This Week in NC...SNOW!!

Hello!

Well. This week was crazy! So Monday was a BEAUTIFUL day.. we went running on our P-day and then just sat at the park after we emailed because it was so nice outside. Then we go over to the branch president's house that night and then he begins to inform us about this STORM that is coming, that the temps are going to drop below freezing and there is going to be snow!!.. So, we start freaking out about how we need to go back to Walmart and buy more food because no one will probably have us over in this weather! So, we go to the store with their daughter (She's married and so funny! We love her! Her husband is the one that knows Taylor Swift!) We go into Walmart and it is complete and total INSANITY!.. there is NO bread in the bread aisle. None. Nada. We started freaking out...What is going on here?!?! Is the world ending?! Then people were staring at us because we were kinda freaking out..haha So Sister ____ starts apologizing for us to people, "Sorry they're not from around here." hahahaha!!.. It was so funny. Seriously, tho, there was like no water, no bread, no canned soups, no soda! The store was sold out of everything by the end of the day. People literally don't know what to do when there is snow here. So we stocked up on some canned fruit and pop tarts and stuff and a couple gallons of water...(which have now turned into our weights for working out in the mornings lol.)

Anyways.. the next day it wasn't even that bad! We were completely doubting that there was really going to be snow at all because they said it was going to be like 10 inches! But, later that evening it got crazy.. it started raining, then sleet came, and then SNOW!!! It snowed all night long! We woke up and it was so pretty! It was completely white! But, as you know, this also meant it was really dangerous for us to drive since there was a few inches of ice underneath the snow.. So, we didn't really know what to do. Pretty much everyone we had appointments with cancelled on us. :( So then we were invited to have dinner with the _____'s (that's when we sent you the text, Mom!) After that, we literally had to just go home and do nothing! Oh...and my toe almost fell off! See picture. Haha...My feet were FROZEN even in my boots! It was NOT good. I was scared.

So, come Wednesday we were supposed to have a district meeting about 45 mins away. We told the district leader that it was too dangerous to drive out there. Then it was this whole ordeal because the elders all think they are really good at driving and they wanted to just drive anyways.. yada yada haha. Long story short, they ended up coming to us here and we had a good meeting. But the roads were really bad, like really bad. There were cars sliding into the ditches on the side of the road because it is just straight up ice!

So, it was a rough beginning of the week in terms of doing missionary work! No one wanted to have us come because it was too dangerous. So it was so great when we finally did get out of the house for a few lessons!

Four other sisters in our zone had a leadership meeting on Friday, so they came and stayed with us that evening before. It was like a big sleep over!! haha. So funny. One of them is not a sister/leader though because she is a visa waiter. So she came out teaching with us that day! So we had a trio for a day! It was funny because we told her don't worry, you wont have to speak Spanish...all of our people speak English today. But then we ended up speaking Spanish most of the time! We used more Spanish than we have in a while! lol. We went to The ____'s house and Sister ____ drove us out to the Rose Hill area to find some former investigators. We ended up just contacting a few new people there, but also knocked on some doors...they ended up all being Spanish speaking! Ha! So cool!

Then we had a lesson with our 13-yr. old, ____. She is just my favorite. She is so great!! I love her. She is still progressing, but it's hard because she is resistant to getting baptized soon. She thinks she needs to be 15 because the whole Mexican culture/coming of age-thing. Luckily this time we had Sister ____ with us and she made a great point to her, "Well if you got baptized now you could go to the temple when you are 15 and that is such a special experience..." We hadn't even thought of that, so it was such a good thing to have her there. ____'s dad who is less-active came into the room and we got to talk to him a little bit about church, too! Also, _____ has been bringing her little 5-yr-old brother to church the past two weeks and he LOVES it. So we are hoping to just get the whole family together for a lesson some time soon. But, her dad back into the Gospel, her mom to get baptized with her and then it would just be a big happy family! Her little brother is so cute. Even though he's too young to be baptized, he can be a great strength to the family right now!

Ummm...what else..

We are kinda worried about our investigator, ____. We weren't able to meet with her all week. She did come to church yesterday, but she just seems like she isn't doing well. We need to re-invite her to baptism. We are worried about her. :( Please continue to pray for her.

_____ is a member in our ward who I think I told you about. She is 25 and wants to go on a mission. She literally has given us 5 referrals of her friends and we have taught 3 of them already. She is so great. Her friends names are _____, _____, ______, _____ and _____. They are so awesome! _____ is SOOOOO ready for the Gospel! He told us that he knows that the story of Joseph Smith is true. what?!?! He has so much faith! He is a really good guy. We think that _____ and him kinda like each other.. they are too cute. So we hope he joins the church and that they will go on missions and eventually get married.. :) or something. who knows:)

We were able to do some service this week which was really good. We went and helped Sister _____ move from one home to different one just down the road a few doors.. and we helped her clean and stuff.. It was really nice to just be able to get out and wear some sweats and clean and move stuff haha! We also got to talk to her about some of her trials with sharing the Gospel with her friends. We encouraged her to not be frustrated or get discouraged because I guess when she tried sharing the Gospel with her friend, it went no where. The friend is just not interested.. and so we had to just keep encouraging her that no efforts are wasted in missionary work! Everything is to plant a seed or give them a chance to accept it or not. It is hard though when people you love don't want it when its right there for them if only they would give Him a chance.

Again, we felt some definite direction by the Spirit this week in knowing who to contact or who to visit and where to go... I love it when we can recognize that He is helping us out and guiding us so much. :)

This week we have been trying to figure out what we need to do to be the change or help spark a change here in Wallace because everyone is just complacent with the tiny little branch here. We have been focused on hope and believing there is something better ahead if we work together as much as we can as a branch. So we made little "save the date" cards to give to members to pray about a date they want to have a missionary experience by and we will help them best we can with their goal. It has been cool to see the members get excited to do that.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE CAMERA. I just got it today!!!!!

My companion took some pix for me this week with her camera, so I will send them right now.

Okay, well, I want you all to know that this church really is the true church of Jesus Christ on the earth, and I love being able to study the Book of Mormon and the Bible every single day and teach about it. I love having the knowledge that I can be together with my family forever and that the relationships I have with people here on earth aren't the end. I am so glad to hear about the wonderful experiences y'all have been having. That's incredible. You are the best. I love you so much.

I hope everything is going well.. I am doing good, personally! I love it here as always:) This is the last week of this transfer. Time has gone sooo fast here in the field I can't even believe it!!

Love you.
con amor,
Hermana Weller


Side Note: I've had a couple people ask questions about Raini's "title"...the word "hermana" is Spanish for "sister". As missionaries, girls are called "Sister ____" (their last name) and boys are "Elder _____.