Thank you also for calling the
mission home to let me know
about Grandpa Henderson. It
made it a lot earlier. As the
mission president mentioned to
you, we had to go to Dijon at
the last minute for a baptismal
interview which went very well.
We got in late, around 10, and
right before I got inside he
called me into their side of the
home. His wife and himself sat
me down and told me, making it
a very respectful and done in
a loving way. Thanks for going
through the effort to letting
me know. Its weird; while sitting
in church yesterday morning,
I thought about Grandpa and Grandma
and felt like I really
needed to write them a letter..
I probably still should. When
they told me I had a peaceful
feeling come over me. The
knowledge of the plan of
happiness is amazing. I know I
will see him again, and I know
he did that which was
necessary in this life.
That makes me happy!
I think that I am in the car
over 20 hours a week...
Honestly, everything seems
to be going so fast, it doesn't
seem that long until I look
back at it.
You mentioned something about
you bought be for Christmas before
I left; the blue one. The
battery recharges. The problem
is is that I had it hooked up to
the computer to send pictures and
I forgot to detach it so it
drained the battery. Oh well.
I am recharging it right now.
every week I tell myself I need
to take more pictures..
but I never do! haha
Being around a general authority
all week was a very humbling
experience. Elder Kopischke is
actually the regional president
of Europe for the church, meaning
he oversees everything that
happens here under the direction
of the first presidency and apostles.
He is German and is a great man!
On Tuesday, we finished up the
last minute preparations for his
arrival, and, upon his arrival,
proceeded the mission tour.
Tuesday night we had a meeting
with Elder Kopischke, The mission
president, myself and my companion,
and the Geneva Stake Presidency.
It was all an open forum setting,
as we discussed certain issues.
I actually was asked to speak
first everytime! It was a great
chance to see the real needs of
the church here in the area, and
ways that we can better work
together.
On Wednesday, we had zone
conference in Yverdon, Switzerland
all day, where we went and got
some "Italian" pizzas. Mine
was covered in blue cheese, and,
although I do like stinky cheeses
now, I am not a huge fan of a
stinky cheese pizza; oh well.
Actually, I stopped and got gas
right afterward to get a drink
as well. I went in and paid for
the drinks, and saturated, we
got a letter saying that a couple
of young men stole gas with
a car having the license plate
numbers with this address.
Whoops! I forgot to pay for
the gas! haha, they were nice
about it and they said if we
were really trying to steal, we
wouldn't have gone
in and bought drinks! haha.
Thursday we had a zone
conference here in Geneva,
and we actually had a chance
to teach a couple of lessons
where we fixed a baptismal
date with a 9 year old
girl, whose family has been
recently reactivated.
After our lessons we had 15
minutes before we had to go
to be home on time.
Seeing how we hadn't a chance
to talk to people all week,
we set out to find someone.
The only problem was is there
was NOONE in sight. We decided
to do EXTREME contacting.
A lady came flying by on a
bike and Elder S jumped
in her way and had her stop.
We taught her about the family
and although she was in a hurry,
said she may stop by the church
some day. The next people we
saw we on a balcony 3 stories up.
I started yelling at them how
important their
family was in the eyes of God!
The familly wasn't too receptive
as they started
yelling some not so nice stuff
at us, haha. But then, the
only other person we
could see was a man walking away
from us about 40 yards away.
I literally started running
after him, and, as the door to
his building was shutting, I
slipped in and said, "God is
your loving heavenly Father
and he loves you." We
fixed an appointment with him
and he said he would come to
church! haha, I love talking
to people about this
great message!
Friday, we went to Zone
Conference in Lyons, France,
where we ate at KFC, again,
for dinner! Its the ONLY
place in Europe where you can
get free refills. I love it.
Saturday, we had the mission
council here and then we had
to take care of some
administrative stuff. Sunday,
we found out we needed to go to
Dijon to perform
a baptismal interview. So, we
drove the 3 hours there and back
and had a great interview!
This week, will also include
quite a bit of travel, but a lot
more preaching the gospel!
We will head to Valence, France
tonight for an exchange tomorrow,
we will have an exchange in
Annency, France Wednesday, we
will be here on Thursday,
and then We will head up the
6 hours for an exchagne in Colmar,
France on Friday, and Mulhouse,
France on Saturday.
It should be a crazy yet great week!
I am excited!
Monday Sept. 7, 2009
The funeral seemed nice.
I am so glad so many of you
were able to participate;
both of you giving prayers, and
Stephanie and Jacob playing musical
numbers. That's great. The
pictures looked so good. Thank you.
Regardless, I was definitely there
in spirit. I hope me not being
there didn't make a difference.
The mission president actually told
me I could call you both, but I
felt that that would have been
harder. I hope you understand.
It was easier for me to
just keep working hard, and
letting people how, as I know,
that our families can
and will be together through
the power of God restored to the
earth today.
Often times when there is something
difficult happening, I think it
really is God directing us,
protecting us, and sometimes
preparing us for certain things.
Its like the paroble by James E.
Talmage I shared with you before,
"the parable of the unwise bee,"
though, it really is hard to
acknowledge this in these
difficult times.
My week was spent all over the
mission, going on exchanges from
the city the furthest south in our
mission, Valence, France, up to two
of the most north
cities, Colmar and Mulhouse, France.
We also had an exchange in Annency,
France, a beautiful city in the French
alps, relatively close to Geneva.
Other than that, I didn't have much
of a chance to be here in Geneva except
for Monday Afternoon, Thursday
Afternoon, and Sunday. This week we
will be here all week,
thank goodness! Sometimes its just
nice to be chez vous (at your place).
Usually, as assistants, we don't
get to spend much time working
with younger missionaries, but,
seeing as the mission president is
having us work with these
younger missionaries, we get too.
Its weird, I have spent the last
4 months working only with
missionaries that have been out
for over a year. This week I
served with Elder R, a great
missionary in Valence, Elder W in
Annency, Elder W in Mulhouse, and
Elder C in Colmar, all being
out on there missions for about
6 months. They are great missionaries.
It is so great to see missionaries
with this kind of desire!
The part of my week I would like
to share with you though is about
our ami one of my favorite people
I have met on my mission. She is
Brazilian and has been here for
about 4 years. We have been
teaching here since my first week
here. She has only missed 1 day
of church in over 4 months and
goes to everything!
Everyone loves her! People
literally walk up to her every
Sunday at church and ask her why
she hasn't been baptized yet.
I can honestly say we
have tried everything. We taught
her everything in Preach my Gospel,
and everything we thought possible.
We have fasted and prayed for her,
and although she searches every day
for her answer, she hasn't got it.
I have never seen someone want to
know so bad. As much as we would
like to continue to teach her,
we decided we did everything we could,
and it was all in her hands, and
we told her on Thursday that we were
going to stop teaching her for a while,
one of the hardest things I have
ever done. She said she thought
that was best and said
she was going to keep coming to
church and would keep searching.
Yesterday at church, I sat with her
during sacrament. I asked her to
write down a question on a paper
that she wanted to know, and
promised that she would find
her answer. During the fast and
testimony meeting there were many
testimonies I felt were directed
right at her. After sacrament, she
told me that she had felt
the spirit like she had never felt
before! She said that it was as
if she could see the answers herself.
As Elder S and I sat in the chapel
with her and explained the importance
of baptism and the promised blessings
that come with it, she decided she
wants to and will be baptized in 3
weeks on September 26th!
It was so amazing to see the Lord
touch the heart of his daughter
who searched so diligently.
The Lord truly does answer prayers!
Right afterward we taught a 9 year
old girl, whose family has recently
been reactivated and she will be
baptized within the next month!
It was a great week.
This next week will be spent here
with the mission president as we
work on Transfers. I love seeing
the inspiration and revelation
through this process
and am grateful for the chance to
be a part of it. Other than that
we will be trying to work hard in
our area, finding more of those
choice children, our
Heavenly Father has prepared for us!
Monday Sept. 14, 2009
This week was pretty calm for
the most part, except for the
middle of the week trip to Paris.
Other than that we spent most
of the time working on transfers
with President Murdock, and
getting everything ready for
this new change in the mission.
As aforementioned, Elder Sorensen
and I were asked by the mission
President to go to Paris
(which is not at all in our mission)
to escort two brand new
missionaries to the Swiss Embassy,
so that they would be able to
receive their later than expected
Swiss visas. It was quite the
surprise finding out that we
would be traveling with other
missionaries, but it was an
exciting feeling at the
same time.
The trip was complicated in
finding out that we could travel
that far in our car
from the area presidency, so,
we drove to Lyon, France,
Wednesday night, where
we met the two new missionaries,
for a 6am train to Paris the next
morning. Its interesting; even
though I knew I wasn't breaking
any rules by leaving the
mission, I still have the feeling
that I was doing something wrong.
I think I just worry to much.
So, upon arriving at the Swiss
embassy, we found out that it
would actually take a little more
than 2 hours to get everything
finished, so they asked us to
return around noon. So, we were
in Paris with a couple hours to
"wait" for these visas. I called
the mission President to ask what
he wanted us to do, and
he said, "take a walk. I heard
the Eiffel Tower isn't to far
from there." Off
to the Eiffel Tower we went.
On our way we kept talking about
how funny it would be if we ran
into some missionaries in the
Paris mission and all of a sudden
we hear, "Elders! Elders!"
As we look up we found two
missionaries hanging out their
apartment window. They were
actually the Chinese speaking
elders in Paris, so they don't
know too many of the missionaries,
so they asked who we were and
where we were from. Apparently
Elder Bednar was visiting the
mission that day and the whole
mission was getting together.
Their reaction was just priceless
as we told them we were from
Geneva. We then proceeded to
the Eiffel Tower where we ran
into 4 more missionaries!
2 of which I served with at the MTC!
It was crazy!
After that, myself and one of the
younger missionaries went to the
train station to change our tickets
while Elder S and the other
missionary went to pick
up the visas and Elder S cell
phone ran out of battery.
There we were, in Paris, with one
set of missionaries without a
cell phone. Bad news.
As the story goes from Elder S,
he says a silent prayer at the
embassy at 12:05 that the
missionary I was with might have
the idea to go to the embassy
and they would wait there.
(I don't know why he didn't
pray that I would, but he
told me this with out knowing
the other half of the story).
Well, while at the train station
at 12:05 and me stressing out
because we cant get a hold of them,
the new missionary says, I think
we should go back to the embassy
to find them. So we did.
There they were! A miracle.
Prayer truly does work.
After that, we returned home
without to many other problems.
It was great to be in Paris, but
not exactly the most relaxing
experience. The two things I
learned from this experience are
that whenever we are in trouble,
we can always pray for help, and
the second thing I learned is
that I want to live/study in
Paris! It is a beautiful city
with so much culture.
Apart from our little voyage,
I spent the week here working on
the transfer for missionaries.
I love being apart of seeing the
Lord work through us as we study
the needs of the mission, and as
we pray for help. There was one
little thing that was bothering us
when we had finished on Friday,
and the mission president
came down stairs last night at 1015,
right before bed and asked us to
come to his office where he showed
us a change he "felt inspired" to make.
I was filled with comfort and new
that the mission president truly does
receive revelation for each
of us.
This week will be filled with
picking up new missionaries, and
taking missionaries finishing
their missions to the airport.
It should be great!
Love always,
Elder Clayton H. Welch
