Time flies at warp speed-3 weeks worth

HOORAY PICTURES!




June 29, 2009
This week has been jam packed with
getting things ready for the arrival
of President Murdock, but has been
a great week.
It was great being able to welcome
all of the new missionaries at the
airport on Tuesday. I could remember
like it was yesterday walking out
of the baggage claim that first day
and seeing other missionaries have
that experience was great. Tuesday
and Wednesday was spent primarily on
orienting the new missionaries with
the mission, and the things they need
to do, as well and meeting with trainers.
With that, I ate with the mission
president and his wife his week so many
times. We had taco salad (twice),
raclat (my favorite meal),
chicken, quiche, and a bunch of deserts.
I think we only cooked for ourselves
twice last week. I felt like I was
a United States missionary!
Thursday we took the old missionaries
to the airport which is always weird,
seeing those of whom you have served
with going home. Other than that we
had a couple of meetings with the mission
president trying to get everything finished
for the switch next week.
We started working on a presentation
this week as well which should better
orient the mission president with the
needs of the mission.
The end of this week was full of service.
Friday night we helped a family move,
and then, we finished helping them move
the next morning. We then planned on
helping one of our investigators paint
her apartment with some members, but when
we had gotten there she hadn't bought the
paint, and instead had made us tons of
amazing Thai food (she is from thailand).
I think I fell asleep yesterday in church
for the first time since I was 14.
haha. I don't remember falling asleep,
but at the end of the second sacrament,
after having over 6 hours of meetings,
one of our investigators told me she saw
me sleeping! haha, oh well.
Last night was a recent convert fireside
for all new members of the church in
the Geneva Stake here at the mission home.
We all ate dinner together and heard
the mission president and the stake
president speak. There were tons of
people there and it was a great experience!
So, as for this week, it should be great.
The next few days will be spent
finishing everything for President Murdock's
arrival. We will go with President
and Sister Peterson to pick them up from
the airport, and then will meet with
President Murdock for a couple of hours
the next morning. We will be driving
the Murdocks around as they go on some
exchanges with missionaries Thursday, and
apart from that, just being around the
mission home working on projects so we
can help them with any of their needs.
We actually have quite a few lessons
planned within all of that, so it should
be a pretty jam packed week and should
go by way fast!
I really and doing great and I am not
too tired. I am sleeping well, eating
well, and doing great.

Elder Clayton H. Welch





June 22, 2009
It is a beautiful sunny day her in
Geneva and I am so grateful for the
chance to respond to your emails!

I will try to take a minute and
respond to some of your questions:
How are you this week? GREAT! haha

When I hear how busy busy you are
and how time is flying I wonder if
you even have p days anymore?
Yup, I still have Preperation days.
This morning I went "soldes" shopping,
and this afternoon we will go grocery
shopping and clean the
mission home a little bit.

How were your splits this week?
It went way well, it was great to see
the changes we both made.

Are you eating well, sleeping
well and smiling?
I am eating better now than any
other part of my mission. Buying
and cooking for 5 missionaries is
a lot better/easier for 2.

The weeks get harder and harder to
describe each week. I was talking to
the mission president the other day
and he said something that I think
best describes the mission:
"Scientists say they still haven't
invented time travel; apparently
there aren't any scientists that
served missions." Time is still
flying by, but I am still have a
great time and enjoying something
different every day.

Tuesday, I had the chance to go
with the mission president and his
wife to Nuechatel, Switzerland for
their interviews, and to assist in
the teaching. He covered a discourse
called "give me this mountain," given
in 1979 by Spencer W. Kimball. t is
way good. I would recommend searching
in on lds.org and reading it. Neuchatel
is, in my opinion, the most beautiful
city in our mission, so it was a great
chance to go there and see the beautiful
lake and the old style architecture.
Also, being in the car with the Petersons
for about 3 hours was a great chance to
hear a bunch of great stories and experiences
they have had over the years. I have
really loved spending time with them,
and I think they are an amazing mission
president and wife, though, I do
anticipate the great experiences I will have
with the Murdocks.

I had the chance to go on an exchange
on wednesday which was a great chance
to see the changes we have both made.
Our car was actually in the shop, and
we usually use two when we do exchanges
here, so we were on foot for most of
the day. It was nice to get out and
walk around Geneva doing missionary
work. I prefer that then to driving
around Geneva all day.

For the rest of the week, we worked
primarily on the transfers. It was
a great experience being a part of it,
and seeing how the Lord literally
directs this work. We had a bunch
of changes in the mission, but I know
that it is just what the Lord wants,
and this work will continue to progress.

Also, we have started preparing for the
arrival of President Murdock in a week
and a half. We have started preparing
a PowerPoint presentation which will
hopefully answer any questions he has,
and establishes a smooth transition into
his new role as mission president.

This week is going to be very busy,
but it should be a great week. We will
have 8 new missionaries coming in tomorrow,
so tomorrow will consist of primarily
going to the airport, helping them with
Swiss legality, giving presentations and
what not. Wednesday we will be training
the new missionaries, the new trainers,
and talking with the missionaries that
will be leaving the next day. Thursday
we will be taking the "dying" missionaries
to the airport, and later that day we
will be meeting with the mission president
and work on making sure everything is
taken care of. It will be a pretty crazy
week, and every free minute will be
spent working on projects here, but it
should be great and I know the Lord will
make sure that everything that needs
to be done will be taken care of.
Have a great week, and keep finding
something new to make you smile everyday!
Love always,
Elder Clayton Welch



June 15, 2009
As for my week, it was pretty similar
to the last couple; fast. I had the
opportunity to go on two exchanges this
week, both great missionaries, and was
able to see many of the same miracles
as the week prior. My exchange on
Wednesday was a little harder, all
finding. We talked with people all
day, and, although we didn't have any
lessons, were able to set up many
lessons for the next day. Thanks to
the hard work we put forth on
Wednesday we were able to have 5 lessons
for our exchange on Thursday. The Lord
really does bless us when we work hard.
Tuesday, we went to a zone meeting in
Lausanne. We wanted to help their zone
out with some questions they had.
We than went and had Kebabs with them
and I have to say this could have been
one of the best kebabs I have had in
months. It was all lamb, and it was a
lot like the Gyros you can buy in
the states, but with the extra little
goodness of a kebab.
This week was stake conference here
in Geneva, so I was able to attend the
Saturday night session with a less active,
and then we went with three of our
amis to stake conference on Sunday.
I actually had to translate for the
Sunday session. I actually really like
translating, but only to an extent.
I had to do it for the 2 hours straight,
with a couple of speakers who speak almost
as fast as I do in English, so I was
getting a little restless at the end.
It was nice though, there was actually
a senior missionary who dropped off a
bar of chocolate for me today telling
me thanks for translating. haha,
the funny thing about translating is
though, that you can say whatever you
want and no one knows if you did a good
job or not.
Apart from that, we have been working
a lot on administrative things here at
the mission home. We are working on
completing a semi-annual report for the
church archives, a report to better
inform the new mission president on the
mission, and we started the
"transfer board" this week. It is a great
experience being able to work along side
with the mission president talking
about the needs of the mission, and
looking at where missionaries need to go,
and what will best help the work of the Lord.
There will actually probably be
some big changes in the mission this transfer.
This week should be another great week.
I think that we might be going to Neuchatel
tomorrow, to assist with the Yverdon Zone's
interviews. That is because our interviews
are a little different than everyone
elses. We don't do them as zones, meaning
that there isn't a big teaching while
the mission president interviews each
missionary individually, so the mission
president offered us the chance to go with
them to interviews tomorrow to hear a
teaching. It should be great.
We have another exchange this week here
in Geneva, and I will be working with
one of my former companions.
It should be great to see how much
we have grown since then.
In addition to that, we will be working
a lot on the transfer board, and the
upcoming transfer, as well as finishing
the reports.
Have a great week.
Bises,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

A Blur-but miracles happen

I will attempt at telling you a little
about my week; I know that I should be
able to more easily remember all of the
things I did, but it literally feels
like a blur. Upon arriving in Geneva,
I feel that one week feels like a day.
Its crazy!

I had the opportunity to go on three
exchanges this week, which was a great
chance to get out and work really hard.
On exchanges miracles always happen. I
have been trying to figure out why my
whole mission, but I think it is because
both missionaries try to be on their
A game, and its a little easier to become
complacent when you are with the same
person day after day. I also think it
is because the Lord wants to bless us
with miracles so that as we try to teach
and train missionaries on these exchanges,
they can better build their faith, and it
is a much better teaching situation.
All three exchages we had were here in
Geneva. I served with Elder on Wednesday,
Elder on Thursday, and Elder on Saturday.
They all went really well. A great miracle
I saw was on my exchange with Elder.
He is a great missionary and came into the
mission the same time as me. He is
actually one of my best friends in the
mission and I would love to serve with
him. He is a rad guy from Paris, and was
only a member for one year before
leaving on his mission. We visited a
less active college student in a
university student building that was
8 floors with 3 apartments on each floor,
with 4 students in each apartment.
We only had about 30 minutes before our
meter for the car ran out, but in that
30 minutes we fixed 3 lessons for this
week, taught a less active lesson,
taught another lesson to someone we met,
and found a new investigator!
It was great!
Another great miracle from an exchange
is on Saturday with Elder , we
contacted a woman on the road and
fixed an appointment with her and her
daughter for an hour later. We went
and picked up a member and taught the
Lady, her daughter, and her 5 20-30
year old nephews! The lady and her
daughter came to church and we will
see them again this week!
Apart from that, we worked on a couple
of reports; the good old administration
part of being an assistant
(at least in our mission). We just
finished the monthly report for the Area
Presidency and also the reports for
the stake presidents. We will be starting
this week a semiannual report on our
mission for the church archives and also
a presentation for the new mission
president who arrives the 1st of July.
It will be in the middle of the transfer,
but we will just continue like normal.
It should be a pretty smooth transition
with everything we are implementing, and
we should continue to see the mission
progress without any lapse.
This week will be a lot like the last.
We will be continuing to work on these
reports anytime we have free. We will
have 2 exchanges again here in Geneva
which will be another great chance
to see miracles.

I love how we have the chance to just
get better and better in this life;
its amazing.

Have a great week!
Love always,
Elder Bubba

time flies

Man, it literally feels like yesterday
I was sitting here writing you; I can't
decide if its a good or bad thing though
that time goes by so fast. I guess
there is just to much to look forward
to after this life.

Seeing that it feels like I literally
wrote you yesterday, I will try to recount
my week; sorry if I am missing anything.

We started out this last week with two
zone conferences. We spent Tuesday in
Lausanne, a beautiful city just North
of Geneva. I have been told its the
headquarters of the Olympic games.
It is just like Geneva, a little smaller,
but I would say a little more beautiful.
Zone conference went really well, but
was a little different. The mission
president had to go back to the mission
home for some things, so my companion
and myself ran zone conference until
about 11. All we did was change the
order, but it was a good opportunity
to see what a mission president does.
On Wednesday we attended our own zone
conference here in Geneva. We still
had the 2 and a half hour activity about
using the scriptures, and it went very
well. We are in the process of making
a Report on the activity because of all
the people, namely the mission president,
and senior couples, who would like a
copy of it. Zone conferences are just
a great moment to get together with
missionaries and be strengthened by the
great spirit that is there.
Our mission President actually talked on
"Being Perfect," and it was great to
hear that we are all doing just the
right things and that we all need to
"stop stressing." Since it was our
mission presidents last zone conference
we also heard the talk/presentation on
"governing values" that he gives to
missionaries the night before they go home.
It was a great experience.

Apart from that, I had two exchanges
this week with zone leaders. We did them
both here, and I was able to work with
two elders. It was great to get out and
do a full day of talking to people.
We talked to so many great people on the
road, and at their doors, and had the
chance to teach a couple of lessons.
I actually tried finding close to the
United Nations buildings, and it was
incredible to see how many English
speakers were there. The vast majority
of cultures here in Geneva is amazing.
We had a couple of lessons this week with
our ami. She is so amazing.
She is so close to what she is looking
for, and she is so close to knowing what
she needs to do. The past two weeks we
have taught her with 6 different
families, and this week we will teach
her with 2 more! It should be great!

So I had the chance to attend all 6 hours
of church again. Its interesting; 6
hours of church as a missionary is easier
than 1 hour of church not as a
missionary. Seriously, the day goes by
way to fast. It honestly doesn't feel
that long and its great meeting with so
many great members. I am finally
starting to get to know them, but its a
little hard being in two wards.

This week should be another great week
here in Geneva. There are some things we
need to get done; Reports for stake
presidents, a report on our activity, and
things like that, and we also will have
3 more exchanges this week; all here in
Geneva!
It should be a great week where I will
learn a lot from serving with
the great missionaries in our mission.
This week will fly.

Have a great week.
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch