asked:
Do you live in the mission home
or an apartment? I live in the mission home.
The mission home actually has two parts,
two houses; the mission president and
his wife live in one, and we and the 3
office elders live in the bottom of the
other. The main floor in our part of
the mission home are our offices, a board
room, etc.
Are there just 2 AP’s or more
and besides transitioning mission
presidents what will you be doing
differently? There are only 2 assistants:
Elder and myself. He is great though,
one of my favorite companions.
We are actually working on creating a
binder for the new mission president of
what happens in the mission. It will be
interesting because for the first
three weeks of the new mission president
elder and myself will do everything,
and then I will get a new companion and
we will continue to help the
new mission President.
I know you had several splits with the
AP’s when you were a Zone Leader so
will you travel around the mission and do that?
Actually we are trying something differently.
Normally we would do half of our 9
exchanges in other cities, but because of
everything we need to do here we are
going to have all 9 exchanges here in Geneva.
Will you travel a lot or infrequently?
We will travel a little bit. We are going
to all the zone conferences so that should
be fun.
Will you still be in a car or just
travel by train, etc.?
We have our own car with a GPS.
What part of Geneva do you live in?
We live in Chambésy, which is actually
where all of the embassys our for other
countires. Our mission home actually
was built as an embassy for a small
middle eastern country. It is amazing
though, we live 2 or 3 minutes from the
United Nations. It is amazing.
This week was very different from many
of the other weeks I have had here on my
mission, but it was great none the less.
I finished up my time in Chalon sur
Saone with a bbq with the professional
Tongan rugby players, where we got to
play a little rugby tough after in our
suits. I love that family and
will really miss them.
The next morning my old companion and
myself took a road trip to Geneva where he
picked up his new companion. After about
15 minutes of arriving I had to give a
talk to the new trainers on their
responsibilities, which was weird because I
have never trained (maybe at the end of
my mission). I then got settled in here
at the mission home where my companion
and I live with the 3 office elders. It
is great though because we have 3 bedrooms,
a garage, 2 bathrooms, 2 showers,
a huge kitchen, and a mini work out room
with a bench press. Not the kind of
mission most people would expect,
but thats Geneva.
The next morning we woke up at 5 to take
the missionaries going home to the
airport with our mission president.
That was an interesting experience, seeing
the missionaries I love and have worked
with going home. It was nice to see
some of them one last time though.
We didn't have much time to do much
finding or anything because of all
the stuff we had to do. I only got
to contact people on the streets
for about 30 minutes this week,
which is crazy because I think I
skipped dinner 3 times this week!
Its great though, I feel like I
am really helping people and the work.
We have been working on all the
zone conferences and under the mission
presidents direction we created a
2 and a half hour activity that
we will be doing with all of the mission.
It will be about using the Book of Mormon
in teaching, and there are about 5 mini
workshops we have planned involving
what we have found to be the 25 most
commonly asked questions by investigators.
They will learn how to better respond
to these questions while using the Book of
Mormon. I am way excited for this
activity. We will be doing that in
Lyon on Wednesday.
Tomorrow we have a zone leader council
where myself and my companion will teach
the zone leaders on being 'leaders.'
And then we have an exchange on Friday
with the zone leaders who are from
Annemasse, France here in Geneva.
I love being here in Geneva.
It is my dream.
There are actually four wards here
in Geneva: 2 french wards,
an English ward, and a 'spanish' ward
if that shows you how diverse this place is.
We actually attend the two French wards
so we spent a good 6 hours at church
yesterday which went really well.
This week looks like it will be great
and I am excited for all of the great
things that will happen.

Elder Bubba

Transfer to Geneva

It brought a huge smile to my
face being able to hear your
voices and I am glad to know
that you are all still having
fun together and you are still
the family I know and love.

Today was the morning of
"transfer calls" so I am able
to tell you what is happening in
the life of Elder Welch.
I have been called to serve in
Geneva with Elder Boisserie,
probably the best missionary
in the mission.
He is 26 and from Paris and
will be finishing his mission in
three months.
I will be in the office serving
as an assistant to the president.
I am humbled my this call while
feelings of inadequacy rest in
my mind. But I know "whom the
Lord calls he qualifies,"
and that the next 4 transfers
will be great. I have the task
of switching the mission presidents
in a month and a half which will
be a great experience seeing how
much revelation and the hand
of the Lord guide this great work.

This week was a great week.
We had the opportunity to go
to Lons again where we visited
with the 3 Tongan Rugby players
who are less active members
through inability to travel
the hour to church. They had
a practice for rugby, but managed
to have one of their friends who
had yet to hear of the gospel
come over and have us teach him
the restoration. He is from
Fiji as well and plays for the
Fiji national team.
We will see him and the other two
Fijians rugby players who are our
investigators tomorrow after noon.
We then got to go watch some of
their practice and chill with the
players, half of which our
investigators to the church.
Lalae, the Tongan who
was in the bishopric in New Zealand
again insisted on buying us McDo
and as he was leaving gave me
one of his Rugby shirts!
It was a great day.
As for the other Tongan family
here in Chalon sur Saone, we
had a family
home evening with them along
with a barbecue. We had a great
game/lesson on the things that
are most important
in life and ended with prayer.
It went way well and they are
actually throwing me a going
away barbecue tomorrow night!
They are honestly the most
charitable people I have
ever met.I was able to go on
an exchange in Besancon last
week which also went very well.
I love exchanges because they
really give me the chance to
learn from all of the great
missionaries in our mission.
We finished our exchange in
Dijon right before zone meeting.
After zone meeting we went to
McDonalds, and, while
leaving, ran into 4 BYU students
in Dijon!
The first time I have run into a
member on the street from
America on my mission!
It was great! We took
pictures in the road as the
French people tried to figure
out what we were doing.

Apart from that it was another
great week in the mission field.
I look forward to the upcoming
week and all of the adventures
that lay in store.
I am nervous, anxious, and excited
at the great things I am going to
learn and for the chance I have to
serve others. I am also excited to
be living in the
City of Geneva with a
French companion.

Have a wonderful week and continue
to "find joy in the journey."
I pray that we all continue to be
strengthened in the Lord and
that everything will go well.
I love you! Have a great week!
Salut,
Elder Bubba

If only...a Temple in every city!

This week turned out actually going
very well. On Wednesday we had
scheduled to visit three
"less-active" tongan professional
rugby players who live an hour away
by car. They have no means of
getting to church so they never
really come and it was the first
time I was able to meet them.
They are the raddest people
I have ever met in my life.
We visited them with the intention
of teaching them a short lesson we
had prepared and then eating with
them, but when we arrived, the
first thing they said was that
they had some friends they wanted
to visit. We then proceeded to
one of their friends, a 25 year
old cool french woman. Her
boyfriend is on their
rugby team, and they had actually
alreadygiven her a copy of the
Book of Mormon!
We taught her a great first lesson
and she was wayy receptive to it.
We are going back this Wednesday
to teach her and her boyfriend
with them. Then, they took us
to a Chinese buffet and paid for
us and that was some of the best
food I had eaten in a while!
I thought that french people stared
at missionaries a lot, but
try seeing two american missionaries,
with 3 200-250 pound tongan rugby
players chillen having a good time;
nothing but stares! Then, they,
being the most charitable members
of the church I had ever met,
insisted that we go get ice
cream at mcdonalds, and while
in line, made us each order a
mcflurry and milkshake. THEN,
they asked us if we had time to
go teach more of their friends.
We then went and taught two other
rugbymen from Fiji who are also
on the team.
The one said that he noticed that
the Tongans didnt drink or smoke
and because of their example,
he quit them both a couple of
months earlier. He also said that
before when the missionaries
came to his house in Fiji he would
hide and pretend like he wasnt there,
but now, he will invite them in
in a second because of the great
examples of these Tongan members.
We are going to see these
Fijians this wednesday as well.
After we left, the Tongans FORCED
us to go to McDonalds again to buy
us a meal for the drive home.
They kept saying that it was
them trying to pay back for not
serving missions. 2 of the 3 are
married and one was in the bishopric
before he came out here.
I am astonished by the great
example of these man and I know that
if we would all be able to better
emulate these men, myself especially,
there would be temples in every
city of the world!
Other than this great day, we had a
great time fiding people to teach
here, as well and visiting with
members. We visited with a great
family last night where we played
a gospel game, laying words
like cell phone and computer along
with the book of mormon and the
priesthood and then words like
repentance and the atonement of
Jesus Christ, and took turns
going around the table sacrificing
one thing at a time, (including the
Book of Mormon and others) until we
finished with the atonement.
It was a great experience
and was a great chance to see all
the blessing the Lord gives us in
this life.
They made crepes for us and we had a
great time together.
As for this week, we have a bunch of
great things planned. We will be
going back to Lons, the city where
we will visit the Tongans again.
I am actually going on an exchange
in Besancon today until Wednesday
morning which should go
well, and I will be going to Dijon
Wednesday for zone meeting.

Have a great week!

Elder Bubba