Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas from Mexico

Raini departs the MTC on Monday! She'll be back in the States and we can send her letters and packages with a normal delivery time! Yay! We have a big box we are filling each day to send. We missed her so much on Christmas. 

This was the card her teacher sent to all the families of the missionaries on Christmas Eve...it's her MTC district...all American kids going on missions all over the Spanish-speaking world.

But here is her letter she was able to write on Christmas Day:

Hola,

so, today is christmas!! this is so weird that i am in Mexico and on a mission..and it's christmas!! its all just so crazy. haha but it honestly has been one of the biggest blessings I think to be here in the CCM on christmas. They have helped us remember the TRUE meaning of christmas. Usually I am so caught up in the hustle and bustle of getting presents for people and stuff. But this year we really have just been focusing and talking about why this day is so incredibly important! The other night me and my district went around and shared our families christmas traditions and told some fun stories.. then yesterday night i was in charge of the district devo and we went around and read the first part of Luke chapter 2 like we do every year as a family, and then we all talked about and shared our favorite part about the christmas story and christs birth or our favorite thing about our savior and what he has done for us through his atonement. It was really cool.. I love to read and talk about the amazing life that Jesus Christ lived. To read Isaiah 53:3-5 and think that he came to this earth knowing that his purpose was to live and die for us and when he came he was so rejected of his own people and then they killed him in the worst way possible.. and he did it willingly, and gave it up to the Father because he knew it had to be done in order for us to over come our sins and death.  Some of my new favorite scriptures are in 3 Nephi 11-17 where christ comes to the americas and has the people all come to him and touch his scars in his hands and his sides.. It makes me so excited to think that that is what we will get to do one day. And even though he has a perfected body, he still has those scars because his atonement is infinite for us. I am just so grateful for Christ and so grateful for this day that the entire world celebrates his birth because honestly even though we all give eachother gifts and stuff, we on this day have been given the greatest gift possible. Our Savior, Lord, and King. Our Redeemer and Advocate. I love him so much. 

I learned a lot of new things this week in about the symbolism of so many different things in the birth of christ. Such as: bethlehem means house of bread, and the Savior a.k.a. the bread and life of the world was born there. Also when he was born he was laid in a manger a.k.a. a feeding trough.. And again, he is the water and bread of life. Another one was the fact that shepards were there to see him be born and the main job of a shepard is to care for young lambs and stuff, and he is the Lamb of God. I dont know, i guess i probably have heard this all before, but i found it really interesting and cool. 

Hmm.. what else to tell you?! I am starting to really freak out because I am going to the mission field in 4 days. 4 DAYS!!!!!!!!! what the heck!! I am so incredibly excited to finally teach real people. man. Its gonna be great. As for the weather.. im a bit scared because i was freezing today and it was like the high for where i am going was the low this morning. woo. haha

Right now its really interesting, there are no latinos in the MTC! and we have been the oldest group of missionaries here now for the past week and a half. I realized i havent ever told you really about how the language and stuff is here.. Our whole zone is american. Majority of the people here are american. so there is actually a lot of english spoken here.. our teachers are all mexican and speak english too.. but not really really well..just enough to understand us when we dont know how to say things haha. But yeah.. all of our church meetings on Sundays are in English even! except for Sacrament Meeting. I had to give a 5-min. talk last week ALL in spanish!! it went pretty well, i guess.

  

well.. I love you guys so much. and if i think about it too much I get really sad that i am not there with you guys for christmas but i am so glad to be here and to have all my focus on the true meaning of christmas. I love this gospel and I am so pumped to get out to the field. 

Talk to you again tomorrow. 

Have a wonderful day and dont forget to remember the real meaning of this wonderful holiday. I love you sooooo much. 

con mucho amor,

Hermana Weller

This is Raini's "new" zone at the MTC as of last week.

These are the snowflakes she mentioned last week that they had a contest to create the best one! haha

This is her district...she's the only one going to NC, by the way.

Her district, acting funny..."pretty much sums up my MTC district", she says

Her companion made these stockings out of paper for each of them!! How cute, and a relative of hers sent one of the candy bar packages so she could disperse them to everyone! How nice, huh!