Week #4 in NC

Hola Familia! (y mis amigos)
How is everything going? It seems that everyone is going to the Gilbert temple! How great that you guys (mom and dad) were ushers at the temple:) that is incredible. Such a great thing to be happening there, helping the missionary work there progress!

Well, I realized the past few weeks I have been telling you literally every detail of anyone we visited!! ..haha What I'm learning is that as sad as it is, week to week we tend to lose some of our teaching pool for different reasons like. Some people decide that they aren't actually interested, I guess. So. I am going to try and cut down on the stories this week!

Okay. This week we got a media referral which comes from church headquarters. This happens when someone goes on mormon.org and requests something from the Church, like a Bible, a Book of Mormon, a video, or a missionary visit to learn more.

So, we went to find the people who had requested a missionary visit, and the lady was a bit confused why we were there haha! We explained she must have been on the mormon.org page and requested something. She said, "Oh yeah! We just started trying to go back to church, but we don't have a Bible." We gave them a Bible and a Book of Mormon. We also shared a scripture with them from the Book of Mormon and introduced its history and purpose to them. We asked them to commit to read a chapter before the next time we come visit. They said they would read it! We left soo excited! They are SO ready for the gospel. Everything was just perfect. So, we went back a few days later and brought a member with us. We taught about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was SO POWERFUL. It was so good.. the Spirit was super strong. The wife kept saying that it made so much sense.. what we were teaching about prophets and stuff. But the wasn't interacting much or really talking at all. We tried asking him more questions to just him, but he wouldn't really answer us. When we left, they said they would read more together from the Book of Mormon (or listen to it from lds.org, they like to do that, too) They also said they would come to church!

But then THE HARDEST DAY OF MY MISSION SO FAR came on Sat. night when they texted us and told us that it's best if they just stick with what they already know and are comfortable with. I WAS DEVASTATED. Seriously, that was the hardest day of my mission so far because we had such a good lesson with them and she seemed SO ready. But then they said, "Thanks, but no thanks." So sad. But, people have their agency...

Ok. Funny story.. But also actually a really good experience. We haven't been getting fed that much by the members.. The elders have meals like every single day every meal of the day! And we have 2 MAYBE 3 meals a week. So we told the ______ family (my adopted abuelitos) that we don't have dinner very much and so they said, "Well come and eat at our house sometime this week!" We said, "Alright!" So they called us Friday morning and said that we could come for dinner that evening. But, we had an appointment set up for 6:30 So, we thought we could call them and ask to push it back to 7pm so that we could have dinner first. They were fine with that and we went to the _____'s for dinner. We planned to visit the other family later that evening. When we went to leave their house, my companion, Sis. Moore, couldn't find the keys to our car! This was the night that it was 16 degrees outside!! ok. So it was freezing. We are standing outside and she dumps her purse out! We couldn't find the keys anywhere! Then she realized she had locked them in the car! Something she would NEVER normally do. We had to call the mission office and then wait for someone to get back to us with the spare key to open the car. Of course, this ALSO meant that we had to cancel (yet again) with the other family for our appointment. We felt SOO bad. But, we began to realize that there was undoubtedly something that we were being protected from. For some reason, this was the second time that something prevented us to meet with this family. We still don't know why.. either something on the way there we were being protected from or whatever...?? We don't really know. But, we know that the Lord did everything He could to make it so we didn't go over there.. and I am so grateful for His love and protection. We had so much fun while we waited at the ____'s house for the key. They have puppies and I got to hold one of them!! We aren't allowed to hold babies but nothing says I can't hold puppies!! haha We could have been really annoyed or upset that we weren't able to go to our appointment, but we realized it was truly a blessing.

Also this week, we visited with Sister ______ and Brother _____ and they are doing so good. We love them so much. They are our favorite family here. Her aunt is also in the branch and has several kids. We have been visiting her as well and she is our other favorite! hahaha When they all came to church yesterday we were SO happy. It was a great day. We had 4 investigators at church!

Our investigator, ______, who is 13 is still doing amazing.. she is currently trying to decide through prayer on a date that she wants to be baptized. She is still nervous that she needs to know EVERYTHING, but we are trying to help her feel confident in what she already knows!!

Our investigator, _______, who already postponed her baptismal date is just struggling a lot. So we are working with her, praying with her, and for her a lot. Please continue to pray for her, too!

A girl in our branch, ______, is 25 and preparing to go on a mission. She has been SO helpful this week its so great! she gave us 5 referrals of her friends and we met with 2 of them already!! One of them wants to be baptized, but she is moving in like 2 weeks! So we will teach her and then when she leaves we get to teach her on Facebook! Then we will get her in touch with missionaries wherever she moves to. The other friend said she has been baptized already, in a different church. We are trying to impress upon her why the power of the Priesthood is so important...that it's necessary to be baptized by the proper authority. Pray for these girls, too! :)

Well.. I don't know that there is much else from this week to share!! My emails are always so long haha. Sorry:) It's a lot to read, I know.. But I would love to get some old fashioned letters........... if anyone wants to write me... :( I think I have gotten ONE letter to the 25 letters my companion has received since I've been here!

Oh. one more thing...I have always loved this scripture: Alma 7:11-12.
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and aafflictions andbtemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him adeath, that he may bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to csuccor his people according to their infirmities.

But, my mission president this week in our zone conference had us read it and put the word "ME" and "MY" where its says "his people" and "their" throughout those verses. It really personalizes it and makes it so much more powerful.. I love it. It's our new favorite thing to share with people. Read it, and try that..

We haven't taught anyone in Spanish this week.. so it's been hard to keep up on the language. For some reason the elders teach all in Spanish! Plus, we are getting referrals for all English-speaking people, so its hard to think that we need to focus more in finding Spanish-speaking people to teach. By the way, most of the Spanish-speakers are from Honduras here...kinda interesting, huh! But, as frustrating as it is that we aren't using Spanish much, at the same time, I know that there is a ton of work for us to do here on the English side as well.. and that's where we have to start!

Well. I love you all very much and I pray for you every single day. I saw a quote the other day that said, "What if you woke up with only the things you thanked the Lord for the night before?" It has really made me think about how much I have that I need to thank my Heavenly Father for. Always.

It has been quite cold here!! But it is going well overall.. we are really so blessed. We teach a lot for just having opened this area and being here just a month. I will talk to y'all again soon. Love you, and hope to hear from you through some sort of letter or something throughout the week ;)

Love,
Hermana/Sister Weller