Surprise transfer to Kennedy!

Well family!!! 

    How are you all doing.  Things here are just going along swimmingly... Well, let me take that back!!  Actually this week has been crazy!!! On Tuesday, when we were in our district meeting, our zone leaders got a call and left the room.  When they came back into the room they stopped the district meeting that we were having and said,  "We have to stop the meeting!"  We all looked at them in silence and they turned to me and told me that I had to go home and pack my bags because I have transfers... 

    WHYYYYYYY???????????????  I asked them if they were serious like three times and yes they were definitely serious.  So I went home and packed my bags in an hour and a half (Which is record timing and a miracle) and then we went back to Manta and got in a bus and traveled for three hours until we got to Guayaquil.  When we got to Guayaquil the assistants came to me and told me that I would be opening an area in the Kennedy and that I would also be training....

Me and all my bags!
It is kind of embarrassing how many things I have.
I worked out a sweat organizing everything and packing it all!

      The Kennedy is one of the hardest zones in the mission and I am in the same zone as those who are in the office and the assistants are in my zone as well... And on top of all that I have to train a new sister missionary...... Brrriiing me my brown pants!!!! *

   I went to the new house where I will be living and the companionship that is living in the house showed me around the area a little bit... But they were too worried about writing letters to their recent converts and the members and so they didn't have time to show me very much of the area... I was just a little ticked off... But it`s okay.  I will live.  Well the whole night I couldn`t sleep and my poor companion has to go back to Jaramijo with a companion who doesn`t speak practically any Spanish... So she is pretty sad... But she will live.  

 

My old companion, Hermana Perez with a note on her forehead that says:
"NO TO THE STEPMOTHERS!!!"
Training a new missionary takes 12 weeks and we were only together for six weeks,
so Hermana Perez will finish her training with a "stepmother."

    The next day I had to go to a reunion to receive my new companion.  As I was in the reunion I saw my old companion... The one I trained, Hermana Peralta and this will be her second time training!  I am so proud of her... She really has come a long way.  As we were conversing, in walked the new missionaries... There were five Americans and three Latinas.... I smiled at all of them and then one of the gringas looked at me and gasped and said, "I read your blog!!!"  .... WHAT???? I then said,  "Well this is a little embarrassing!" and she replied, "No it`s a great blog... I read it every week!"  I don`t know how she found my blog because she lives in Florida.  But she seems like a great missionary  (because she reads my blog!! haha!)  who is ready to go to work!

Me and my old companion (in the white blouse) Hermana Peralta.
We are in the terminal with our 'daughters.'  The 'family tree' of my mission.
My two 'daughters' Hermana Perez and Hermana Peralta and my 'granddaughter'...
I don't remember her name!  I am a terrible 'grandmother!'

My new companion, Hermana Orihuela, the third sister that I will train in the mission
(on the right) and Hermana Peralta and her new companion.

   
    Then we had our reunion with the president and he talked alot about how we should act when we are on the mission.  He talked about the rules and things we should expect.  He then talked about when we end the mission.  He took off his tag and held it up in the air.  He then said you are living on a higher plain now than when you go home.  But that doesn`t mean that you should live at a lower level when you go home.  

   He then talked about how wearing the badge makes us different.  He said he has seen missionaries when they have the badges and right when they take them off.  He mentioned that he can practically see the difference and he can definitely feel the difference!  I just started crying when he was speaking because it`s true!!! I feel like I am a different person now than I was before I had the badge.  I am so glad to be a missionary and especially in this great dispensation....

    Speaking of being a missionary... How about that devotional last night?... I hope it is recorded somewhere because I want to watch it again and again and again... I just started crying when I saw ALL THOSE MISSIONARIES in the choir.  If that isn`t impressive I don`t know what is... I am so happy that the first presidency talked about how the members can help us in the work... I am in a new area and we need so much help from the members right now... Everyone has big fancy gates around their houses with electric wires on the top and when we ring their door bells there is no way that they will let us in. They usually just hang up on us right after we present ourselves...

   I miss Jaramijo, but we are going to keep working hard here in Kennedy!!! I have got to go but I love you all so much and I hope that you all are doing really really well!!!! I know that this Church is true and I am so grateful to be a part of it!!!

Love you all more than I miss you!  

Love Hermana Welch #1 (Jess)

*  brrrring me my brown pants refers to an old pirate joke!  

 Cindy Welch, mother and current editor of the 'blog'