Called to Serve

What a Wonderful World!

2010-03-02T14:44:00.001-08:00

Two Brothers UNITE!!

2010-02-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

ELDER BUBBA COMES HOME TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-11T07:55:00.001-08:00

ONE WEEK!

2010-02-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

A week full of prison, the temple, Bern,
and great members has made this past
week was one of the best weeks of my
mission! Its crazy how just when you
think that the mission can't get any
better it does.
So as usual, we worked a lot with the
members this week. That has actually been
a big focus for us, because the ward has
actually been going through a difficult
time with the recent change in bishops.
I went to prison for the first time in
my life this week; as a visitor, not a
prisoner of course! We got a referral
from a member I know in Geneva of a friend
in the prison here who wanted to meet
with us. Long story short, we went
through about 5 security checks and I
felt like I was in the movies. It was a
way cool experience though and the guy
was actually way nice!
So, as I mentioned last week, I lost
my passport and I had to go to Bern to get
a new one. While waiting in line at the
embassy, I met a rad girl whose mom is
from Minnesota but she is half Swedish
and grew up there. Turns out she is a
snowboarding instructor here in
Switzerland and offered to take me
snowboarding
out here whenever I come back in winter;
that was rad. THEN, while we are
talking, the mission president's wife
calls me and says, "Elder Welch, since you
are already in Bern, the mission president
and I thought it would be nice if you
had the time to go to the temple."
I couldn't believe it! Another long story
short, one of the best moments of my mission.
I love the temple. Going through
a session in French was also one of the
greatest things ever and being able to
ask the lord to accept my mission and having
the feeling of the Holy Ghost telling me
it was, was something I will never forget.
I will be eternally
grateful for this experience.
Other than that, this week was full of
great missionary work.
This upcoming week, my last week in the
mission field, should be a great one.
We are going to Montreux today,
the most beautiful city in the world.
Tomorrow we have zone conference.
I will be going to Geneva this Tuesday
so I can go to the institute there so
I can so goodbye to people, I will
spend my last preparation day in Geneva
and be getting a kebab with the mission
president and his wife (Their first and
Last as they tell me)! I love the mission.
Have a great week and I look forward
to seeing you next Thursday!
Love,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Less than 2 WEEKS!!!

2010-01-31T12:03:00.000-08:00

So I haven't smelled the smell of cow poop
for a long time spending the last 8+
months in Geneva, which is a smell I have
familiarized myself with throughout
the last week being here in Yverdon,
Switzerland, aka. the smallest city in the
mission, nestled in the Swiss alps and
beautiful countryside. Its actually
going very well though. The last week
was great and I have had a good time
getting to know the area and members,
despite the fact that I know I will
already leaving all of this again in 2 weeks.
We visited more members this past week
that I have in any other week throughout
my mission. I think we visited 12 f
amilies in the past week. I did eat
raclette twice as well which was a real
treat. Raclette is the greatest thing
in the world. Melted cheese on top of
potatoes. That is real Switzerland.
We didn't have to many lessons throughout
the week to amis, but this week should
be better. We do have an ami, J, who
is a sweet dude from the Dominican
Republic here with Corn Rows. He is
planning to be baptized the 6th, but that
will probably be pushed back a bit.
One way rad thing about Yverdon though
is that the Elders Quorum President has
a farm outside of Yverdon where
missionaries help him with service every
Saturday morning for 4 hours.
It is sweet. Milking cows in Switzerland,
moving hay, and chopping wood. We will
actually be doing in twice this week!
Other than that, we will just be working
hard on advancing the Lord's work here
in Yverdon, and I will be working on
finishing off strong!

Have a great week

Love Always,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

3 WEEKS!

2010-01-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

I received my last transfer call this week!
You are not going to believe it but
I am being transferred to Yverdon,
Switzerland for the last 3 weeks of my
mission and I will be serving with Elder B,
a great missionary who has been
out about 5 months now I think.
I really thought I was going to be
finishing here in Geneva, but there was a
problem with one of the apartments here
and it looks as though the Lord has
something else in mind for me.
I am very excited though to be able
to work in one more city before the
end of my mission.
Yverdon is a small Swiss city and is
very Swiss, but there are actually
quite a few members there and a
nice chapel. I think we have a car
and we have bikes too so maybe I will
get to ride bike a little bit after all.
This past week has been great,
though a little hard saying goodbye
to members and friends I have known over
the last 8 months here in Geneva.
I think that's why missionaries usually
move around often because its hard when
you get really close to people to say
goodbye.
The last week was really a standard
missionary week. We did a little finding
and we did quite a bit of teaching.
We have quite a few amis here whom I very
excited to see progress and to here from
in the future.
I really don't know what this next week
has in store. I will be going to
Yverdon tomorrow, church on Sunday,
and the rest is a mystery! I haven't not
known what I was going to do for a week
for a while so I am very excited to
finish this last part of my mission!
I am really just excited to see you
and everyone else!
Love always,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

4 Weeks!

2010-01-14T14:32:00.000-08:00

baptism: an amazing new convert from England at her baptism on monday

eating one of the greatest foods ever made: Kebabs

snowycar: at church I blocked the office elders car with snow

There is snow all over the place here;
its crazy! I love it. I am not going to
lie, snowboarding comes into my mind
every-time I look outside, but its alright,
the holes in each of my shoes causing
my feet to be soaked instantly gets rid
of that desire; ha ha.
But seriously though, everything is
going so well here in Geneva.
The good thing with all of this snow
is that it isn't too cold though.
This last week was great.
I had the chance to go on an exchange
with my old companion Elder B who
is one of my best friends here.
It went very well and it was great
to just talk with him again.
I had become pretty serious while an
assistant, so it was a nice chance to
make it up to him by being more myself.
I also had interviews this week with
the mission president. It was great to
talk with him and learn from him again.
He is a great man.
We had another great experience this
week with a member. Her name is A
and she is the oldest daughter of one
of my favorite families here. She is 31
and is married to a non-member and has
4 kids. She has been kind of active over
the last years, but in the last 4 months
her testimony has just exploded. She
bore her testimony in church last week
for the first time in her life! Well,
when she came home from the church on
new years eve her neighbor who had been
drinking started asking her questions
about our church. She said that there
were missionaries to help explain these
questions. So, she invited us over and
we went and visited the family Friday
night. He didn't really remember much of
the conversation and was very skeptical
of us, but thanks to this member and her
sincere testimony, this husband and wife
opened up and became very interested.
I know that this family wouldn't have
listened to us if it wasn't for this
member and it is another proof for me
that as we talk to our friends about what
we know in this life, not only does our
testimony grow but we help so many
others in the process!
This week should be great.
It should be pretty traditional with a
lot of finding and teaching and hopefully
baptizing soon.
Actually, transfer calls are this next
Monday and believe it or not I could be
transferred for the last 3 weeks of my
mission. There are certain reasons why,
mainly with apartments, but I will let
you know next week where I will be
finishing my mission!
Thanks for all of your love and support.
I hope you have a great week.
Have a great week and I look forward to
seeing you soon!
Love always,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

5 WEEKS from TODAY!

2010-01-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

5 WEEKS UNTIL HE RETURNS!!!

2010 is already off to a great start!
I am stoked to see what this year will
bring about. I am set on that fact
that it will be the best year yet.
We spent the week doing good ol'
missionary work here in Geneva and were
able to see quite a bit of success
throughout the week.
We have been really working with members
here and I am sure that that is the
best way to advance this work. The
members here in Geneva are also so
competent which makes it easy.
We found 5 new investigators last week,
3 of which came from members. Probably
the best members missionaries I have
see are the Mongolian members here (D,
the one is the recent convert of a month
and her sister Z). They brought a
different friend with them to every
activity, appointment, and even to church!
Those people are so great! I need to
go to Mongolia to visit, also because
I have always wanted to live in a yurt (a
Mongolian hut!).
New Years Eve was sweet! We had a great
rendezvous with the Mongolians and
then we went to the Family Ps, the sweetest
family ever, and then we were invited to
the mission home. We had a little movie
night with the assistants and the office
elders. We made pizza and watched
"Forever Strong,"
WITH the authorization of the mission
president. It is about a high school
rugby team in Utah. It was way good.
It was way nice though to spend the
holiday with friends. Its crazy how
close you get to people as a missionary.
This week is pretty standard. We will
be doing missionary work and trying our
hardest to keep being instruments in
the Lord's hands. We have an exchange
planned for tomorrow with the zone
leaders here which should be fun,
I will be with one of my old companions
Elder B-rad-y.
Other than that the work is moving
forward in this part of the world!
I can't wait to see you soon!
Have a great week!
Love always,
Elder Clayton Henderson

Happy New Year from Geneva!

2009-12-31T17:04:00.000-08:00

2009 was great! I am a little sad to
see it come to an end, but I am so
excited for 2010. It will be full of
so many great things. My mission,
coming home, school, work, and family.
Let the good times roll!

This last week was also so wonderful.
I love Christmas. The joy that comes
from just the thought of the birth of
our Lord is already more than anyone can
ask for. Add on top of that presents
(both giving and getting), way good food,
caroling, and everything else, you just
can't go wrong.I spent Christmas eve with
the C family who are awesome. We had
some way good salmon and a lamb roast.
That family is way cool and we had a
blast hanging out together.

Christmas day we came to the institute
where we hung out with the young adults
here who don't really have families
here and with a couple of missionaries.
There were about 30 of us and it was
a blast. That afternoon we spent at the
mission home where there was an open
house, and then that night we were at the
P's home, one of the raddest families
ever. We had fondue bourgeoisie,
where we dipped meats into oil and made
our own personalized mayonnaise sauces.
It was way good.

The rest of the week was spent sharing
the Christmas spirit with others;
members, amis, and random people on
the street.
The work here is advancing and the members
are really starting to back us up.
We are finding a lot of people right now
through members and I am sure that all
of this will soon lead to baptisms!
This upcoming week should be pretty normal.
Finding, Teaching, and Baptizing,
though we don't have a baptism planned yet.
It will be a great week! I am
having fun working hard til the end.

Have a great week and and happy new year!

Elder Clayton H. Welch

#1 New address First of three (these are newer to older email order)

2009-12-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

We received a really nice email from
the mission home today
with Elder Bubba's new address.

We thought we'd better post it in
case anyone wanted to drop him a
Christmas card or note.
He will still get any mail sent
to the mission home as well.

Les Missionnaires--Elder Welch
5, rue Hugo Senger
CH-1205 Geneva
Switzerland

"Elder Welch is a marvelous missionary,
and we will miss him in the
mission home/office. We love him.
Merry Christmas to you."

#2 December 7,2009 Dreaming of a white christmas!

2009-12-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I officially found out my last
"assignment" as a missionary. I will
be finishing the next two months of my
mission here in Geneva, working in the
Salève and the Rive-Gauche Wards. Salève
is one of the two I am working in
right now, and is actually the ward where
we have had the two batpisms the last
two weeks, and Rive-Gauche is the Down-town
ward of Geneva which is primarily
Spanish speaking. Our focus is going to be
on the Institute, so we will be
working really hard on finding young adults
to teach. I will be training a
brand new french missionary named Elder G;
I am way excited! We will be
opening this companionship, so we have a
chance to start from nothing and
hopefully over the next two months, have
a lot of great things going on! I know
that this is perfect for me because it will
keep me working hard til the end of
my mission!

(we asked)"any snow yet?"
Not even a snowflake. There is snow in the
mountains though.
I will keep my fingers crossed.

Time always flies by when we are working on
transfers though. That is one thing
I will miss. I love working with the mission
president, especially in seeing
the Lord's hand direct this mission. I also
love how much I learn from working
with these inspired men. We finished with
the transfers last Thursday, but
there were a couple of last minute changes
so I was never sure where I would be
serving. I am very excited for this new
assignment I have though. I love
Geneva! I would love to work here someday.
We also had Stake Conference this last
weekend here in Geneva. Elder Kopsischke
of the seventy, also president of the church
in Europe, came to speak. It was
great seeing him again after working with
him when he toured our mission about 3
months ago. He gave a lot of great talks,
but the thing I think that touched me
the most is when he said that Celestial
Glory and Happiness is not simply living
in the presence of God, because we already
did that in the pre-existance, but
Celestial Glory and Happiness comes from
living AS God lives.
It was an incredible thought.
This upcoming week should be quite eventful,
but also a great experience.
Tomorrow we will pick up the new
missionaries from the airport and go
through the normal acitivities. Wednesday
I am officially out of the office and will be
going with Elder G to this new apartment.
I love it though, it is small,
but very very nice for a missionary apartment;
they just redid it. After that,
I will be working as hard as I can, trying
to explain and help Elder G as much as I can.
It should be a week very different from
the last 7 months I have had here at the
mission home, but I am very excited to see
the Lord direct in everything we do
in talking with people at all times!
Have a great week and remember that I love you!
Love,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

#3 12-02-09

2009-12-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

December 2, 2009
Thanksgiving and Birthday made this past
week quite eventful and very enjoyable.
It was a great opportunity to think of
all the many blessings I have in my life
and all of the great people in my life.
We had the chance to have an early
Thanksgiving dinner with a couple of
American Families here in Geneva last
weekend, though we didn't have any plans
for the actual day of Thanksgiving.
But, one of the blessings of being here at
the mission home is that the Mission
President and his wife are way too nice and
invited us over for a huge dinner with the
couple missionaries, the stake president and
his wife, and a couple of other people.
It was a great meal and it was great to be
able to celebrate Thanksgiving with those
who resemble family here in the mission.
The baptism of I, our ami, was incredible!
There were so many people who came.
Everyone was so happy and I was on top of
the world. She had tons of friends there
and everyone was so happy for her. I was
way scared of messing of the words with so
many people there, but it went perfectly.
She received the Holy Ghost on Sunday and
is doing so well.
D is also doing very well. She will still
be baptized this Sunday and is
looking stronger and stronger. She has
already read, and understands, the
entire gospel principles book, and this
last Saturday she decided to read the
whole Book of Mormon before her baptism,
which was in 8 days. After 2 days she
was already into Mosiah. She is incredible!
We have been so blessed here with
all of these choice children of God who
are finding and accepting the gospel.
My 21st birthday was wonderful!
I honestly don't feel any older than
I did when I was 18. I think that was the
last time I felt any difference in age,
but boy am I getting old! My companion
actually planned on making me breakfast
in bed because I had mentioned it was a
tradition in out family and so he tried doing
it. The only problem is is that he heard
a noise and thought it was his alarm
and got up and made it, only to realize it
was only midnight! haha, it was nice
of him to show how great of a companion
he is. He forgot to reset his alarm but
made me something anyway when he got up.
I have a great companion. D and
her sister Z, the Mongolians, had actually
fixed a rendez-vous with us. We
had a great teaching and the surprised me
with a way nice cake and a bunch of
little pizzas from a way nice place
for lunch! They then gave me a card with
100 francs in it! Of course I didn't take it,
but the shear fact that they have
so little but were willing to give me so much
really really touched me. I mean,
that's huge. Just being with them and the
two institute couples here in Geneva
was great for lunch. Then, I get home and
Betty, she is the "maid" at the
mission home, had made me lunch and a
birthday cake. Betty is the greatest
woman in the world. She is from the Philippines
and has been a member for the last 40 years,
she 60. She is the most lively woman I have
ever met. That night, I had fixed a rendez-vous
with us and surprised me with a bunch of
chocolate which was great! Myself, Elder S,
and the two office Elders (Elder B and Elder D)
went to chick-chicken for dinner (its kind
of like KFC). We got back to the mission home
and the mission president and his
wife had gone to the American store and bought
me a funfetti cake with frosting
and root beers for us all! I felt so loved.
The people here are so amazing and
I feel so lucky to have so many people here
and also back home who care about me
so much.
This week will be great! We have been
working on transfers and we will finish
that up this week. I am pretty positive
I now know where I am going, but I
don't think I am allowed to say.
But I am way excited! A little hint,
its not really a big change. By next
week I will be in my last area of my mission
with probably my last companion.
I am way excited!

Happy 21st Birthday Elder Bubba!

2009-11-30T10:32:00.001-08:00

Leaves and Scones

2009-11-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

This past week went very well.
We finished with Zone Conferences in
Lyon which ended up going very well.
I am excited to go to zone conferences
next transfer and be able to just
listen and participate!
We also had an exchange here in Geneva
which went very well. I got to work
with my old companion Elder N, and we
had a great day of talking to people by
the church.
There is an older couple that lives
right next to us, and the older woman
always goes out and rakes her leaves
all the time, but the leaves always
fall faster than she can get them.
So on Saturday, the mission president
asked us to go and rake her leaves and
his wife and himself made us scones!
They were way good and it was good to
get out and serve some of our neighbors.
On Sunday I went to 3 different Sacrament
meetings which was the most I have
ever been to in a day; 2 of them were
the primary programs though which were
soo good. I love learning from little
children.
Yesterday we got a new missionary from
Norway which went very well as well. I
love seeing the new missionaries come
in and seeing how much faith and desire
they have!
This upcoming week, we have an Exchange
here in Geneva, we will be going to
Chambery on Saturday for an exchange,
and we will be having an exchange on
Monday in Lausanne, so it will be a
great week of working with other
missionaries and talking to a lot of
people!

Have a great week.

Catching up with two weeks of emails:)

2009-11-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Elder Bubba and Elder H

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
With the start of the transfer and
the preparation for the zone conferences,
and all the other things that will take
place throughout the transfer ready, this
week has been spent quite a bit here at
the mission home, meeting with the
president, but went well none the less.
The missionaries came in and it was great!
I love seeing the new missionaries!
They have such great faith and such a
great desire to preach the gospel.
Our Brazilian investigator is doing
very well! She is still looking very
strong for the 28th of November, and
she is on her way to reading the whole
Book of Mormon. She also asked me to
baptize her this week, so I am really
looking forward to that.
C is also doing very well and he will
tell us tomorrow if he will be
baptized the 28th of November as well!
We are having a great time here together,
Elder S and myself, and we are
looking forward to all of the great
things that will happen this transfer.
We are going to try really hard this
transfer to have a good time and really
have a blast doing this great work.
This upcoming week should also be exciting.
I think we might visit the reformers wall
today here in Geneva. Tomorrow, we
will be heading up to Metz,
for the Zone Conference on Friday.
We will go down to Nancy for an exchange
on Saturday and will come home that night.
Next Monday we will have a zone
conference in Yverdon, Switzerland, and
then a zone conference here in Geneva
on Tuesday. It should be great!

You would also be happy to know that I
am still eating healthy and I am doing
well physically.
I hope you have a great week.
Is there anything I can do for you?
Love always,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

NOVEMBER 11, 2009
Bonjour
It is a beautiful day here in Geneva.
The sun is shining, and it is beautiful
outside with orange leaves all over here
in Geneva; Finally a break to all of
the cold rain! The fact that it was
rainy this week actually wasn't too bad
though, seeing that we had 3 zone
conferences, and a full day of church
in there, keeping us out of the rain,
though, I do feel
bad I didn't get to be out there working
hard and earning myself some "wife
points."
The 3 zone conferences went great though!
We are talking about being more
effective missionaries, and have created
a study packet that we go through to
facilitate conversation on the topic with
all the missionaries. We are seeing
great results and I am excited to start
putting some of these things into
practice myself.
We were in Metz, Frace
(where I started my mission) on Friday,
and we had an exchange with the Zone
Leaders in Nancy that night and on
Saturday which went very well.
I was with Elder H and I had a great
time learning from him.
We tried so hard to do exactly what
we though the Lord wanted and we saw some
great results, most specifically the
feeling of doing what the Lord asks of us.
We also had a "Soirée des Talents"
(Talent Show) here in Geneva on Saturday
where we say a jazzed up version of
"Love At Home" as an Elders Quorum; good
times.
Sunday was a great night!
We are teaching a Mongolian who just
started coming back to church and her
non-member Sister D and we went over
and ate with them and another Mongolian
non-member. The food was so good and the
formerly less-active member said she
wants to be temple worthy within a year!
It was so great to hear that!
We had also just taught D about Alma 32,
how faith is like a seed the last
rendez-vous, and she explained to us
that the seed has been
planted and she feels it growing in her
heart and she said how great she felt!
It was so good!
This week should be great as well.
We will be going to visit the P
Family, one of my favorite families
here tonight, and tomorrow we are off to
Lyon for a Zone Conference there.
We then have an exchange here with the Lyon
zone leaders and another exchange next
Tuesday in Lausanne with the Zone Leaders
there. It should be a great week and I
can only hope that the weather continues
to get better!
Have a great week and please let me
know of anything I can do for you!
Love Always,
Elder Clayton Welch

We received Elder Bubba's travel
itinerary today (crazy huh?)
He gets back to the USA
February 11, 2010!!

5th Transfer

2009-10-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

I did go to the most
beautiful city in Switzerland this week,
Montruex, to help some woman with some
stuff for the mission president. It is
was actually home to people like F.
Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and many
others including Freddy Mercury of
Queene. Here is a picture of me right
next to a statue of Freddy Mercury, and
also of the Alps looking over Lake Geneva.

As for your questions/comments this week:

So how did your transfers planning go
this week? It went way well! It just
flys by, but it is very spiritually tiring.
I love seeing the Lord's hand
direct this work.

Are you staying in Geneva for your
5th transfer? Yes, I will be here for one
more. 7 months in Geneva!

Did you talk about your plans with your
mission president and have you decided
when you plan to come home?
February 11, 2010.

Do they celebrate anything like Halloween
in Switzerland? Not really, though,
the English ward is having a party.

So this week we decided to break some of
the "traditions of our fathers" and the
mission president decided to keep me here
for a 5th transfer. It hasn't
happened for a long time, so I hope I do
a good job. Apparently there is
something the Lord still wants me to learn
here that I haven't learned quick
enough. I am pretty sure this will be my
last transfer here though, and then I
will have a transfer and a half to end
my mission in the field.

Working on transfer week was great.
It is always way tiring, but its just so
much fun. It is very spiritually
exhausting though. The week just flew by!
It is also fun meeting with the president
all day, and learning so much from all
that he knows. He is a great example.
I have been growing way close to him and
am grateful to be here at the mission home.
Other than that, we had some great
rendez-vous with our great investigators.
We are still teaching I, the Brazilian,
and she told as at church that she is
positive that she will be baptized the
28th of November! I am way excited for
her. She is seeing opposition, but her
desire and faith will keep her going.
C, the referral from our DMP
(ward mission leader) is also doing great.
He is quitting smoking this week and,
thanks to a quit smoking plan for
investigators, he is now at 5 days
no smoking! We also met with D, our
Mongolian ami, who is always way fun
to teach. She speaks Mongolian and Chinese
and a very little English, and her
member sister, speaks Mongolian and French,
so we teach and French and hope that
she is understanding. Its great to see how
the spirit teaches.
This upcoming week should also be great,
filled with picking up missionaries
from the airport, teaching the new
missionaries, and helping the missionaries
get around. I am excited to be here for
one more and look forward to learn as
much as I can from the mission president!

Have a great week and keep on smiling!
Love always,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Caught up

2009-10-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Je t'aime!
I had a great week here in Geneva.
It was nice to be able to relax
a little.
Being in Geneva this week was great!
It was a great chance to work in our
own area, and to get caught up on
things here at the mission home.
As far as I know, we are all caught up,
something I haven't been able to do in
my 6 months here in Geneva.
This week I went on two exchanges,
both of them taking place here in Geneva.
They went very well, and I always like
being able to get a couple of hours to go
out and talk to people in the road.
Speaking of being outside, the weather has
become quite cold over the last week,
but I love it! I really like being able
to wear a coat and scarf.
I hope it snows here soon.
We had a baptism here on Saturday which
went very well! Her name is Kelly M and
she is 9 years old. She is from a
family that has been inactive over the
last 5+ years. We have been working
really hard with them and
they are doing so well!
They have been coming to church for
the last 4 months, and they haven't
missed a Sunday in 3! Another great
thing is that Kelly has two older brothers,
S who is 18, and E who is 17. S was
ordained a priest last Tuesday,
and E a Teacher, and S was able to
perform the baptism! It was great!
It was such a great opportunity seeing
the family united like that.
Another great thing that happened this
week is with the recently called Ward
Mission Leader in one of our wards.
He is a little timid about his
capabilities, but the thing he did
this week was something I have never
seen any member do on my whole mission.
He invited a friend of his to have a
family home evening 2 weeks ago,
where he came and they talked about families.
He then invited him to church where he,
came and was introduced to us. We
taught him twice this week, he came to
the baptism on Saturday, and again to
church yesterday. He told us that he
thinks he will be the next one baptized!
IT was a great testimony builder to me
that members truly can have the biggest
effort in this work!
This week will be primarily spent
working on the Transfer Board with the
mission president. I don't know what
will happen yet, but I think I might be
staying for a 5th transfer here.
The weeks working on the transfer board are
always the fastest so this week should fly!
Have a great week.
Love always,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Bonjour!

2009-10-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

After quite a few hectic weeks,
this past week was a great chance
to relax and get caught up on a
lot of things going on here.
It is a little chilly here in the
morning, but it is nothing strange
for a usual fall day. The leaves are
all changing colors though which is
great to see.

As for the questions and comments:
"Did you park in a no parking zone or
why did your van get towed?" Apparently,
the parking lot had signs saying that
it was free parking until 5:30 am on
certain days of the week, but, even when
I went back to check, I didn't seem it!
All I saw was parking was payed parking
after 9 am. But, you can't really argue
with the French government.

"Was [the week] a bit more restful for you?"
yes it was! It was great.

"It is also apple season and have found
Honey Crisp and have been eating one of
those every day."
Thats way good that you are eating an apple
a day pops. I am too! They taste way good
though. I always eat pink ladys. Do they
have those there?

This week was great, being the first week
in a while where I spent the majority
of it here in Geneva. We got a lot of
things done here though, which was great,
and it was great to get out and teach
those whom our Heavenly Father has
prepared.
On Thursday night, we did travel to Lyon
again for our exchange there we had
with the Zone Leaders; no, I did not get
towed this time. It was a great
exchange though!
Friday morning during our exchange,
the Zone Leader, Elder H, felt inspired
to change some of our schedule for the
day. It was raining very hard all
morning, and we had planned to pass
some investigators. We weren't really
talking to people on the road, because
of the rain, but as a man was approaching,
I felt like I needed to talk to him.
I contacted the man, and we had a great
contact. I asked if there was some time
that afternoon if we could pass by him.
He said that he was busy, and that he was
about to go to Paris for the next week.
I then asked if we could go to his home
right then and talk. He was like, "baa, ok."
So we went there and talked. Right away,
he said, "I need to tell you something.
This morning I prayed for the first time
in a while and I asked God to give me some
direction in this life. When you stopped
me, I honestly prejudged you, but as you
asked the second time if we could talk, I
realize that I had just rejected the
response God gave me, and that you are the
answer to my prayer." It was crazy!
We had a great rendez-vous and he said he
would like to be baptized. It was an
amazing testimony builder of how the Lord
truly has prepared people here to teach.
Other good news, our investigator, from Brazil,
who has been struggling with the idea of
baptism, came up to us at church yesterday
full of smiles. She said, I was walking
down the road on Friday, and I all of a
sudden received my response, I need to be
baptized November 28th! She said that
there was no doubt in her mind, and it
was as though someone was there telling
her she needed to do it!

This week should be another great
low key week! We have a baptism this
Saturday with our investigator K M.
We also have 2 exchanges, that will
take place here in Geneva.

Have a great week and remember that I love you!
Love,
Elder Clayton Welch

ps. The picture is the man I taught who
was baptized in Lyon.)
He baptized someone on Saturday and
will be going on a mission in April!

I Love General Conference!

2009-10-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

Every week I am trying to eat
healthier and healthier. I
haven't bought any carbonated
beverages for weeks now, and I
think I bought more vegetables
and fruits than ever this week.
Its great. I can definetely
feel the difference in my body
from trying to better respect it.
I have been doing a lot of
reflecting on Section 89 of Doctrine
and Covenants and I am grateful
that I am better living to that.

You both had mentioned,
"I think all of the sessions were
great and the theme was definitely
about love and trying to show that
to those we come in contact with
whether it is family, friends or
those we associate with."
I think you are exactly right.
I had those same feelings.
I had actually just been studying
in Romans 7 and 9 the day before,
and it confirmed to me how important
the love from God is in our
lives, and how much we need to
love others. Mom, you also
mention, Pres. Eyring's talk and
when he mentioned his grandmothers
saying..."Families are
Forever, Please No empty chairs ."
I really liked that too.
I thought of you when I heard that.

As for your questions:
Do they drive really fast like
they do in other parts of Europe
like Germany?
in Switzerland nobody goes over the
speed limit, literally. There are
cameras everywhere, and people are
really good about respecting rules here.
Do you get exhausted? not to bad,
I have a great companion and we always
end up talking the whole time or
rock out to a hymn.
Do you get to text at all?
no, thank goodness. I hate phones.
We have 2, an international phone and
a Swiss phone, and I usually hold on
to the Swiss phone because I turn it
off when we are on France. I wish I
didn't have to have a phone when I
get back, but, we all do.
Are you speaking mostly French? yeah.
We teach only in french except for
that one investigator. That's because
there are English speaking missionaries
here in Geneva.
"Remember when you were young you
would tell me you would be willing
to be a missionary for 3 years if you
could do service and not knock on doors?"
Haha, yeah. Either way, being a
missionary is great!
General Conference was definetely the
highlight of my week! Watching it from
Saturday at 6, up until last night
at midnight, listening to the prophets'
words helped me with literally every
question I was having. I went into conference
with 2 major questions, both of which
were answered. Its amazing how that works.
Living here at the mission home we have a
few perks. We were able to watch the
Sunday afternoon session on the TV on
the mission president's side of the
mission home. It is always shown here
from 10 pm til midnight, and since the
mission president didn't want anyone
traveling after midnight, let us watch it
on the other side! It was great being
able to watch a session of conference in
PJs and with a bunch of treats, though,
honestly, nothing beats being at the
church and feeling the spirit. But
it was nice to relax for a second.
I loved the talk given by Jeffrey R.
Holland on the Book of Mormon, and Joseph
Smith as a prophet. I would encourage
everyone to read it after this Thursday
after its online. His testimony was
so genuine and so sincere, I couldn't help
but to have the desire to cry out to the w
orld my own testimony of this restored
gospel.
I also loved the talk by Elder Tad
Callister on the apostasy and the
restoration of the church.
It was definetely for missionaries.
This week, we also had the chance
to go to three zone conferences,
all over the mission. With that being
said, it was a very tiring week
spiritually, along
with a lot of driving.
Long story short, I parked the large
mission van (we were shuttling people
for zone conference because there
was a large subway/bus strike) in
Lyon on Monday night where we were
sleeping for the zone conference
the next day. When we went
out to get it it had to be towed.
We spent all morning getting it and walking
across the city jumping through hula hoops.
All I can say is that I am grateful
that I was able to sit through a
spiritual meeting after being so
flustered all morning!

This week will be more low key.
We will be working a lot here in Geneva,
finally focusing on our investigators.
We will also be going to Lyon on Friday
for an exchange.
Thanks again
for all of your love and support!
I pray that you have a great week!

Love Always,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

GANDHI AND ME

2009-09-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

This week was actually very low key,
where I spent the whole week here
in Geneva. Tuesday was getting a
lot of things done here at the
mission home.
Wednesday we had a Zone Leader
Council, which is still my
favorite meeting as a missionary.
I just love meeting as the "leaders"
in the mission, discussing the
needs of the mission. I feel that
that is the way we get the most
accomplished.
Thursday we got ready for the zone
conferences, where I made the mission
film and we got some other stuff done.
Friday we had our first Zone Conference
of the transfer which was here in
Geneva; the first Zone Conference is
always the hardest, but now we know the
changes we need to make.
And yesterday we spent the day working
as missionaries do. We had a great
lesson in the morning where
our 9 year old ami,who decided to
be baptized the 17th of October.
We have been working a lot with her
family, and her whole family,
except for the father, have been
coming to church every week for
2 months now! That night we
taught a Mongolian girl whose
sister is a member. She had
asked me if we could teach her
last week. The rendezvous went
very well, though it was a combination
of English, French, and Mongolian.
Saturday afternoon we were helping
a member move some stuff in his home.
We were using a pulley system to
lower tiling, wood, etc. from the
2nd story of this old french home.
It went very well, and while we
were doing it, one of the
neighbor girls told us that her
Mom needed help. We went over, and
this woman had a huge fridge,
about the size of the average American
fridge, and wanted to
if we could move it into her car.
I love french people. They had
lived 2 houses away for 4 years and
had never met. She invited us in
to have some freshly squeezed
grape juice. We then told her
how we were missionaries and she
invited us, and the member family
to come eat dinner with her and
her husband and their 5 kids!
Its crazy how service can really
soften someones heart.
Yesterday during fast and testimony
meeting, this brother, got up and
bore his testimony about how
the missionary spirit has changed
his family thanks to us coming over.
I couldn't believe how strong
the spirit was as I sat there and
listened to how the calling of a
missionary really does change lives.
The spirit was almost tangible.
I felt that I could reach out
and grab it. I think it was the
first time I have cried in a long
time. I love being a missionary!
This week will be crazy!
Tonight we are going to Lyon for
zone conference tomorrow. We
will then drive right afterward
to Metz, France for a zone conference
on Wednesday. We will then drive
directly to Nancy to have an
exchange with the zone leaders
Thursday, only to drive home to
sleep in my bed and drive to Yverdon,
Switzerland on Friday for Zone
Conference there. Then, we have
General Conference this
weekend! I LOVE General Conference.
Honestly, my favorite 2 weekends of
the year. Listen. Take Notes.
The prophets words truly changes lives.
This should be a great week!

Love always,
Elder Bubba

ps. Attached are photos from my visit
to the United Nations last week. I
especially like the one of me reading
the Book of Mormon with Gandhi.

Fun Airport Meeting

2009-09-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

So this week was pretty low key,
but it was a great week.
No trips to Paris, but I actually
did have a really cool experience
(not really gospel related).
While taking a missionary who was
going home to the airport on
Thursday morning my companion and
I were standing and waiting for
the sister to finish getting
her bags checked. I noticed a
guy in the "Club Europe" line,
the line for way rich people at
the airport who fly all over,
who dressed a lot like I did before
the mission, especially the way he
was wearing his beany on the back
of his head. There were 3 other
guys about 25-30 years old with
him too with beards and "trendy"
jeans and t shirts. All of a
sudden, of them comes up to us and
is like, "hey guys, so are you
from Utah?" I was like, "Nope,
Minnesota. You?" He said he was
from Nebraska but his family lives
in Utah and that his Pops
actually teaches/taught at BYU.
He told us about how his dad and
bro served missions and his grandpa
was a mission president. We talked
a little bit more,
and then I asked him what he was
up to in Switzerland. He was like,
"Oh, I was here for 2 months with my
band (who is standing right next to us),
and we were working on a CD.
Our band is actually Marron 5,
I play lead guitar." I played
it off all cool and was like, "oh yeah,
that's cool. So how did you like
Switzerland?" But I really couldn't
believe I was chilling in the Geneva,
Switzerland airport with Maroon 5 at
six in the morning. It was pretty rad.
As for the week, we spent a good
portion of it greeting new missionaries
and getting the old missionaries back
home. We spent a lot of time with
the mission president getting everything
ready for the next transfer; Zone
Conferences, Zone Leader Council, etc.
It went well, but I honestly think
sitting in a room talking is way harder
and more exhausting then walking
around and talking to people.
I don't really understand it.
This week we will finish up some
things around here. We have Zone Leader
Council on Wednesday, we will be on
an exchange in Lyon on Thursday
(my favorite city in the mission),
and we will be attending a zone
conference here in Geneva
on Friday. Other than that, we
will be working on finding some
time on finding those the Lord has
prepared here in Geneva!
have a great week!
Love always,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

3 Weeks from Gpa's passing until this week

2009-09-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

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

2 weeks.Feeling Better, and On the Run

2009-08-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well the penicillin, along with an
of other drugs, seem to be
working, and I am almost back to 100%!
Though the week was busy, the thought
that the Lord was watching after me,
as well as the mission President's wife
who made me go to the doctor,
made everything go smoothly!
This last Tuesday we had a zone leader
council, which is actually my favorite
meeting in the mission. We have
breakfast and lunch together, and than
its just the 8 zone leaders, the mission
president and his wife, and us
2 assistants, and we get to just talk
about the needs of the mission and have
a very intimate teaching. I love it.
We had three topics and just had a
round table discussion about the topics,
along with teachings and a slide show
we prepared. It went very very well!
Right after the zone leader council,
we took the 5 and a half hour road
trip up to Nancy, France (in the North
of France) for our exchange with the
zone leaders.
The exchange went very well and we
even had the chance to go to KFC.
Yes, the fried chicken place.
There are about 4 in the mission area!
Its great. Elder and I fixed the goal
to find a family to teach, and literally
the last door we knocked on that day,
we found a man, his wife, and their
three daughters who said they would
come to church. Talk about miracles!
On Thursday, we drove back, and then
finished up some administrative things
we needed to get done.
Friday, we had another exchange here
in Geneva. I was with Elder , a
great missionary from Paris.
We saw a lot of great people and
learned a lot from each other.
Saturday, Elder Sorensen and I got
to work in our own are for the first
time together in like 2 weeks.
We had lunch with our Brazilian
investigator Ilana, and her Brazilian
friends! It was amazing. Then we saw
a recent convert and
then he helped us teach.
We then saw a member family and
they actually ended
up giving us an hour long lecture
on how to eat well. I think we are
going to try to improve our eating
habits. No more buying coke,
unless on a road trip.
This week will be craziness.
We will be going on 5 exchanges.
Yup, 5. Tuesday in Fribourg
Switzerland, Wednesday here in
Geneva, Thursday in Sion Switzerland,
Friday in Lausanne Switzerland,
and then on Saturday we will be
taking 3 missionaries to the airport
where they will be headed back home.
Interesting thing is that the mission
president will be gone from Tuesday
to Sunday. So we will kind of be in
charge and taking this missionaries
to the airport by ourselves.
It should be an interesting experience!

I hope you have a great week and keep
trying something new everyday.
I promise
I am doing well and my health is good.
Have a great week!
Love always,
Elder Bubba

August 24, 2009
This week was quite the adventure;
5 exchanges. Although it was a
little difficult being all over the
place, it is a such a great chance
to see the Lord's hand work in so
many marvelous ways, not to mention
see the beautiful Swiss countryside.
This last Tuesday I spent the day in
Fribourg, Switzerland. It is a
beautiful city, with a lot of great
things to do. We taught a great
Portuguese family and it was a
great experience.
On Wednesday, I worked here on an
exchange with The zone leaders
from Lyon. It was a crazy day,
and we were all over the place.
We ended up going to Martigny,
Switzerland that same night.
Martigny is such a beautiful
place and is in the Alps.
The exchange went very well and I
think I talked to people for 6
hours straight. It is one of the
only areas in Switzerland that is
primarily catholic (Everyone in
Switzerland is protestant).
Actually, on our way to our exchange
in Lausanne the next day, the mission
president let us go see the
Matterhorn, the mountain the
Disneyland ride is modeled after. It
was quite the adventure! Believe it
or not, my companion forgot his camera,
and mine was out of battery! But
I saw it and that's all that matters.
Check it out on Google
images if you want to see it!

Quick miracle.
On my exchange in Lausanne, we were
waiting to meet up with a
recent convert on a bench and he
was running a little late. A man
comes and sits down and we start
talking with him. We fix a
rendezvous for that same
after and we went and taught him.
We fixed a followup lesson for the
next day and he fixed a baptismal
date and came to church and should
be baptized in about 3 weeks!
Its so amazing to see how quickly
the Spirit can touch people!
This week will be full of zone
conferences, a mission council,
and meeting with
the stake presidencies with the
mission president and Elder
Kopischke of the 70
as he does a mission tour.
It should be a great week and
I again will be traveling all
over for it. I am way excited
and can't wait to hear the words
of this inspired man, and for
the chance to travel around with
him, eat with him, and just get
to know a servant of the Lord!
Thanks for all of your love and
support and for everything you do
for me. I pray that you have a
great week and that everything
keeps going well! Thank you!
Love,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

ps. The pictures are of my visit
to the John Calvin museum.
John Calvin was one of the two
major reformers with Martin Luther
and he did everything from
here in Geneva. I saw the church
he preached in and everything!
This is me next to one of the
museum sign and the other is me
reading the 10 commandments
at the museum in french!

Busy Busy Sick but Still Busy

2009-08-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

You both asked some questions,
so as usual, I will make my attempts
at answering them:
So how did all the transfer activity
go this past week?
Very Well
As smooth as you had hoped and planned?
Yes, except for a little craziness with
trying to get the missionaries going
home to the temple ( I wasn't there,
just the mission president and his wife)
That must bring some reality to
you to see four former
companions returning home.
It was pretty crazy, but a little
anti-climatic.
So what was the reason to go from
7 to 3 zones?
We actually went to 4. I might
have mistyped that last week.
There are 3 major reasons:
There are 4 stakes in the mission
and we wanted one zone for each
stake, so we can work more closely
with the stake presidents. Also,
we have a lot of new missionaries
we needed those zone leaders in
senior companion positions.
Also, based on the leadership
in the mission, or current lack
thereof, we felt that by putting
the strongest leaders would better
stimulate the younger missionaries.
Will that make it easier to do zone
conferences and reduce some of the
administrative stuff or just not
enough leadership with the shrinking
number of missionaries. We will
actually probably travel just as
much, haha.
Based on what we’ve heard it
sounded like your mission was
having great success.
Why did the number of
missionaries go down.
We are having a lot of success,
but they are reducing
missionaries in europe in general
by about 70%. For example,
in there Paris
mission there are 150 missionaries,
but by the end of the year, they
will be at 90; we will be at about 85.
Pops, I think you should turn in the
durango for that tax rebate, and get
a car that gets a lot better gas
mileage. Get a mini cooper or
something, haha. They are all
over here.

So I hope that responds to the
questions you have and lets you
know a little better what is
going on in my life.
With 16 missionaries going home
this week, 4 of which being my
former companions, receiving 8
new missionaries in the mission,
and receiving a new companion,
making me the "senior" assistant
with a mission President who has
been here for a month, made this
week a little busy. Not to
mention having gotten strep (sp?).
Actually, I dont know if that is
what it is, but myself and
my companion have it and will be
going to the doctor; don't worry!

As for my week, it was primarilly
occupied with the picking up the new
missionaries from the airport,
doing their legality, teaching them
about the mission, taking them
contacting, and eating with them.
The new missionaries are great!
I love seeing the great Elders
and Sisters the Lord has prepared
and sent to this mission.
Taking the returning missionaries
to the airport is always weird.
Everytime I feel like I am just
taking a trip. With as much
traveling we do here, it
wouldn't be that big of a change!
Other than that, we have been
primarily focused on getting
the mission ready
for the transfer.
This transfer will be crazy.
We will be having a mission tour
with Elder Kopischke of the 70
for four days, and we will be
traveling with him, having 3
zone conferences. We will also
be going on 11 exchanges this
transfer, trying to stimulate
some of the struggling areas
in the mission, which will be
very tiring.
As for this week, we have a zone
leader council tomorrow, then we
will be driving the 5 and a half
hours to Nancy for an exchange
with the zone leaders there on
Wednesday, then driving back
Thursday to have another exchange
on Friday. It should be a great
week though, and I am looking
forward to see the Lord pour out
blessings this week as I work
hard on trying to better serve the
Lord.

I love the quote you shared mom:
“Sometimes God calms the storm…
sometimes he lets
the storms rage and calms the child.”
I personally need to better learn to
remember that.
Have a great week and always
remember you are loved!
Keep trying new things for me!
Love always,
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Happy Fete de Geneve!

2009-08-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

My week was great, with a majority of
the time spent working on this upcoming
transfer. To give you a better idea
of what this consists of, I will try
to go through the days.
On Tuesday we started on the general
ideas of what we wanted to do with the
mission, and tried started at the top,
and work down. We started by attempted
to identify my next companion, and then
zone leaders, then trainers, then
district leaders, then senior companions,
and then the rest. Though this system
seems simple, with all the factors that
go into it, it takes time.
We spent about 4 hours working on it on
Tuesday, 4 hours on Thursday, and a
couple of hours on Friday. Its
interesting, the hardest part of it all
was finding my new companion.
We actually went in with a missionary in
mind, and built the transfer around that,
but, to help reassure ourselves, we decide
to fast about it. It is amazing.
The night of our fast, right after my
personal prayer, I turned to my companion
and said, "I have an idea, but I'll tell you
tomorrow." First thing in the morning my
companion wakes up and said, "Elder,
j'ai une idéa, mais, je vais vous dire
pendent nos étude." (the exact same
thing in french) We actually took our
breakfast to go work on it, and as I told
him my "idea," he told me that his was
exactly the same; something we hadn't
even talked about! We went in, told the
mission president, and prayed about
what we had done. We received the
confirming witness that it all came
from God and that this is exactly what
needs to happen in the mission.
It was an amazing experience!
I am so glad to have been apart of it.
Some things that changed are that we
went from 7 zones to only 4 zones. We
actually closed three companionships.
We will be losing 14 missionaries this
transfer and only will receive 9.
With this new transfer, I have received
a new companion. His name is Elder
Sorensen. He is actually from North Ogden,
Utah and went to Weber High, the
same school I would have gone too!
We know tons of the same people; its crazy!
We will serve together actually until
December, unless something changes. I
will stay here as an assistant a little
longer than normal. I am very excited
for this chance I have to serve with Elder
Sorensen!
Other than the transfer, we had a big
BBQ here at the mission home to celebrate
the National Holiday of Switzerland/
Le Fete de Geneve! We talked about the
history of Switzerland and had a lot of
good food together. The four wards from
Geneva came along with 12 investigators.
It was a great time!
This week will be spent with the change
of transfers. Tomorrow we will pick up
the new missionaries from the airport
and spend the whole day with them.
Wednesday we spend more time with them
and train the new missionaries as well as
the trainers and see them off.
Then Thursday we take the missionaries
ending to the airport where I will lose
4 former companions, including my current
companion, Elder Boisserie. I will then
be the senior assistant in the mission.
Thursday and Friday will be spent
getting everything ready for the transfer!

That's funny that you mentioned passing
the sacrament because I actually passed
the sacrament for BOTH sacrament meetings
I attended! Its summer in Europe;
everyone is gone on vacation.
There aren't very many young active
members of the church here in
Europe unfortunately.

It will be a busy week!

Into the Wild

2009-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Some of your questions:
you must be traveling separate from
the mission president or are you
driving with him and his wife?
Actually we are. The mission
Presidents wife has a bad back
so they need to stop more frequently
and we also had to bring missionaries
home with us after the conferences to
Geneva because they were going home.
Are they visiting other parts of the
mission while you and your companion
run it or what? A little, when they
do interviews and we do exchanges.
You must be putting on a lot of miles
on the car with all the traveling you
have been doing. What kind of car do
you use? We have a Clio; its silver
and about a year old. I think we are
getting a new one though. The mission
president and us have unlimited
kilometers as well.
Do you have to have one elder stand
behind when you back like they do here
in the states? Ha ha, you know it.
Its great. We avoid backing up situations
as much as possible, even if it means
parking really far away.
I had the chance to finish this week off
today by going to Mt. Blanc! It was
amazing, though, it was the first time
in a while I had feelings of
homesickness. It honestly felt like I
was at a ski resort on the top of the
mountain, ready to snowboard. Even though
it is the end of July, it is still
covered in snow and we had to wear coats.
It is the highest peak/point in all
of Europe. We went with the mission
president and his wife, and the mission
president actually payed for us;
he is way to nice. But we had a great
time and I got tons of great pictures.
This week was full of zone conferences
as well. Being in Metz, France again,
where I started my mission, for the
Nancy Zone conference was amazing.
After a little over 5 hours in the car
we got there and I got to eat my favorite
Kebab in the whole mission; Coco Kebabs.
It was soo good!
The city is so beautiful and is one of
my favorites in France. I also went to
Yverdon for zone conference on Tuesday,
and then we had a zone conference here
on Wednesday. They all went very well,
and we had the chance to teach on
adjusting teaching to meets investigators
needs. I just love being able to see
all the missionaries in the mission.
On Friday I had an exchange with a Zone
Leader from Lausanne, which went very
well, though most of the time was spent
doing service.
Saturday I actually did an exchange with
one of the office elders, so I was an
English speaking missionary for the day,
though, my companion was from Belgium
so we spoke french the whole time.
We went to Lausanne to do some stuff for
the mission, but then had a great time
of teaching that night.
Church, all 6 hours of it, was great!
Although its tiring, its a great way to
feel the spirit.
This week we have only one exchange here
in Geneva with the zone leaders from
Nancy. Apart from that, we will being
working on the transfer with the mission
president. I think I know who my
companion will be, but I can't say because
we haven't finished praying about it.
It is such a great opportunity to work
alongside the mission president during
transfers and see the hand of the Lord
literally direct this work.
I look forward to this week, and all the
revelation we will receive!

Have a great week and
try something knew EVERY day!

Elder Clayton Welch
ps. attached is a pic at Mt. Blanc

Surrounded by Angels

2009-07-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

It was another great week here in Geneva.
Although I didn't spend much time here in
Geneva this week, I had a great week on
exchanges, a zone conference, and the
lessons we had.
Tuesday night we drove up to Grenoble,
France for an exchange with the zone
leaders there. We were a little pressed
for time so we grabbed some McDonald's
in the middle of the drive and drove the
rest of the way. I don't know how I
ever did it before my mission, but
sitting there after eating McDonald's
was not the best feeling in the world;
maybe its a sign of getting old!
I had a pretty good exchange up in
Grenoble with Elder Guerrero, and then
drove back Wednesday night.
Thursday, we got everything ready for
all of the zone conferences and
taught our Brazilian investigator
here. It went soo well! She is
getting so close to baptism, and is
someone who will be solid in the
church all of her life!
Friday morning we got up at 5 so
that we could drive to Lyon for a
zone conference there.
The zone conference went very well.
We had the chance to teach and do an
activity about adjusting teachings
to meet peoples needs. We then
stayed after the zone conference
in Lyon on Friday and had an
exchange with the Zone Leaders there.
It was SO great to be in Lyon again;
Lyon is probably my favorite city in
the mission.
I had probably the best experience
of my mission on Friday night. I got
to go contacting in the middle of
downtown Lyon with Landry, the man
I taught in Lyon who was baptized
about 3 months ago. It was the
greatest experience, seeing this
24 year old convert testify of the
restoration of the gospel of Jesus
Christ to complete strangers on the
road! I literally felt as though
angels surrounded us and lifted us
up with each word we said.
I don't think I have ever spoken to
people with such ease and with the
spirit so strong. It was amazing.
To make it better, we ate lunch there
the next day and he told us how he
is preparing to go on a mission as
soon as possible!
He has been recently called to serve
in the Elders Quorum Presidency,
and is doing great!
We came home from Lyon on Saturday
night, and then yesterday we went
to church and ate at a great
members home. It was a great week!

This week will be crazy.
At about 4 o'clock today, my
companion and myself will be driving
up to Metz, France, the city where
I started my mission, to go to the
zone conference that will be held
there. We will get there at about
9 tonight and will attend zone
conference there tomorrow and then
drive back home.
Wednesday morning we will go to the
zone conference in Lausanne, and
then on Thursday we will attend
the zone conference here in Geneva.
Friday I will be on an exchange with
a zone leader from Lausanne here in
Geneva, and then on Saturday
I will be on an exchange with one
of the office elders.
This week I will only be with my
companion in the car and at
church on Sunday. It will be a very
busy week, but it should be great!

Have I been to Luxembourg or Belgium?
I have been to Luxembourg twice, once
for a full day, but I have never been
to Belgium. I do live with a Belge (sp?)
though. He makes good
waffles actually! haha.
Just so you know, I spent 18 euros last
week because we went to an adventure
park last preperation day. It was
climbing in trees with harnesses with
ziplines and all! It was amazing!

Love,
Elder Bubba

Crazy Busy

2009-07-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

This week went very well,especially
the 3 exchanges we had this week,
and the transition of the mission
Presidents.
This week was filled with more
meetings with President Murdock
about the things we have been
focusing on in the mission,
concerns we have that we might
need to change, and also focusing
on the upcoming zone conferences
we will have in the upcoming weeks.
A difference in mission presidents
is that President Murdock likes
to have things planned out much
further in advance. We are already
working on next transfers calendar,
and making sure everything is ready
to go.
We recently found out that we will
actually be having a visit from Elder
Kopischke next month. Elder Kopischke
is a member of the first quorum of
the seventy. He visited with Elder
Bednar to our mission last year, and
it will be great to have a visit
from him again. It will be crazy
working that close with a general
authority for 4 days. I am way
excited for the opportunity.
This week, we had 3 exchanges.
I had two here in Geneva that went
very well with Elder Asay and Elder
Robinson. They went very well and
we saw a bunch of great things
this week! I also had an exchange
with a Zone Leader in Yverdon.
He is a great missionary.
It is the only city though
with bikes, and I, after not having
ridden a bike since I was like 14,
was very sore after that exchange.
It was great though. IT was way
nice to ride around Switzerland on
bike though and I wish I could do
it more often.
As for this week, we have two
exchanges planned. I will be in
Grenoble on Wednesday, and I will be
in Lyon on Saturday with. There is
also a zone conference in Lyon this
Friday, so I will be going
there all day Friday and Saturday.
With that, I will only be in Geneva
4 days this week: preparation day,
Sunday with 6plus hours of church,
and two days to work on some
reports here.
It should be a crazy busy week,
but should be a great time!

Sorry if this email is all over
the place. I kept having to do
answer questions for the mission
president and also answering calls
about some missionaries moving in a city.

Elder Clayton Welch

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

So the changing of mission Presidents
this week was quite the experience!
I would venture to say that almost
everything that happened this week
derives from this event.

We spent the good part of Monday night
and Tuesday night preparing the
presentation for President and Sister
Murdock. The Presentation actually
ended up being really good.
I can actually send you a copy of it;
it will give you a look into whats
going on in the mission.

Wednesday we spent actually cleaning
the mission home and cars, hanging up
flags, and making everything look
nice for when the Murdocks got here.

I am not going to lie, going to the
airport with President Peterson to
pick up President and Sister Murdock
on Wednesday night was way weird; haaha,
it was great though and I am really
grateful to have been apart of it.
We got to take some pictures that
night together and then said good bye
to the Petersons.

Thursday we met with President and
Sister Murdock from about 10-4 oclock,
and then random other times since then,
trying to fill them in on everything
in the mission. I am sure it is
overwhelming for them, but their are
handling it very well.

On Saturday I found out it was the
4th of July that morning making
calls to zone leaders and we planned
on eating hot dogs because it was the
only "American" thing we had in
the fridge. Turns out that someone
threw them away. All of a sudden
President Murdock walks in our
kitchen and said, "How does Mcdonalds
sound to you Elders; my treat!"
I couldn't believe it! He is so
nice and I know that he
was truly called by God to be here.

Other than that, the week was spent
working on reports for the mission
and taking care of things here with
a couple of lessons. It was a
great week and I look forward to
the coming week. We are working
on zone conferences as well as
going on three exchanges.
It will be great, I will have
3 days to really get
out and talk to people.
I am excited!

Love always,
Elder Clayton Welch

Time flies at warp speed-3 weeks worth

2009-06-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

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

Life is a blur...

2009-05-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

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

Photographs and movies

2009-04-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

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

Transfer to Chalon sur Saone, France-new address

2009-03-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

This past week was a great end
to my time here in France. I
received transfer calls this morning
and the mission president told me
that I will be serving in
Chalon sur Saone, here in France.
It is actually not to far away and I
will be serving with a great elder
named Elder Brady. He is still pretty
young in the mission, but I have heard
tons of good things about him and it
will be a great transfer!
I think I will only be there for a
short time though, but I am really
looking forward for this new adventure.
I will have a car which I am not to
stoked about, but it will be a good
chance to get a lot of work done.
We had another great week of teaching,
and had the chance to teach 22 lessons
this week! It is seriously such a
blessing to be able to teach so much!
I will be doing a lot more finding
in my new city, but I am confident
that the Lord will give me the same
opportunity to teach a lot.
Our Jewish ami is continuing to amaze me.
We attended a baptism with him here
in Lyon on Saturday night, and it was
honestly one of the most spiritual
baptisms I have ever seen. I was able
to do the baptismal interview for this
chosen young woman, she is about 24, and
she had one of the most solid
testimonies I had ever heard. She had
read the Book of Mormon in less than a
week, and also read all of the Doctrine
and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and
the Teachings of Joseph Smith manual, and
understood it all! After the baptism
Our ami turned to me and said that he could
feel the spirit stronger than he had
ever before, and that ha felt like he could
reach out and touch it! It was amazing!
The next day at church he turned to us right
before the sacrament and
said, "I want to be baptized!"
It was so amazing. We are looking at
April 18th for the date, and, although
I wont be able to be here for his baptism,
and I am soo happy and excited about this
choice he has made! Being a missionary is
so great!
Other than that, my week was full of
teaching great people. We found another 3
new amis this week and had a lot of great
moments with the members. The ward
here is great and make it really easy to
bring amis to church.
This next week should be a bit crazy with
the changing of cities, but it should
be great. I don't really know what stands
in store for me, but I know it is what
the Lord wants from me so I am excited.
I will get to go to Dijon, yes the city
of mustard, every week as well which I am
really excited for! I
ts going to be a good week.

p.s. My new address is:

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch
Les Missionnaires
26, rue Philibert Guide
F-71100 Chalon sur Saone
FRANCE

Chillin' in Lyon teaching 23 lessons

2009-03-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

Commet va tu?
I had another great week here in
Lyon, France. This could possibly
be my last week here, which makes
me sad, but I am excited for the new
adventure the Lord is going to bless
me with. We will receive transfer
calls next preparation day so I will
let you know next week. I would love
to stay here but I do not think it is
very likely.
Today, for preparation day, we had the
chance to play American football with
16 elders! It was great, although I am
very tired right now. We played Grenoble
Zone vs. Lyon Zone and we lost, but is
was still a great time! There were even
a few members who came and watched
because they had never seen an American
football game before; bizarre, I know.
This last week we taught 23 lessons!
That is the most I have taught in a week
on my mission, and I was so grateful for
the Lord blessing us with so many
opportunities to teach. We found three
new amis this week as well, and the pool
of people we are teaching continues to
grow; its great!
The Mormon monk is doing great, and our
Jewish ami Ladry went to see him get the
priesthood. We also had three other amis
come to church which was a real blessing.
I went on two exchanges last week. I was
actually in St. Etienne on Tuesday and
got to work with a great missionary Elder
Price. On Thursday I had my exchange
with one of the two assistants to the
President, Elder Hanson, from the Valley
in Utah. He is a rad Elder and I learned
a lot from him. He was also a snowboard
instructor before the mish. so we had a
good time and we actually have tons in
common. He ends his mission next transfer,
so unfortunately I wont have
the privilege of serving with him.
The other day we did an exchange with a
couple of members because we had to many
lessons to teach and I got to ride my
first bike on my mission! It was a crazy
experience and riding through Lyon I was
actually a little scared! haha, I am
actually a little grateful that I am not
in a bike mission!
As for our amis, they are all progressing
very well, and, although we haven't
re fixed their baptismal dates yet,
we plan on fixing a couple this week.
Itshould be another great week here.
We are having a little "blitz" here in
Lyon tonight, meaning we will have 24
missionaries here because we have zone
meetings tomorrow. My companion will
have the chance to teach our zone which
I am excited for.I also have an exchange
this Thursday with an Elder named Elder
Goines. He was the former assistant to
the President and is a stud! He ends his
mission next week and I am stoked to talk
with him and learn a lot of great things!
It is always interesting on these exchanges,
for the most part I am the one who is
supposed to be "training" the other
missionaries, but in all actuality I think
I learn more from the other missionaries
than anything. Its great how that
works. I am way excited for another
epic week here in Lyon!

Pictures from Lyon

2009-03-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

My "senior picture" pose at the Roman ruins in Lyon.

4 Mormon missionaries
+
4 Catholic monks
+
1 "Mormon Monk" (taking the picture)
=
One heck of a great day.

Giving a speech at an ancient Roman theater in Lyon

myself in the "mus'ee de beaux arts" (Museum of beautiful art

"I have a dream..."

Hotel de Ville chilling in the beautiful old French architecture

I spend a lot of time doing this; looking out windows on trains. I feel like a businessman.

European pizza and questions answered for Steph's RS lesson

2009-03-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

As for my week, it was another great
week here in Lyon, France. The "Mormon
monk" was actually here in Lyon on
Wednesday so we went out to lunch
with him and I got a real European
pizza, which are always interesting
(they have an egg cracked over the
top of it!). He actually helped us
teach a lesson which went very well,
and I felt like I was being taught,
almost more than our investigator
which was a great experience!
I actually wanted to tell you a little
bit about this ami that we taught with
the monk. Our amis name is Landry,
and he comes from a Jewish background.
We have been teaching him for a couple
of weeks now and he has quickly become
one of my favorite people I have been
able to teach. He is 23 and actually
a "cool" french kid. He is trying to
start up a publishing company and is
just working on jobs in the mean time.
We were able to teach Landry with 3
different members this week, and we
went to like 4 church activities with
him, which were all great! But it is
just crazy to see the amazing change
that has taken place in his life.
He met with us with the desire
of understanding why we believe that
Jesus was the Messiah, a question most
Jewish people pose, and he now he
understands the importance of Christ
and the need for his atonement and that
Joseph Smith, along with the Book of
Mormon and each succeeding prophet
even until today, is true!
We were at the other chapel with him
in Lyon last night and we actually
had the opportunity to take him into
the baptismal font and demonstrate
how it takes place. We will be
asking him to be baptized this week,
and hopefully he will be baptized
the 29th. What is so great is that
he will still be able to serve a
mission, and I really feel that
he will! I know that Landry is one
of the elect, someone whom our Heavenly
Father has prepared and I am so excited
to see him continue to find the answers
he is searching!
This week we also were able to go to
Geneva to hear from an area 70 for zone
conference and also had a zone leader
council; both of which went very well!
I love Geneva, and I cant believe how
much English I hear there! I think I have
met maybe 2 native English speakers here
who aren't members of the church, where
as is Geneva almost half of everyone is
American or English! Its crazy!
We also had an American party this week
Chez one of our members who is from
England. It was a blast and we ate
burritos. We had it because her friend who
is a law study at George Washington
University was coming to visit. While we
were there she said she was from Houston,
Texas and when I said wow, that's where
I am from, well, actually from Kingwood.
And she was like No Way! I am from
Kingwood. Wait, your last name is Welch,
are you Patty's brother? haha, it was
crazy! Her name was Cynthia Andres, and
she said she was in the other Kingwood
ward. its just a small world as a member
of the church.
This week should be another great week!
We have interviews with our mission
president this Wednesday and a couple of
cool activities going on, and I think
our whole week is completely planned
already with lessons! It is such a
blessing working in a big city!
I pray that you have a great week!
Your loving son,
Elder Bubba Hooch

Salut Moores!

As for your questions:
1) Have you been influenced in some way
through the work of the early missionaries
organized under Joseph Smith?
Of course! Apart from the great mission
that Joseph Smith was himself, the
early missionaries whom were called in
our dispensation have influenced me
enormously. I would say out of all of
the missionaries who have influenced me
the most would be Samuel Smith, the
first missionary for his ability to
pave the way for us all and also his
fearless approach to the work. I also
really admire Dan Jones, who served in
Wales. His ability to talk to everyone,
more specifically, to write letters to
mayors and literaly have cities listen
to him, has inspired me to talk with
all that I can.
2) What are some characteristics we need
to be effective missionaries?
We need to have faith in Jesus Christ.
We mush Love the people. And We must be
obedient. And also we must try and
establish all of the Christlike attributes
found in Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel.
3) Why should we preach “the first principles” of the gospel?
Because it is through these acts that
we can be saved. But it is interesting
actually. Two days ago I heard a member
of the seventy personally tell me that
we must teach the doctrine
(ex. The atonement) before we teach
the principles(ex. Repentance) in order
for people to truly understand. But I
think that we must teach the principles
because they lead to the action,
which are the saving ordinances of heaven.
4) What can be the consequences of contending with others on the
subject of religion?
You get Nowhere! The golden rule,
"do unto others as you would have
others do unto you." If you want
someone to listen to you, you must
listen to them and be open for us all
to learn more. Contention driveth away
the spirit. A priest the other day tried
proving our faith wrong and20I told him
to come back when he want to talk about
Jesus Christ and was willing to help each
of us grow our faith in our older brother.
5) What do you think it means to “let every word be seasoned with
grace” when preaching the gospel?
Good question. I would say it reflects
the necessity of teaching with the Holy
Ghost, which we are told that if we do
not have, we can not teach.
6) Why can’t we preach the gospel without the Holy Ghost?
Its like what I tell everyone I meet.
I cannot convert anyone. It is only
through the Holy Ghost and their
personal desire that they can be
converted. Only the Holy Ghost
can convert.
Testimony:
I know, as well as I know anything else
in my life, that Jesus is the Christ,
and that his gospel was restored through
the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that
a living prophet stands at the head of
this church, and that as we heed to the
council of Thomas S. Monson, we will
know what we must do to obtain eternal
life. I leave you this small, yet sincere
testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Your loving bro,
Elder Bubba

Baptizing a Mormon Monk!

2009-03-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

My week went very well.
I had the opportunity to travel to
Geneva last Tuesday which was a great
experience. I love being able to be
around the leaders of the mission and
we received great council from our
mission president on gratitude.
He paralleled chapters 22 and 24 in
Mosiah, and how the people of Limhi
and the people of Alma both escaped
Lamanite bondage, but how one did in
through their own efforts, and the others
did it through working hard and
continually praying to the Lord.
It is interesting to see that in
chapter 22 there are zero references
to deity, whereas there are over 20
in chapter 24. Although I know
that the Lord will always take care
of us, I know we receive blessings
that much more quickly when we show
the Lord our gratitude! I also had
the opportunity to teach about the new
contacting approach we implemented,
and I really was happy to have the chance
to teach others. Its funny, I have
really grown to love teaching, especially
in English!
Our zone meeting went really well as well.
It was great to have the whole zone
together and we all had the chance to go
out and have Kebabs together!
The baptism of our ami Frederick actually
did not take place last Sunday. We
felt that we wanted to make sure he was
completely prepared before making such a
sacred covenant with our Heavenly Father.
We have changed the date for the 22
of March, such in just 3 weeks. I will
still be here since it is still this
transfer which will be great! The sad
thing was is that it was his birthday the
1st, the original date of his baptism, and
he was left with no plans when we decided
to move it. So, my companion and I threw
him a birthday party at the church last
night with all the members he is friends
with! It was so great! A member made a
cake for him, and everyone brought
something to share and we had a
potluck! Frederick was very excited about
it and was very understanding about
us changing the date, and has the desire
to be ready to be baptized on the 22!
Although I didn't get to see our ami
baptized this week, I did get to see
someone I taught once be baptized.
Last week for preparation day, we went
to KFC, yes, there is one if Lyon,
and we to a little castle that the
"Mormon monk's" friend actually owns.
We hung out there and on the way home,
I was in front with the other 4
missionaries in back, Jean Marie and I
were talking and he told me he
wanted to be baptized. That night,
the St. Etienne elders fixed a date
with him and he was baptized last
Saturday! I was able to be one of the
witnesses and I gave a talk.
I cant believe this man, who had been
a monk for 8 years, decided to be
baptized and is already sharing the
gospel with his friends! It was such
a great experience and I am so grateful
for it!
This week we have a zone conference
in Geneva, and also another zone leader
council where a member of the area 70
will be at both. So I have the privileged
of going to Geneva again this week which
will be great! We have a long of great
things planned for this week and I am so
grateful for this chance to be where I
am right now!

Elder Clayton H. Welch

Halfway Celebration! It's been a Year!

2009-03-02T08:34:00.000-08:00

We can't believe it. He has had such a wonderful spiritual adventure.
We are so grateful for the awesome missionary he is!

Busy wonderful week

2009-02-25T10:06:00.000-08:00

Commet ta vu? Oh man, this week was great.
You asked me a few questions so I will try
to respond to them. The art museum was great!
I found out that it is the second largest,
in terms on monetaryvalue on their products,
in all of France, next to the Louvre! It was
beautiful. The modern art exhibit was
closed so we plan on going back because
they have many Claude Monet paintings, as
well as several Picasso.
Are you getting fed by the members occasionally?
Funny question. Not really, but I did
eat at the Bishops the other day and he asked
me that question. I asked him if he wanted to
know honestly, and I told him no. The funny
part is, that in Priesthood the other day he
made an announcement as well as the ward mission
leader that the ward wasn't helping us enough
and that they need to start feeding
us and supporting us both spiritually, and
physically. So, that should change soon.
But thank you so much for the euros!
It was so nice of you. How are the
new shoes working out – are they comfortable?
They are actually my Sunday shoes
and for special occasions so I only wear
them occasionally, and by old Sunday
shoes I wear to work in now. And they are
French, if that answers your questions.
The French are about style first,
then comfort!
Are you still using the smoothie maker and
eating plenty of fruits and veggies?
Not as much, but I am going to make a goal
to start using it more. But I really am
glad to be in Lyon and I am having
a great time.

This week was one of, if the not the,
busiest weeks of my mission and I am so
grateful for it. This week I taught
21 lessons! It was so great! The Lord
blessed us enormously and I am so
grateful for His help in this great
work. We also found 6 more of the Lord's
choice children who are searching for
the truth who are excited to learn more.
I am so grateful for this opportunity
to have this occasion to teach my
brothers and sisters.
Our ami Frederick's baptism is this
Saturday which I am very grateful for.
We our having his home teacher Brother
Coulon, the hippie, baptize him which will
be great! He has prepared himself very
well and I am excited to see him make
this sacred covenant with the Lord.

I want to take a minute and share an
experience I had this week; an experience
that has helped my testimony grow, and
was a confirming witness to me of the
priesthood on the earth today.
Well, on Wednesday night, the night of
transfers, we had just gotten back into our
apartment after a long day of buying
people metro passes and making sure elders
and sisters caught their trains and
buying them train tickets. So we got in
and during our planning at about 9:15
we received a call from the sisters in our
district that one of the sisters was
having a serious panic attack and was on
the floor shaking uncontrollably. They
told us to come now and that all she was
asking for was for a priesthood blessing.
We ran to their apartment, while calling
the mission president at the same time who
told us to go in and give her a blessing,
because we were unable to find a member
that lived close to us at that short of
notice. We went in and my companion
immediately anointed the oil and prepared
this sister for a priesthood blessing.
I then proceeded to give this sister a
priesthood blessing of health and comfort.
I testify to you that I was not the one
giving this blessing, but it was the Lord
working through me. I was unaware of the
words I was saying and literally, as I
said the words "relax and be healed," this
sister missionary instantly stopped shaking.
I bear testimony to you with all my heart
that I witnessed the immediate healing of
this sister through the power and authority
that I have with the privilege of serving
others. I know that the priesthood is real
and is the power to act in the name of God
on this earth. I know that through faith,
we can be literally healed if it be the will
of the Lord. I am so grateful for this
experience and pray that you may also be able
to have an experience as wonderful as this.
I know that God lives and he still
acts today.

This week will be great. We have a zone
leader council in Geneva tomorrow,
where I have the privileged of teaching
about a new contacting method for 40
minutes. We also have a zone meeting on
Thursday here in Lyon where my companion
and myself will be teaching about the
things we learn at zone leader
council. I am excited for these
experiences for these occasions to
continue to be spiritually edified.

I pray that you have a great week!
I can't believe it has been about a year.
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

2009-02-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Commet va tu? I am doing very well!
Today was transfer call day, and so,
for the second time on my mission,
I did not receive a call and will be
staying here in Lyon with my current
companion Elder Waller. I am actually
very happy about it, and am excited to
stay here. We are getting along well,
and I know that this is where the Lord
wants me. I am also grateful for the
opportunity to stay in this great city.
Lyon is such a great place!
This week was amazing.
Last preparation day we had the chance
to go to the Basallic, this beautiful
church on the top of the hill in Lyon.
It was so beautiful. There were 6 of
us Elders who went up there. We also
went to the old roman theaters there
are relatively close this the Basillic.
They are beautiful rock theaters,
two actually, where they used to hold
plays, and I believe they still do every
once in a while.
As for missionary work, this week was
good, but a little slower than the
last couple. We still taught about
12 lessons, which is such a blessing
from the Lord.
Friday was amazing. Being able to be
in a chapel with 90 missionaries, an
apostle (Elder Bednar), a member of
the 70 (Elder Kapichke), an area 70,
a stake president, and a mission president
(President Peterson), and all of their
wives, was one of the greatest experiences
of my life. I was privileged enough to sit
in the front row, right in the middle,
just feet away from an apostle of the
Lord, and following the conference, I was
privileged to shake his hand. Elder
Bednart taught us, but it was unlike
anything I expected. It was actually in
the form of a question answer meeting where
for 2 hours he talked to us and about
missionary work, and asking for our
questions all of the time, and than,
for the last hour, he had us ask any
questions we had relating to the gospel.
It was such a spiritually uplifting
experience.
I would like to testify to you, that
I know that Elder David A. Bednar is a man
called of God. He is a prophet, seer,
and revelator, and has been called and
literally set apart as a prophet of the
Lord. The spirit which I felt was a
confirming witness for the things I had
already believed to be true. I know
that under the direction of this inspired
man, along with the other living
prophets of the Lord, we can receive the
direction necessary to receive exaltation.
I testify to you that I know that I have
been called of God and have also been set
apart to teach the people here, and that
I know that each and everyone of us are
children of our loving Heavenly Father,
who truly wants nothing more for us than
for us to be happy, but to also learn
and grow and to become like him. Thank
you for everything you have done to help
me better understand all of these
principles in my life and for your great
example.The spirit I felt is still
carrying over, and I hope I can continue
to use these great feelings to help
others find this same happiness in
their lives.
This week will be great.
Tomorrow, we have a zone meeting here in
Lyon which will be great. I love having
the chance to gather as missionaries.
Today we, about 12 missionaries, will be
going to "Le musée de beax arts," the
beautiful art museum here in Lyon which
I am very excited about.
We have a lot of lessons planned already
and I am excited to continue
progressing the work of the Lord.
Sincerely,
Elder Bubba Welch

New Contacting Approach

2009-02-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

This week was way good! I don't have
any crazy stories about monks or
anything, but it was still way good!
Actually, the Mormon monk, Jean Marie,
is going to move to Utah because he is
loves Mormons and says that the business
market is to difficult for a foreigner
here in France. So keep your eyes open
for a Mormon monk.

Interviews went way well with the
Mission President last week. We have an
interview, every missionary, each transfer
with the mission president. We talked
about, and learned how to use, a new
contacting approach. I am not going to
lie, its hard, but I did have a confirming
witness from the Holy Ghost that it is
revelation from God, and that he really does
need us to find the elect as soon as possible.
We don't introduce ourselves when we stop
people anymore, we just say,
"bonjour, and then start teaching about the
gospel, for example, nous savons que Dieu
a crée une plan pour que nous trouvions
le bonheur." (we know that God created a
plan so that we can find happiness.)
The reactions we get are pretty funny,
but those whom the Lord has prepared
will listen.

My exchange with the assistants went
way well. I was with Elder Goines,
a great missionary who will be
finishing in the next couple of months.
We did a lot of finding, so we got to
work on the new contacting approach
together, which was a little bit easier
because we would start in french and since
there are so many people who don't speak
french, half of the people don't understand
the awkward intro! haha, too bad we don't
have that luxury in Lyon. But it really
was great and I learned a lot. I feel it
a privilege to work with a lot of way good
men, inspired by God. He mentioned
something to me that I have thought a
lot about, he asked, "what are you going
to sacrifice when you get home?" that
is a question I am going to think a lot
about the next year, and I am excited
to continue to progress in this great
cause.

The rest of the week went very well.
We taught another sweet man named Topi
from the Congo who has decided to be
baptized later next month. I love
seeing all of this chosen people find
the answers they are looking for.

This week will be way good as well.
Today, a bunch of us missionaries
are going to the Basallic, a sweet
church on the hill in Lyon, so I am
stoked for that. Wednesday I will
be going on an exchange with an Elder
named Elder Waldron, just in the
southern Lyon area which I am excited
for. But what I am most excited for
is this Friday. This Friday we have
a whole mission conference in Geneva
where we will hear from Elder Bednar
and his wife (apostle), Brother Kapishka
(1st quorum of the seventy), and another
area seventy. I am soo excited.
I have the chance to listen to an apostle
address less than 100 of us! This
will be a great week!

I am stoked for out new mission president
as well. He sounds like a great man.
Does Aunt Vicky know him personally?
I am sure he will do tons of great things.

I hope you have a great week!
Elder Clayton Welch

Spiritual Day

2009-02-03T15:42:00.000-08:00

Real quick I want to tell you about
my week, and then tell you about my day,
which was probably the best day of my mission.
This week I had the opportunity
to go to Clermont Ferrand for an exchange
with an Elder named Elder Bellamy.
Clermont Ferrand is way far away, 2 and
a half hours by train to the next closes
city in our mission. We taught an English
class, and the next day we taught a
lesson to a man named Martin.
It was only his second time meeting
with the missionaries, but after
teaching him about the restoration
I felt inspired to ask him to be
baptized, which does not happen
here in France. Usually we don't
ask people to be baptized, because
of the culture, until after many
rendezvous. But I asked him,
and the spirit was way strong
and he said yes! He was stoked
and he will be baptized on the
22 of this month and I have
confidence that the Clermont Ferrand
elders will do a great job of getting
him ready. Other than that, it was a
pretty standard week. We taught over
10 lessons which was very nice and we
had a great Sunday at church.
I love hearing members testimonies and
I know as we share our testimonies with
others our testimonies grow. So my week
was great and we saw a bunch of great
miracles thanks to the Lord.
OK; today.
Last night my companion and I
took a train to St. Etienne, after
asking the mission president first
of course and stayed the night
there because we were going to be
leaving early this morning.
I hope you remember about the
man named Jean Marie, the Mormon Monk
whom I mentioned last week, well, today
was the catholic holiday for monks and
nuns and he invited us to go with him to
the monastery and go to mass with,
pray with, and eat lunch with the
monks at the monastery! It was the
greatest day of my life.
I feel so spiritually filled.
Here is a little play by play of
what our day was like.
We arrived at 9 o'clock
to the monastery and Jean Marie
gave us a tour of the place.
Different buildings, chapels, and
also the classrooms (the monks
receive a free education
on philosophy and theology
for three hours each day but Sunday).
First off, like I said last week,
there are only 550 of these monks
in the world and they are all over.
But here if France, actually in
Chalon sur Salone (sp?) is the
forming of these monks, so about
100 of these monks are here.
After the tour of the premises,
we went into a preparation room
where we sang hymns with the monks
and nuns. The monks and nuns only
interact twice a year, and this
is one of the two times!
It was such a blessing!
So we sang hymns and lit candles in
symbolism of the Light of Christ.
Then we walked together to the chapel
where we attended an hour and a
half mass, but different than most
catholic masses. Most of it was
kneeling on the floor, bowed,
with your head to the floor in
reverence. It was such a great
experience to view their faith and the
similarities they had to our religion.
Their church was much like ours and the
had no statues, and only prayed to Mary once.
After this great service, we all
went together, well the sisters (nuns)
ate by themselves, but we ate with the
monks. Normally they eat in silence
while someone reads scriptures, but since
it was a holiday the priest rang a bell
halfway through and said all could talk
and enjoy each others company. So
actually 3 African monks played African music
while I got to know a couple of sweet monks.
Next, we went into this little visitors
lobby and hung out with 4 monks who were
about our age, and the gave us juice which
they thought was weird because we don't
drink coffee or tea. We had a
great time and I got a bunch of great
pictures which I will send to you later.
At the end of it our talking though,
all of us, the 4 20-23 year old catholic
monks, Jean Marie, and us four missionaries
went into a chapel, into a special
prayer room, and we went want they
called "50/50" on the prayer. They asked
me to offer a "Mormon" prayer,
which they kept thanking me for,
and then we said the Lord's prayer together.
It was one of the most amazing experiences
of my life. These men were so humble
and so excited to hear what we had to
say and what we believed and did nothing
but listen. They were the most humble,
spiritual men I had ever met.
I am so grateful for this experience.
I know that these men truly love God,
and there is no doubt in my mind that
they will accept the gospel in the next
life and not a doubt in my mind that God
will accept them. I am so grateful for
this opportunity I have to build my faith
each day and to learn from others.
This week will be great. I will be
going on an exchange with the Gerland
district leader tonight until Wednesday
morning, and then Wednesday we have
interviews here in Lyon. Then, this
Friday to Saturday morning, I will be in
Geneva for an exchange with the assistants.
It will be a great week!
I am sorry if I didn't share much
more about my week, but it was
great and I learned so much!
Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Great Week

2009-01-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

I am doing great.
Things with my companion are getting
better and I am working on not being
so prideful. I feel that that is one
of my biggest weaknesses so this is a
great chance for me to be more humble,
and learn to work with others,
not just on my own.
This week went by really fast,
and a lot of great things happened.
Our zone versus zone football game went
very well, although our zone lost both
games. It was way good though.
We actually do have some pretty good
athletes, two other football players and
a couple of basketball players. I was
quarterback most of the time and I feel
like we had more fun as a zone because
everyone had at least a couple of catches,
including the Frenchman in our zone, and
I think all but 2 had a touchdown which
was great. It is so nice being able to
spend time with other missionaries.
Our zone blitz went very well as well.
I went out with my good buddy Elder
Trejo who is the same age as me in the
mission and is from Texas and is one of
my favorite missionaries in my mission.
Since I have the only "carte bleu,"
mission credit card, in Lyon, I usually
have to run errands all the time buying
train tickets and other things so
unfortunately a large portion of our
time was with that. But, we did teach
a sweet lesson together with a recent
convert, and I shared the story out of
Matthew 14:22-25 I believe, and
paralleled it with 2 Nephi 19, towards
the end of the chapter where Christ
tells us through Isaiah that the Lord's
hand is always there for us.
That is one of my favorite
images in the Book of Mormon.
Zone Conference went way well.
Our mission president implemented
the new member lessons we are teaching,
and I was able to give a demonstration
with my companion for the two zones
which went well.Wednesday night I was
up in Grenoble again to pick up my
carte de séjour, and it was such a
great time. I went with Elder Trejo
and we had a great time with the
Elders up there; we ate stuffed crust
pizza hut pizza that we got hooked up on
with a deal thanks to one of the other
elders, and we just chilled and talked
about the mission; good times.
I went on a great exchange with
Elder Hamilton in St. Etienne this
week as well, which went way well.
Elder Hamilton was my former zone leader
and a huge football player guy, the
other one in the mission.
It was way good! It is a struggling
city, but we were able to have 4 lessons,
which is one shy of how many they had
in the first two weeks of this transfer!
But it was in one of these rendez-vous
that the best part of my week happened.
We were with a man named Jean Marie,
a man about 35 from Barcelona Spain,
who speaks French as well as I speak
English, and English as well if not
better than I speak French. He
was married right after college and
was living in Kentucky when his wife died.
He decided to devote his life to God, and
entered a catholic monastery where he
literally became a monk, one of the 500
catholic monks on the earth I believe,
at least in this group. He went 8 years
wearing nothing but brown robes, going
to church everyday, praying, and
meditating until one day, after 8 years,
the leader of the group told him he
wanted to go in to the real world and
do go for others. He was infuriated,
and with only 2000 euros given to
him by the church and his robes,
he bought a computer and started his own
enterprise and now, just one year later,
is close to making one million dollars
this year, which he will give entirely
to building houses for needy people.
He give thanks only to God for his success,
and is the most humble, spiritual person
I have ever met. He is one of my heroes.
It was such a spiritually building
experience and it was a testimony that
there are many people whom the Lord
has prepared, and who are often times
closer and more spiritually understanding
than members of the church,
who are just waiting for the gospel.
He refers to himself as the "Mormon Monk,"
and hopefully he will continue to
grow in the gospel. I love being a
missionary.
This week will be good.
We are having a little zone meeting
here tomorrow and will be talking more
about these member lessons which will
be good. I will be going to
Clermont Ferrond tomorrow night as
well for an exchange with Elder
Bellamy which will be a great experience.
So I am very excited for this week.
But way good news, Elder Bednar,
apostle of the Lord, will be visiting our
mission and we will be having a
conference the 13 of February in Geneva
where he will speak to us for 3 hours!
I am stoked!
The weather here is good and it has
been rainy but no snow; bummer, I know.
Just cold rain and a wet right foot. haha.
I think I will look for shoes today,
and I would love to get these ones resoled,
but the salty water I think has
ruined the leather.
Have a great week.

Elder Clayton H. Welch
P.s. happy birthday pops!

Busy

2009-01-25T18:34:00.000-08:00

This week was really great, as are
all weeks as a servant of the Lord.
I had the opportunity to go to Geneva on
Tuesday for the Zone Leader council. It
was amazing. We road with Frère Mocellin
again, but we actually took the train
back. I sat next to this sweet guy from
England on the way back who was a
teacher of English literature and so we
had a good time talking about good books
we had both read. It is nice sometimes
just having the chance to speak to
someone in English; especially now that
I speak only to my companion in French
when we are outside. Its good though,
speaking french keeps you really focused
on the work. But at zone leader council
we talked about the new member
lessons, and it was great! I stopped at
the American store on the way to the
gare (train station) and bought a root beer
and a mt. dew which was sweet,
because you can't buy them anywhere else.
This week I had the opportunity to set
another baptismal date with a man named
Frederick Pernet. He is a little socially
awkward, but very wise, and even
studied at the Lyon Biblical School for
6 years. We started teaching him when I
first got here and we asked him to be baptised
the other day after sharing the
story in Mosiah 18 with the people at the
waters of Mormon. But he will be
baptised the 22 of February.
Hopefully I will still be here. We also have a
baptismal date for March 1 with a man named
Vincent Desportes who is a sweet
french guy who is way rich but very
spiritually receptive and can't wait to be
baptized so that he can be a home teacher!
This rest of the week went well and
everything is going well for me. I am doing
well with my companion and I am just
realizing places in my own life where I
need to improve. But, I do have a quote
of the week for you from him. I
mentioned something about girls, and he
told me that he is not going to kiss a
girl until AFTER he is married. Wow.
That's honorable. I just hope his wife
doesn't suck at kissing! haha.
This week will be way good. We are
having a 2 zone blitz, so 24 missionaries
here in Lyon tonight working on finding
people to teach. We are trying to get
people excited about the work, and we have
zone conference tomorrow, which will
be a great chance to work more together
and listen to the President of the
mission. Today we have scheduled a zone
vs zone football game, American
football, which shall be rad!
I am going to Grenoble again this week
to pick up something for my legality so I
am stoked to get to go back, but I don't
ever have time to look at anything. But
it is great to travel.
Other than that I will just be working
hard at serving the Lord, teaching people
about this great gospel, and bringing
others unto Christ!
Last week I did buy a new suit, new
french shirt, and two new way rad ties.
Thank you soldes. I hope I didn't spend
too much money, but I got a lot of way
sweet things. I will have to send you
a picture of my new suit. It is dark
blue with blue pinstripes. I do actually
need to buy a pair of new shoes, so I
hope you don't mind if I do that.
One of my two pairs has a whole in them
and the treading is completely gone
and I slip everywhere.

Have a great week!
Your loving missionary,
Elder Bubba

A few of Elder Bubba's pic's-He looks great! More to come.

2009-01-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

The look as they pass a brothel each morning.

This one is honor of Aleece's love of Marmouset's.

A beautiful view of Switzerland.

Singing in the snow;)

Brady Bunch:)

2009-01-14T15:47:00.000-08:00

It has been really cold here this week,
which I normally don't mind, but really
cold with NO snow is a killer.
When I was in Grenoble there was snow
which made me soo happy! I love snow,
and Grenoble is such a beautiful city
that I was so excited to be there.
My medical visit went great and I passed,
all they did was give me a physical and
take an xray of my lungs. Everything is
going well with the adjustment of
my companion. I am not going to
lie, having someone who is "happy"
all the time is not as great as you
would think, haha. Its like being in
the Brady Bunch movie; seriously. I mean,
he is a great guy and a great missionary,
but seems a little clueless about the
world and is almost too happy, if that
is possible. But its alright, there is
something to learn from each companion
and there is a reason why we are together.
The Lord has called us together
so I know there is a reason for it.
We had a great night last night!
After church we went and gave a
blessing to one of the sister
missionaries amis and then we
went out to go porting (door to
door) before our rendez-vous
just 40 minutes after.
The first door we knocked
on the man let us in, he was a way
nice Muslim student, and we taught
him and his friend. Then, we went
to our rendez-vous of someone I
contacted over a month ago and him
and his girlfriend were way sweet
and from central Africa! They
were so involved in the lesson
and they were soo receptive!
We will be seeing all of them again
sometime this week!
Tomorrow we will be traveling to
Geneva for Zone Leader council
which I am stoked for!
I love zone leader council.
It will be a great chance to listen to
the Mission President and the
Assistants and receive personal
revelation.We have a lot of really
great rendez-vous planned for
this week which I am very
excited about! We are pretty
much packed until Saturday.
It will be really great.
The seasonal sales, or "soldes,"
started this past week so I think
I might check some of that out today.
I would still love to go buy a suit.
Thank you for allowing me to do so!
Have a great week together and do
something really fun
in honor of me.

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Sorry we haven't posted-Here's 3 weeks of news!

2009-01-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

Jan. 5, 2008
Quoi de neuf? I am doing so great!
This week was great for me. We had
a zone meeting up here in Lyon
which went well. My companion and
I taught on "All Glory to God!"
It is really nice being able to get
together as missionaries and spend
a short moment together. For New
Years Eve some of the members held
a little New Years Eve party at the
institute, a building in downtown Lyon.
It is great, there are classrooms, a
kitchen, and big room for dances and
ping pong and what not and a couple
offices. They had a little dance,
and no,I did not dance, they didn't
start that til after we left, we played
games like twister which is weird as a
missionary, and we ate food and hung
out. A member made some great
homemade pizza which was really great.
We had our ami there, Frederic, and it
was a great time. It is a lot easier
to get amis to come to activities than
it is to get them to come to church.
Other than that, we had a good week of
teaching and finding. We are teaching
a Chinese couple, Shang and Ying, and
I love them. They are not married yet
but they live together. They are both
students here and are really focused
on their studies, as are all Chinese
people are. Well they are friends of
some Chinese members here and they
asked us last time about the word of
wisdom and this week we went over and
taught it. It went really well and the
only concern they had was coffee and
tea for when its late and they are
studying; especially because it is just
a couple weeks before Ying's finals.
After I promised some blessings from
the Lord if they obeyed it and chose to
drink something like juice or water when
they got tired, they both accepted it
and are going to study for their finals
without coffee or tea! It was so great!
They have such amazing faith and I know
the Lord will bless them for it. We are
actually trying to fix a little party
for the Chinese new year with them,
January 26 which should be fun. We had
a bunch of other great lessons and I met
some really cool people.

As for this upcoming transfer, we received
transfer calls this morning from our mission
president. As expected, my companion is
going to a small city in Switzerland called
Sion, which is literally translated as Zion,
and I will be staying here. I will be
getting Elder Waller who is actually coming
from Metz, France, my birth place. He is
going onto his 12th transfer, but it is his
first transfer as a zone leader. But he is
a way good missionary and I know I am going
to learn so much from him. He is way
obedient, really good at French, and
literally always happy. I am stoked.

This week will be pretty normal aside from
the changing of companions on Wednesday,
and also that I will be going to Grenoble
Wednesday night til Thursday to work on
becoming legal in France. I have to do a
medical visit, which is required in France,
so I will be there for a couple of days. It
is a great start to the year and I know
that 2009 will be the best year yet! I
loved your goal "to be happy" mom! That is
actually my goal as well! Good luck on that
and just remember that if your ever not
happy, change it. haha I don't know if that
makes sense, but that is what I am trying.

Dec.29,2008
Not to much has happened since I talked to
you last. It was a pretty good end to the
week. For Christmas night, after I got
off the phone with you, a couple of
Elders here in Lyon came over with some
"steaks" which were terrible haha, and we
ate and played a little game of risk. It
was fun, but it was nice to get back
focused on the work after the crazy week.
On Saturday night we attended a stake
single adult activity with one of our
amis and had chili and watched a little
talent show. It was a great time. We
actually had a great Sunday as well. We
ate with a young couple in the morning
and headed over to church all together and
then after church we went over to this way
French member from Paris's house with a
couple other single adults and had a way
good meal with sushi, jambon, lamb, and
rice and finished off of course with bread
and a tray of like 8 cheeses and this
desert they all eat at Christmas called a
buche (sp?) which is like an ice cream
roll cake. It was way good. And then
last night we stopped by an American
couple who are members here because they
wanted to give us a little bit of cheese
cake which was way good. So it was a way
good day.

This week was actually cold. Yesterday
morning it was way chilly and it snowed
a little bit on Friday morning, but
melted almost instantly. We don't really
have too much planned for this week. It
is the last week of the transfer so I am
pretty sure this is the last week with my
companion. He is really old in the
mission so he is probably going to a
little city for a couple of months to
'die.' I will let you know next week what
happens. I am pretty positive that I am
staying here in Lyon.

Dec. 24, 2008
I am so glad that everyone has arrived
safe and is all together. That makes me so
happy. Its like in "Into the Wild" when
Chris McCandles discovers at the end, that
the family truly is the most important
thing. I love you so much and I am so
grateful for all that you do.

To respond to some of your questions:
You mentioned you stopped people with you
trainer. Is that someone different than
your companion? hah, yes. My trainer
Elder Current is a missionary here in Lyon
as well. He isn't a zone leader but a
missionary in the suburbs of Lyon and he
was at the singing activity and he wanted
to go out contacting together. How did
your exchange with the AP's go this past
week? SO good. One of the AP's, the one
I did the exchange with, is the other
former snowboard instructor in the mission
and he even had his own long boarding
company before the mission! He is probably
the most rad missionary I know. How about
the half-mission conference? It was way
good. We talked a little bit about the
member lessons, but our mission president
said that is was really just for us to get
together, to celebrate Christmas as a family
and to talk about Christ. It was an amazing
experience. I got your letter you both wrote
me with your testimonies in them, and I can't
tell you how amazing of a Christmas present
that was to me. I think I cried for like 10
minutes, haha. But tears of joy. Thank you
soo much.

Speaking of presents, thank you again for the
12 days of a Christ centered Christmas; they
are amazing! I loved the statue. You know me
too well. I mailed you an envelope with
pictures and a CD with pictures on it over a
week ago. I hope you get them soon!

I am still playing the Harmonica, but not too
much. I just have no time. I have been really
busy, but its all good. I actually end up
just reading if I have any free time now.

For Christmas Eve we were going to go to a
families home, but they all got sick so
tonight we are going to the church to celebrate
with all of the single adults in the ward!
Tomorrow we are spending a bit of time with a
sweet family from Ghana; I love Africans!
Joyeux Noel!
Love,
Elder Clayton "Bubba" Welch

Caroling

2008-12-16T14:03:00.000-08:00

Salut Mere et Pere! Commet va tu?

This week was good.
I had two exchanges where
I worked outside of my area
which is always interesting
because I don't have total control.
But its good for me though to learn
how to follow as well as lead.
I worked in Gereland, which is
the southern part of the city of Lyon,
and in St. Etienne, which is about an
hour south by train and is a ville
consisting of about 60% Muslims,
which isn't bad, but when talking to
Muslims about the gospel you just
get the same responses like,
"of course God always called
prophets to deliver a message!"
me-"Exactly! So what wouldn't you
think it would be important to know that
there is a living prophet today?"
"No, no, no! Not possible!
Mohammed was the last prophet!"
You get that one every time.
There are many other cliché
responses such as "there can't
be a prophet. Look at all the wars!"
Me- "Mr., you know there were wars
during the time of Moses with their
captivity in Egypt, with Abraham
and the Assyrians, and even Mohamed
with all the conflicts in the
middle east during that time?"
"Umm... yeah.. still not possible!
Mohammed was the last prophet!"
But they are way nice though, honestly,
and are more open to talk then most
"Christians" so it is all good.
We did caroling in downtown Lyon
which was really fun and surprisingly
effective.

We had 10 missionaries carol the
last night of the Fete de Lumiere
where there were tons of people passing
by and then Friday night in Downtown
Lyon we had 10 missionaries and
2 members singing and then
myself and my trainer, who is
in Lyon but in a different Zone,
stopped people in front of the singing.
I couldn't believe how many people
stopped and listened to us!
Almost everyone!
It was so good!
Speaking of the "Fete de Lumiere,"
it was so amazing and we
need to come back and visit one of
these days! Lyon is so beautiful.

This week should be really good.
I have an exchange with the assistants
to the president here in Lyon on
Wednesday, they do that with the
zone leaders once a transfer,
and then we have a half mission
conference on Thursday here in Lyon
where it will be Christmas music
based along with the implementation of
this next years plan, "Member Lessons,"
where the members receive lessons
we have made.
I am very excited about it.
I hope you have a wonderful week

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Lyon Festival of Lights "Le fete de Lumiere"

2008-12-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

My week was great, thanks for asking.  And by the way,
I make a smoothie, with only fruit and juices, for
breakfast and dinner, so I am eating a lot healthier. 
Thank you so much for that.
But this week was great.  The work is a little different
as a zone leader, but it is still great. 
There are a lot more opportunities to serve which
I am very grateful for.  This last Tuesday I went to
Zone Leader Council in Geneva which was great.
I love hearing teachings from our mission president
and the assistants.  We drove down with the 1st
counselor in the Mission Presidency, Frere Mocelin,
who was just released as Lyon's Stake President
for 9 years and who was the First Counselor in the
Stake Presidency for 9 years before that.  He
is only 46 so he has spent half his life in the
stake presidency!  He is a spiritual giant! 
We spent the 3 hour trip there and back hearing
his stories about meeting different prophets and
apostles.  We had a zone conference and
interviews on Thursday where I taught on
Prayer which went really well actually. 
And then I had an exchange here with a
missionary who is Swiss.  It was a really
great week.  But actually, the best part of
the week is that it is "Le fete deLumiere,"
the festival of lights here in Lyon; the biggest
celebration of the year.  It went fro, last
Thursday until tonight and there are millions
of people here visiting for it.  All night there
is just music and light shows and we have
taken our dinner hours just going and
walking through it.  It is so amazing.
I WILL send you some pictures of it, haha.

Questions:
how many zones are there are in the mission? 9 

How far do you have to travel and how many
elders in your zone? 
8 Elders and 4 sisters.

That is interesting that the ward doesn’t meet in
a chapel. 
How many members are there in the 2 ward? 
about 90 people each week. 
There is a chapel in the suburbs of Lyon but
this is just the church for the city.

But all is well.  thank you so much for all you
do and for all the love and support. 
We set another baptismal date this week for
the 28th, so we will hopefully have two
baptisms on the 28th. 
They both look possible right now.
But thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. 


Elder Clayton H. Welch

(photos were not Elder Bubba's but some Patricia showed me on the internet as examples of the festival of Lights in Lyon.)

Lyon, France

2008-12-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

I am doing great!
My birthday and Thanksgiving were good. 
Thanksgiving we actually ate at a recent converts house
 and we had a huge wok full of vegetables! I
t was way good.  He is like a hippie teacher here so
it was a blast.  That's whats great about 
here, the people are sweet city folk. 
My birthday was good.  I went to church 
as usual, but my companion got really sick in
the middle so I left church early for the first time in my
mission and he slept while I cleaned the apartment 
because it was pretty gross when I got there. 
He got sick from the pizza we had from pizza hut for my
birthday the night before, haha.  It was stuffed crust but 
spicy stuffed crust.  He is better now so its all good. 
I opened your presents last night when he got up and
they were so good!  Thank you so much.  I am 
already using the pen, i am wearing the tie, and we
went shopping this morning and bought tons of fruit to
use in the blended!  I am stoked for it!  Thank you 
so much!
I will try to answer some of your questions though. Lyon?
I love it.  It is huge and I love big cities/ 
Where is he from:
Alpine Utah.
How long has he been out:
a year and 8 months.  He has had three french
companions and speaks way well!
Was he a football player: 
no, but he did ski tons which is cool.  He is a 
really nice guy. 
Do you think it will be a good companionship
and will be able to work well together? 
Yeah, he is a good leader and I am going to learn
tons from him.
What is your apartment like?  old, haha. 
Your address is Villeurbanne - is this a suburb?
Nope.  It is us two, and two sisters who have pretty much 
ALL of downtown Lyon. 
How far are you from the church? 
really close.  The church is actually not a chapel. 
It is a like in the city so its just in a 
building with businesses.
Will you take the subway most of the time?
Yup.  Everyday.  It was raining the other day so
we contacted people on the subway for 
like 3 hours/  It is really scary but fun. 
The weather: its cold.  I wear a coat, scarf,
and gloves all the time.
But the work is going well.  It will be a good transfer. 
I am going to learn a lot.  I am excited.
But thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. 
I do feel them and they do help.

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY ELDER BUBBA! <3

2008-11-30T17:35:00.000-08:00

WE LOVE YOU!

Zone Leader

2008-11-25T10:52:00.000-08:00

This week was pretty good.  In regards to your questions:
Do most Swiss travel via public transportation
or have their own cars?

Most people take trains everywhere.
But there are quite a few carsin the cities.
The bus system is very clean and very efficient.
Is it a social status to have a car there?  Yes.  
You know if someone is rich if they have a car.
And you know someone is really rich if they own
their own house.

So how is it going trying to find French 
speakers instead of German?   
It is going well.  After talking to my mission 
president about it we havedecided that any
time that both of us are trying to find people,
i.e. knocking doors or talking to people in
the road, we will do an exchange.
It has worked out really well and I have learned
a little German while doing it.
Nothing beyond a contact
about the gospel though.

Any success yet or is it too early to tell? 
There is a little success.  We had an ami come to
church, his name is Nimaga, and he will be asked
to be baptism this Wednesday.
I am almost positive he will be baptized by
the end of the year.

So now, the moment I know you have been waiting for:
Is Elder Welch staying or going?
Well, this morning we received calls and what
President Peterson said I was not expecting at all.
I am being transferred.  I am going to Lyon!
The biggest city in the mission to be in the highest
baptizingward in our mission.  Not only that
but I am going to be a zone leader. 
That is what was so shocking.  
I am only on my sixth transfer.  I am not going to lie.
I feel really inadequate for this calling.  As far as I know,
the next youngest missionary who is a zone leader in our
mission is on his 11th transfer.   I will be serving with
Elder Black though, who is a really good missionary
who speaks very well (he has had three
French companions). I think we will probably
speak French all the time.
But I really am nervous for this calling.  I know
"whom the Lord calls, he qualifies,"
but I still can't help but think that I am not ready.
But, all will be well.  Maybe just pray to give me
strength and patience during these next couple of weeks.
I really am not that worried, but it is just shocking for me.
I know I will be OK.
I am stoked to be in Lyon for Christmas.  
It is a way big city with a subway and everything.
I am stoked! My new address is:

  Elder Clayton H. Welch
  Les Missionnaires
  138, rue Dedieu
  F-69100 Villeurbanne
  FRANCE

But I will be going to Lyon on Wednesday.
Being a zone leader I will be going to Geneva 2 times
a transfer for "zone leader council" which will be a cool 
experience.This week I hit 9 months!
It crazy how fast time flies.
But I can't tell you how much fun I am having.  I have grown
so much and I know that I will grow 
enormously in the upcoming weeks.
But thanks for all of the birthday wishes.  I appreciate them.
I don't know what I have planned for thanksgiving, but I am sure
we will get a Turkey Sub or something.
As for a Christmas list, maybe just a new suit.
Mine are both still a little 
lose so I wouldn't mind a smaller french one.
But that wont be for a month or so.
What do YOU want for Christmas from France?
Thank you for all you do.  I am truly grateful for all that you do.

Your thankful son,
Elder Clayton H. Welch

Family

2008-11-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

I actually had one of the most low key weeks of my 
mission surprisingly so not to much to report on.
But I am still doing as great as ever.

My week, as previously alluded to, was pretty
uneventful aside from the usual missionary routine. 
I spent almost the whole week here in Bienne. 
I have changed the focus here from the missionaries
here in the past to working primarily in the city. 
Missionaries in the past worked in the smaller French 
only cities in Switzerland which I did my first transfer
here, but it is next to impossible to get members to
help that far away, and even harder to get these 
investigators to travel so far for church. 
So, we are toughing it out and sifting through the
German speakers here in Bienne.  It is a lot harder
but I feel that it is much more productive and we
will have more success in getting people to come
to church.  We are still teaching the Iraqi family and
they are great despite the HUGE language barrier. 
We have to teach so simply, but they love having us
over.  We got them to pray with us last night, and
will be giving the mother, who is pregnant, a
blessing due to an illness on Wed. night and then 
we will be eating with them.  They are great. 
They faced so many hardships in Iraq and had so
many crazy experiences!  They once had a bomb go off
by there house, leaving their oldest son unable to
walk for 6 months!  They are struggling here in
Switzerland, but they are so grateful and humble to
 have their family here together in safety. 
It makes you really realize what is 
important; Family.

We have interviews tomorrow with the mission president
which I am excited for.  He is a very wise and inspired man.
Next Monday is the start of the new transfer and I will know
if I am staying or going.  I am pretty sure I will be 
staying here with Elder Nelson though.

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Bu

Testimony of Obedience

2008-11-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

I am as well!  Everything here is going great and I love 
being a missionary so much!  This week was good.
A lot less traveling, but a nice relaxing week of focusing
on missionary work.  It was great.

That's great that you had daylight savings. 
I was surprised to find out that they 
do have it here, but it was a couple of weeks ago. 
Good old Benjamin Franklin 
and America influencing the rest of the world.


Oh man, it was so great to hear
that Obama won the election.
I was so stoked!  Everyone in Europe was so stoked and
that is all you see in papers and magazine 
covers.  I wish you could see how happy everyone
in the world is to see the progression we our finally
making in the world of acceptance.  I was actually at 
a less active members house the night of the
elections for her birthday.  She is African, as well as her
2 sisters and her brother in law who were there. They 
were so stoked to see that I was for Obama and
laughed for like 10 minutes when I pulled out the
Obama pin.  People just love him here.
I just hope he can help us out!

But as I alluded to, this week was pretty chill. 
We added a family from Iraq actually to our
teaching pool, so its great to finally be teaching
a full family.  The language barrier is hard though
because the parents speak Arab and 
little to no English and French, but the children,
there are 5, speak French.  It is fun none the less.
Last night we actually had a really great experience;
a real testimony builder for my companion and
I know it is helping him better understand the need for 
exact obedience.
We were knocking on peoples' doors at about 7,
and were in the area of a family of which are members,
though, the father is a less active.  We passed by and 
shared with them this great film, "Finding Happiness,"
its my favorite church film, its only 6 minutes and is
made just for Europe and is brand new.  We 
watched it and I bore testimony of the great "light"
God gives to us through prayer, scripture study, and
families and then invited them to share this video 
with a friend.  They said they would and when I asked
what we could do for their family, the wife said that
her husband, who was sitting right next to her was 
struggling.  I asked if he was sick and how we could help. 
She said, no, not sick, but struggling with the church. 
I offered to give him a blessing and then 
began to teach about my testimony in the church. 
As we talked I realized he had a problem with leaders
in the church and we began to talk about that.  As we the 
man struggled to express how he didn't feel the branch
president was called of God because of his disagreement
on certain topics, my companion did something I 
couldn't believe:  He began to talk about how when
he entered the mission field he thought that the rule
on music was ridiculous and that he could listen to 
whatever he wanted.  And on top of that, he said
that our Mission President had imposed further restrictions,
as to say that we can only listen to The Mormon 
Tabernacle Choir, and songs written over 100 years ago. 
He talked about how he didn't agree with that and for the
first 5 months of his mission he didn't follow 
this rule.  But then he said, "the last month, I have lived
this commandment, this commandment given to us by
a man inspired and called of by God, holding the 
keys to our mission and us as missionaries, and
I have felt the Spirit stronger more than I have ever felt
in my life.  I know that this man of called of God, 
just as I know that our branch president is called of God." 
It was so powerful.  He is gaining a testimony of obedience. 
It is so great to see.  I love being able to help him realize this.
This church is true.  I know it with all of heart, might,
mind, and strength.  Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God;
 the man on the earth, holding ALL the keys 
of the Kingdom of God.  I know this, and this knowledge is
something I am here to teach to all the world. 
This church is true.  The Book of Mormon is the word 
of God.  I love being a missionary and
I learn and grow so much everyday. 

Elder Clayton W.

A week of travels

2008-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

This week for me was nothing but going places.
Its good though.  I like to travel.
Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Granoble with
my companion and I finished up all
my paperwork and am just waiting for the
papers to come in the mail.  Granoble
was so nice and is such a beautiful city.
It is a lot like Salt Lake mountain
wise, but the architecture is much more ancient.
Thursday I had an exchange with the zone
leaders so I was in Yverdon, which is
actually a very pretty Swiss city.  I stayed the
night there and went to zone
conference on Friday which was soo good.
Its one of my favorite parts of being a  missionary;
the instruction we receive from inspired leaders.
Saturday I actually worked in Bienne, but not really.
I went to Moutier where we found a new ami who
is awesome.  She is a sweet 30 year women
from Gabon, and is dating one of our amis.
Then, we went to Tavannes, and met with a less
active and started teaching her husband.
Sunday, I went to Lausanne, which is such
an amazing city.  It is so beautiful and is the olympic
headquarters for the whole world!  Stake conference
was great, and yeah, it was in French.
Last night I actually came down to Geneva while
my companion went back with a different missionary
to Grenoble to finish up some legality stuff.  So right now
I am in Geneva which is amazing!  I think we are going
to some sweet castle on Lake Geneva later today with
the assistants to the president, but I am not sure.
I will let you know next week.
So this week was crazy.
I was in Bienne, Moutier, Tavannes, Yverdon,
Lausanne, and Geneva.
This week should be a little more chill which will be nice.
I can't tell you how much I love being a missionary.

Obedience

2008-10-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am so glad to hear that the football game
went so well on Tuesday!  It sounded like a
great game and Trey did great as usual. 
He is a stud.  And that is to bad about the
game on Saturday, but I am glad it was still 
a good game and that they went out with pride. 
I can't believe that we are both done with football. 
That is crazy.  I remember when all I cared about
was football, and girls I guess; haha. 
Although I still love both of those things, it is
interesting to see how the importance of things
in our lives change as we mature, and how our
retrospect alters when we have a better
understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
I can honestly say that I know that the most
important things in life are Family, Church, and
Education.  I am so excited to get back 
involved with the first and latter.  I think
I will look at schooling in a whole 
different light when I return and will try
a lot harder.  Never thought you 
would hear me say that, did you?

I can not believe I am 8 months done with
my mission today.  I can't tell you how crazy
that is.  I feel like I just got here. 
I have grown so much though and I am
excited to see my personal growth and change
in the upcoming 16 months. This week was
pretty mundane (sp?) to say the least. 
Sorry about all the spelling errors. 
The French language kills your spelling. 
No one here can spell their own language
because you only pronounce half of the words. 
But this week was good, but nothing too out
of the ordinary.  We found 4 new investigators
this week which was great.  Two of them are
here on business from Ghana for the next 
three months and are really excited to find
out if "the stick of Judah, and the 
stick of Ephraim"/the Bible and the Book of Mormon
really do strengthen our 
testimony's in both and in our understanding
and belief of Jesus Christ.  I really feel they
have the faith necessary to receive an answer
and am excited to share in this experience with them.
One of the others was a man named Franky 
who we actually met by asking him where he
got this sweet coat he was wearing.  The fourth
new ami we found is probably the weakest,
but the story is a miracle in itself.    We were working and we had
just had to people bail on us for rendez-vous. 
He started to get frustrated and wanted to go in
for the night because he felt like he was doing
no good as a missionary.  It was 8 o'clock and
we still had another hour of work before we
should have gone inside.  There was no one
really on the streets and he felt that it was 
pointless just to walk around for an hour. 
I told him that I knew that God had prepared
someone for us that night and that through
obedience, we would find him/her.
I told him that we would keep working
and we would contact every single person
that passed.  Well, the first person we passed,
we stopped and asked him if we could talk
about the gospel of Jesus Christ to him. 
He said he had just got off work and was
headed home.  I told him that's great and if he 
wouldn't mind, we would love to go back to his
place and teach him about the restoration of
the gospel of Jesus Christ for about 15 or
20 minutes.  He said yes!  We went to his place
and taught him about the restoration and
have an appointment for this Thursday. 
I know that we found this man, Asefaw,
thanks to obedience and listening to the
promptings of the spirit!  It was a huge help for
my companion and we both learned a lot
from the experience.  I love how blessed 
we can be through listening to the spirit
and following the commandments we have 
been given!

This should be a great week.  We have
 district meeting tomorrow in Neuchatel, 
one of the most beautiful cities ever. 
Then we are going to Granoble, France 
Tuesday night and Wednesday to do
some French legality.  Then we have an 
exchange with the zone leaders so I will
be in Yverdon on Thursday, and then we 
have Zone Conference in Lausanne on Friday. 
And then we have stake conference 
on Sunday in Lausanne again.  It will be
a crazy week and i will be all over 
Europe, but it will be fun! 
I am excited to eat another French paticerie (sp?) 
and receive counsel from the mission president!

Elder Bubba

Cultural Night

2008-10-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

 I am doing so well!
As for the questions:

How is your new companion, Elder Nelson?
He is sweet.  We actually have things 
in common and he is probably one of the 
most likable missionaries in the mission.
He is rad.
Where is he from and how long has he been out? 
He is from Lehi, Utah.  He has been out for just
over 6 months.  He is one transfer younger then me. 
I am his third companion.
Do you have anything in common? 
Yeah, he played football in high school and he likes
to snowboard.
Were you able to reschedule any of the appointments
and did the amis show up? 
A couple but I am really trying my hardest to find the
"elect," those whom God has already prepared, and
I don't feel that we have found anyone who could be 
baptized this transfer.
Did you have your cultural night with the branch
yet and did they like the Special K bars?  Yes! 
They LOVED them. 
Thank you so much mom for making them!  
I had a couple of people who asked me for the recipe,
so if you wouldn't mind sending it, I wouldn't mind
it to much either!
Have you seen any impact to the world falling
markets in Switzerland?
Honestly, not really.  People haven't really talked
about it much.  I know there was a 
pretty big hit last week though. 
But everyone still seems pretty chill as usual.
Have I gotten sick/health? Not really. 
There have been two nonconsecutive days 
where I had a runny nose but that's it. 
I drink a lot of this multi-fruit drink 
and I am taking a vitamin everyday.
So this week was good.  We unfortunately
had several other lessons fall, but we 
were able to find three new amis. 
It was sweet!  The cultural night was way fun 
and it was cool to "hang out" with the ward. 
Church was good.  The stake president was
there and he is way cool.  I taught the priesthood
lesson again and I gave a 15 minute talk on how
we need the members help to achieve a couple 
of goals we set for the end of the year, and
how they corresponded perfectly 
with the branch goal they set for the end of the year.
Now we are just talking about ways we 
can better follow the rules and be "exactly obedient"
to better have the spirit 
with us in our companion study. 

Have a great week 
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

A new companion

2008-10-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Whats up?  Nothing much here.

This week was the last week of the transfer 
so we received transfer calls this 
morning.  I will be staying in Bienne, 
but I will be receiving a new companion:  
Elder Nelson.  He is a way sweet elder 
from what I hear.  I am now going to be 
senior companion so I am excited for 
this new adventure. 
This will be a fun transfer.
 
Nothing to crazy happened this week.  
We were supposed to add 7 new amis but 6 
of them fell through with was disappointing.  
We were able to reschedule some of 
them and this should be a much better week.

That's great that you were able to go to 
stake conference Mom.  I went to one in 
Nancy my first transfer, and we will have 
the Laussanne Stake conference on the 
second of November I believe.

As for my birthday present I have actually 
thought of something I may want.  I 
think the money will be best used as a 
donation to someone in more need but I 
have been thinking about how great one 
of those "magic bullets" would be so I 
could make smoothies and stuff for breakfast 
and be more happy.  I don't know how 
much those cost but if not to much maybe 
that and a smoothie book or something.  
But that is not a need, so don't worry about it.

I hope you have a great week and 
I will have more to say next week!
Elder Clayton H. Welch

Exchange week

2008-10-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, this week has flown by.

As to the questions you posed pops:
What was your favorite kind of chocolate?  
haha, tough question.  I actually am not a
huge fan of chocolate, I am surprised 
you didn't know that.  I think Mom knows that.
But it actually was way good.  I have actually
grown to really like it on my mission.  I like any
chocolate with nuts in it, preferably almonds.
But, there was this one chocolate called "air 
chocolate;"  haha, it was pretty good.
Strange, but good.  It was just kind of bubbly.

So how far away are Brul and Yverdon from Bienne?
About 30 some minutes on train to Yverdon and
an hour in the car to Brul.  We rode in the car with the 
zone leaders because they have one.  It isn't that far
away but you have to go like around lakes and
find interstates.

What are the rest of the missionaries in your zone like? 
Here is the line up.  
Elder Hamilton: One of the two zone leaders.
Biggest kid in mission.  Football player from California
and that is all we talk about.  haha, he is one of my 
favorite people in the mission.  He is actually 24 and
already graduated from college at BYU and getting
married a month after he gets home.
Elder Cook:  Other zone leader.  He is pretty cool.
He talks like Napoleon Dynamite a lot, haha.
Elder Rennick.  He is in neuchatel and is one of my
favorite missionaries in the mission. He is about to go
home but he is from California and was on the 
us national cycling team (juniors, under 25).
He is the man.
Elder Buhinin:  my age in the mission.
He is way good at the piano.
Elder  :  Kind of feminine but way nice.
Elder Schmidt:  Don't really know him to well.  and my 
companion Elder Barber who likes cartoons and
stuff like that. haha, but he is still pretty cool.

What is raclet?
The greatest thing ever!  Oh man!  Ask Patty for further 
enlightenment, but it is potatoes boiled and smashed up,
and then you have cheese that you cook in a raclet cooker
that you put on the potatoes and then put some cooked
salami or other meet on top.  That and fondue are
really big in Switzerland, though, I have yet to have fondue.

Did you get a chance to watch or listen to all of conference?
If so, what was your favorite talk?   All but the Sunday
afternoonsession.  It was soo good!  I LOVE conference.
I loved Elder Wirthlin's talk, especially when he talked about 
his daughter's blind date;  probably one of the funniest things
I have ever heard in my life.  But they were all way good.

How are the potential amis coming?
Do you still call them amis in Switzerland also?
Yes, they are still called amis.  Oh man, I don't know.
It has been a crazy week here, but this week I hope
to find a couple way solid amis and help 
some of our current amis to become solid.

But this week was crazy.
I was actually only in Bienne for 2 days.  I was in 
Brul Monday, Yverdon Tuesday for the exchange,
I went to Neuchatel on Wednesday for an exchange
with Elder Renick because both of our companions
had legality to do in Lyon, and was in Bienne on Friday,
and then Neuchatel again on Saturday and Sunday to
watch conference!  I honestly didn't feel like I did
much work here in Bienne, but I did do work other
places I guess.  But it was still a good week.
I love to travel so that was alright with me.
And I am just like you mom, I love the scenery on trains,
especially through the Swiss hills and mountains.

As for my birthday and Christmas, no worries.
My mission is my presents.
If you don't want to count that, the coat I bought today,
with a pair of gloves, can count as my presents.
And if you still aren't happy, I think that there is a
charity or 2,you could maybe donate to in my behalf.
But I will think about which ones if you like
or if there is something I need.
But have a great week and keep being you! 

Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Swiss Chocolate

2008-10-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

I  am actually in Yverdon Switzerland 
right now for an exchange here the next few days
and also to go to a chocolate factory for preparation day.
haha, yes, that was my preparation day today.  As a 
zone, all 8 of us missionaries went to the Nestlé
chocolate factory in Brul (sp?) right next to Fribourg.
Travel time didn't allow for a whole bunch of 
time there but we were still able to take the tour
and you will not believe it but at the end of the FREE tour,
all of it was free, there was all you could eat 
FREE Swiss chocolate, fresh... oh my goodness.
It was like heaven in my mouth.  
We will definitely make that a destination on our travels
if we decide to come back.  But it was a really great day.
I will try to send you some Swiss chocolate soon. 

Sorry I am not the best at answering questions.
It is much easier for me to answer them if you put them
in like a question format, haha, sorry, its just hard to go
back an forth.  But here are some of the question you
asked and some responses.

Are you still driving or just public transportation?
Public transportation.  I am probably on a train at least
one hour every day going through the amazing 
suisse countryside.

How many members and is it a ward or branch?
There is a German speaking ward which i believe is big,
but the french speaking branch has probably 20 members 
with 10 couple missionaries.  That is because the suisse
temple is in Zolikhofen (sp?), just 20 minutes away,
so the french temple workers go to our branch.  But 
the branch is great.

Do you do much door knocking or are the members providing
enough contacts to teach?
I do a lot of street contacts, visiting former investigators,
and some doors.  I prefer to talk to people in the street
although my companion doesn't.  
Door knocking is easier, but I just feel stopping people
in the busy streets is a lot more effective.

What’s the food like and do you get many dinners with
member families or mostly cooking on your own.
I actually ate with 3 members this last week!  haha, the 
first three since I have been here.  But they were way good!
We eat raclet every district meetings every Tuesday
which is WAY good!

Is the scenery different – it looks like it is colder there than in Metz?  
completely The scenery is way different.  Switzerland and
France are different.  I think I prefer Switzerland, but cities are
just really small.  I like big cities.  But it has been cold,
but when I wear a sweater and a suit jacket its 
great.  They didn't have my size in the jacket I wanted
so i had them order it so I should be getting it this week.
Thank you for that.

But everything is way great!  I love being a missionary.
It is a really kind of surreal to me, but its a great opportunity. 

The branch here is having a "cultural night" and want me to 
talk about Minnesota.  Could you maybe make me a bunch of special k bars.
Thanks again for all that you do and cheer Trey on for me at
the Homecoming 
coronation and game!
Your Eternal Loving Son,
Elder Bubba

Getting colder

2008-09-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

Salut
Commet va tu? 


Trey's football game sounded like it was really fun and I am glad to
hear that they are already off to another great year.  Do you know
if they are ranked in the state or not?  That's funny that Trey played
with his helmet off; its funny that that happened to both of us!
Its good though, it makes a good story to tell.  Well worth a fat lip. 
I always hated doing those autographs after the game though, haha.

Everything here is going very well.  Switzerland is so much different
than France!  I love them both but I think I like Switzerland better
though.  The people are a little more closed surprisingly, but the
country is just so beautiful and the people are just so great
when you get to know them.It actually has been cold the last week. 
It was crazy.  It was hot one day, making it necessary to wear
just a short sleeve shirt, and then the very next day it was cold
enough for a sweater and a suit jacket.  Its crazy
how fast the temperature can change but I like the cold so it is good. 
I think I am going to go and buy that coat from C&A, a British store
I really like, after I finish my emails.  It is 100 francs, so just under
a 100 dollars. 

Right now we have one baptismal date which has been changed to
the 12th because of our inability to get him to church.  We are
working really hard on changing that and hopefully we can hit
our goal of having the baptism on the 12th.We are adding a lot of
new amis, and I am trying my best to do the Lord's work to 
the best of my abilities.  As a person I fall short, but with the
Lord's help I know I can find those people whom he has prepared.

 I am currently serving with Elder Barber for a reason, and 
that reason may very well be that I need to step up my French and
be a leader as a missionary.  He is just so different from my other
two companions, but I know another attribute I am gaining from him
is patience which will be very beneficial in the future. 
But he really is a great missionary and I hope to see the good work
bring us closer together.

I met the sweetest guy yesterday.  He started yelling at us from his
window and when I asked him what he does for work he invited us
up and he ended up being this sweet surrealist painter!  He was so rad! 
We talked for a long time and although he isn't to interested in the
gospel he gave me one of his sketches for free; it is of him after leaving
the Vietnam war with just his backpack and the mountains in the
background.  It kind of reminds me of the little adventure I am 
on now.  I will try to send you a picture of it.  

I really am happy and I do love doing this work.

I am glad you enjoyed the 
pictures and I think I might send that card home here in a couple
of weeks.  It is filled up.  I already have the 2 gb card you sent me
pops so no worries about buying another.


Elder Clayton H. Welch

Finally Missionary Pictures!

2008-09-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Asst. to the Pres. Elder Greaves and Elder Bubba
(PV friends)

The Church in Metz, France.
"The most beautiful church I have ever seen inside."

"A picture I took from a bridge in Metz.
It has only been changes into black and white.
It is really is this beautiful.
Oh not to mention the best
kebab place in the world, "Colo Kebab"
is just down the road where you can get
a kebab, fries and coke for just 5 euros!"

His testimony

BARACK THE VOTE!
"Headline on top, "How He changes America."
"Barack and me chilling in Metz."

"Me eating the infamous Coco Kebab on one of our balconies in Metz, France."

"Myself and Elder McKnight. My first baptism."

"The greatest family ever after ours of course. They were baptized Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008."
In Metz, France.

Gospel Brings Happiness

2008-09-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

I am so grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of God, 
and the role of Jesus Christ in this plan.  I know 
with all my heart and mind that this gospel is true.  
This gospel is something that brings happiness when 
nothing seems right.  I can't even tell you how much 
this gospel brings to my life.  If you ever feel down, 
study the atonement.  We will all live again because 
of our older brother Jesus, the Christ.  Be strong.  
Your examples will bring so many unto Christ. 
  
This week was good.  Both of our baptismal dates have 
been pushed back to the 5th, so hopefully we can better
prepare them.  The Piguet family was baptized on Saturday 
and it is so amazing to know that they will be blessed 
because of their decision. Yeah, my companion is a lot 
different than me.  Thank you for your words of 
encouragement.  I know that we are here together for 
a reason.  And I can't tell you how much better my 
French has gotten in the last week.  I don't know 
how our why.  I taught the lesson in Priesthood on 
Sunday on the plan of salvation and the revelation 
of Joseph Smith to a bunch of really smart Swiss French men 
and it was perfect!  Its crazy how much the Lord helps us.


I bought a sweater today because it is getting cold and 
I found a jacket I want to buy that's only 100 francs, 
very very cheap for Switzerland. Its under 100 dollars, 
so I think i will get that this next preparation day.  
I pulled out money the other day for Swiss legality.    
I am truly blessed.
 
Elder Clayton Henderson Welch

Qoui de neuf?

2008-09-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Qoui de neuf?  Whats up?  Thank you as usual for your great emails!
I loved them! Before I write to much sorry for any typing errors.
I am used to the key boards in France and the ones here are German.
It is actually just like the American keyboard, but just has the y and
z switched. But it is still way hard! 

Bienne is great!  The language barrier really doesn´t exist:  Everyone
seems to speak either French or English.  But it is way nice to
be in Switzerland.  It is such a beautiful country and everything
seems to be run very well, although, everything is very expensive. 
I did pull out 50 francs today to buy post cards and stamps and
I may have to use some personal money for trains this week 
because I have to get my train tickets reimbursed each week,
and I had to buy a "demi-carte" which allows me to get half off
on all trains in Switzerland.  We take trains a lot, probably every
day for about 20 minutes because it is a lot 
easier to do work in a little ville that is actually French. 
That is because 
for the most part the little towns outside of Bienne/Biel are either
one or the other.

Yeah, my companion is pretty sweet.  He is a lot different than me,
but that is good.  He has been out for a little over a year. 
I am not going to lie, he is really quite and kind of into animation
cartoons. I do feel like the senior companion and do most of the
talking.  Its good for me though. it will help me out in the long run. 
I really do like being the one pretty much in charge, 
but that probably isn´t always good.The work here is already
going great!  They already had a baptismal date set 
when I got here, but that one is pretty week because
he doesn´t come to church.  But actually, last week, like my
second day here, a man started talking to use 
in the gare, train station, and said he had talked with
missionaries in the past but was unable to be baptised
because he was living with his girlfriend.  He is 
from the country Georgia, and that was actually 8 years ago. 
We have been teaching him all week and we actually fixed
a date for baptism for him on the 28th of this month! 
His name is Emil and he is a great man.  It is amazing the 
many miracles I see each day.  I love being a missionary.

Elder Clayton H. Welch

ps.  I am mailing you some pictures today!

Transfered

2008-09-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, we still have the car here, but we travel by train to Nancy
and Luxembourg.  I go to Nancy at least once a week which is
an hour train ride.  There are 8 missionaries there when we
play football.  I wasn't to sore this time which was nice.

Luxembourg was sweet!  It was just like being in America.
I cant even explain how sweet of a country it was.   
We will have to go there when we all come back.

So now, the big news.  We received transfer
calls this morningfrom President and
I am being transfered.
I am going to Bienne, Switzerland!  I am stoked.
I  will be serving with Elder Barber who I here is the
funniest missionary in our mission.  I am stoked.
I am not going to lie, it is very hard going two  
transfers with the same companion.
3 months of somebody
literally every second of the day.

But Bienne sounds sweet.  It actually is in our mission
and the  Zurich Mission.  About 60% of the people
speak Swiss Germanwhile the other 40% speak French.
It will be hard, but good.
We go on transfers all the time supposedly
with the other mission
and do porting(door to door) and contacting.   
I am very excited for this new adventure.

My new address is:
Elder Clayton H. Welch
Les Missionaires 
Madretschstrasse 122
CH-2503 Bienne 
SWITZERLAND

I think that is it, but I am not sure.
You should probably just mail stuff to  the mission home
if you do for this next week. I don't know if I will be able
to come back for the baptism,
though I hope I do.  It is on the 13th though.

I only had 30 minutes this week though because
this place is closing,
so I didn't get a chance to respond to anyone.
Tell everyone I say hey and that I hope
all is well.  Tell Trey I said great job.

Elder Clayton H. Welch

Walking to Church

2008-08-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

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