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Founders of Namify in Springville called as mission presidents in Ecuador

By Sarah Hunt - | Jan 31, 2023
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Bryan and Jenny Welton will be mission presidents to 200 young missionaries in Quito, Ecuador, starting July 1, 2023.
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This undated photo shows the Namify headquarters in Springville.

On Jan. 6, the newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announced Springville residents and entrepreneurs Jenny and Bryan Welton as the new presidents of the Quito, Ecuador, mission. Starting July 1, they will leave behind their home and business to preside over the mission’s 200 emissaries for the next three years.

The Weltons are the founders of Namify. While they are serving, company CEO Chris Jensen will take over Bryan’s responsibilities as head chairman. Namify is a Springville-based company that produces customized name tags, banners, apparel and more for companies to help their employees connect on a human level.

“The team does a really great job with helping companies to help their people feel included. … Yes, we’re in the corporate swag space. But really, we’re in the space of people connecting to other people. … Namify has been an amazing support for us, and also a great training ground for working with (and connecting) people,” Bryan Welton said.

The couple related this concept of human connection to the work they will be doing on their mission, describing their main duties as “to help guide the work and the efforts. But really, it’s the missionaries that are there connecting people to Christ, and we’re just there to support them and help them where we can.”

One of the couple’s main duties is to preside over the spiritual, organizational and human aspects of missionary work in the Quito mission. The Weltons will meet with stake presidents, who are local church leaders, to help facilitate relationships between missionaries and members of the congregations, who assist in teaching new church members the doctrine of the faith.

Across the mission, the couple will be connecting with and welcoming new members to the church at their baptisms, alongside the missionaries who taught them. Every six weeks, they will visit and teach all the missionaries in small and big groups — called districts and zones — in every area of the mission.

The Weltons’ other equally important responsibility is to support the missionaries, so they can teach to the best of their ability. This means overseeing their physical, mental and emotional health and ensuring they get the proper care they need from mission doctors.

For many young missionaries, this is their first time living away from home. The Weltons and other mission leaders will help ensure that missionaries learn necessary life skills, such as how to be independent and emotionally resilient, how to take care of their apartment and cook for themselves, and how to resolve conflicts and maintain good relationships with their companions.

Although these matters add up to a very busy schedule, the Weltons expressed their excitement to see all the good that comes from it.

“We hear (from fellow mission presidents) about the beauty of divine intervention, angels around you, the connection to the (Holy) Spirit and (the) connections made when helping people forge ahead in faith,” Bryan Welton said.

“What I’m most excited about is just that expansion of (our) love (toward the people in the mission). When we were getting ready to have a second child, I thought, ‘How can I ever love another child as much as I love this child? My love will be cut in half.’ But I found it was the opposite. Every time your family grows, your love multiplies. It doesn’t divide. As you open up your heart, your mind and your arms to others, you realize there’s room for everyone,” Jenny Welton said.

“Bryan and Jenny have always been very mindful of operations here and to make sure we can continue to focus on the principles of good quality work and taking care of people,” said Brad Gasaway, Namify’s vice president of marketing. “As a business, it seems like such a cool opportunity to share that kind of leadership with a different part of the world. So if anything, we’re just so proud of Bryan and Jenny. I don’t know their future, but based on our experience, we just know it’s going to be great.

“And this is why we go to work, right? We go to work so that we can provide for our families and then actually do something to have an impact on the world. And this is going to have a big, positive impact on that part of the world.”

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