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!

This week's photo is of all the sisters in the zone she's been in...but half of them have left already to missions like Ecuador, Peru, etc....Raini says they just got a group of new sisters in this week to replace those...and now she's teaching them how to teach. On the downhill of MTC time already!!

Here is her letter this week:

Hola familia y amigos!

este semana estaba muy bien..that means, "this week was really good" my spanish continues to really improve! I am get kinda stuck with some phrases though because the new things we have learned are things i havent ever learned in school before.. and so i dont think to use them while i am teaching yet. But honestly teaching is getting so much easier.. its great! We have no problem going and teaching someone the first lesson. And the other day we had to first be taught and then switch roles and teach these sisters that are only a week behind us. Sad thing is they literally cant say anything in spanish. It was bad. I felt horrible for them! They didnt know anything when they got here. Glad i took spanish and have a foundation at least..

So we got called to be the sister leaders for the zone because we just got a new district last night! There are 4 new girls.. so awesome. They all seem fun and nice but we havent really gotten to know them all that well yet. One of them is from Tucson though! and she says she has seen me at the institute at some point haha. hermana dunne is her name. But idk really much about her ha. So anyways about getting that leadership calling-- i have realized i need to step up my game cause this week is the first time I feel like I'm getting a little sick of the MTC...cause I want to get out into the field already...so having this leadership opportunity helps me feel more like I have stuff to learn still before I get out there for real!! But, every day is pretty much the same.. we teach like 3 times a day.. we practice spanish and we do personal study go to some devotionals some nights.. it just gets boring at times. But I realized that I really dont want to waste any time I have here in the MTC... because when i get out to the field in a couple weeks.. I want to be able to speak well and be able to have a firm testimony in everything I am teaching!! 

So. Two things that influenced my realization that I need to be better and work even harder this next couple weeks-- 1. hermana miller gave a district devotional the other night and it was about service. We all went around and shared an experience we have had with serving others.. it was really good. and then she assigned each companionship a different companionship to do service for this next week.. and to get a little gift for christmas haha..hand-made! then after that we all picked out of a hat one of the Christ like attributes from preach my gospel and we are all supposed to work on that this next week.. I got "diligence" ha. so i have been trying to just shut out all distractions and diligently study when i need to. 2. being called as the sister leader for the zone (even though we were the only district in our zone for the past 3 days hahah) I just know I need to be the best example for the new girls as possible and I just realized how close it is coming that i am going to be gone from here.. craziness. 

Oh my goodness!! ok the other night it was the coolest thing and probably the most fun thing we have done since we have been here haha. We got to go to this mexican cultural celebration. Its some kind of traditional thing they do here in mexico to celebrate christmas. but i didnt see the correlation of christmas with it until joseph and mary came out with the baby.. It was just super fun and crazy.. tons of dancing and music and cheering and it was just so much fun. they beat a piñata at the very end and threw it out into the crowd haha so we got some mexican candy! After that i was just like so amped and excited and happy it was christmas time haha!! 

which leads me to the next amazing thing that we did this week.. I taught everyone how to make LEGIT snowflakes and we put them all over our door of our district room. Its so funny because anyone who comes in we ask which one they like the best and so far its between me and elder favero for the win.. all the elders have had fun with it so its pretty great. We also decorated the last white board in our classroom and every day we slide the other ones over it so our teachers cant see it because we dont want them to erase it because before we moved into this new classroom we decorated the other one and it got erased;( so i wrote at the bottom of the board "no borrar. o muerte" hahahah..that means "don't erase..or death" so i think it has really discouraged people erasing it. haha

hmmm.. lets see. I cant really think of anything else that happened this week. It was all good.... i have pictures of stuff to send but i cant find my cord!! ugh! of course haha. 

I am so excited because i am in charge of the district devotional on christmas eve so i am going to do our family tradition of reading luke 2 and do a little testimony meeting.. any ideas of other good stuff i can do? i want it to be good.. 

So every district passes the frisbee down a few days before they leave for the field to the next "frisbee lord" and they do a "ceremony" and so it was HILARIOUS because they did the little shark bate who-ha-ha thing from finding nemo. Our district leader got deemed frisbee lord and we are already planning our ceremony for the next district haha! its gonna be great. BTW. my ankle is feeling good. Its pretty bruised.. like my entire ankle and foot are purplish, but its way less swollen and i am starting to play sports again. So it is good. 

Well.. I love you all very much. I miss you all lots and I hope you are having a good time getting ready for the holidays. I will get to call home and talk while I am in the airport for my layover so make sure you are all prepped for that cuz its gonna be great. and it will be another 6 months until i get to talk to you again.. 

anyways. I love you again!!!!!!! 

talk to you later

hermana weller

 The Temple in Mexico City, Mexico

Raini and her companions again.

Rainer with a reindeer :)

Week #3 MTC

Hola familia!!

Today I have been missing you sooooo much. I actually cried for the first time...feeling homesick. But, we went to the temple this morning which helps. It's hard to do it all in Spanish, but it is really cool to think that the lady I went through for was able to get her temple work done in her own native language... I think that is something special about being able to do a temple session in a different language.

OK! First off: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE CINNAMON ROLLS! Wooooh!! They tasted slightly different than normal Cinnabons but oh well. I shared them with my district and everyone loved them! Thank you none the less. That was so good :) 

Ok. NOW, the explanation for the title of this email.... yup. I sprained my ankle playing ultimate frisbee the other day. I was just running and the grass is like real grass here haha.. its longer than i am used to and my shoes aren't the lightest shoes i have (which btw for Christmas I would loveeee Nike Frees..haha). So I was running to block the throw and then all of the sudden bam! my foot twisted out and POP. i knew it instantly that it was hurt for real cuz that freaking distinct sound that i HATE. so yeah.. it got super fat.. and now its brusing. But I have been icing it like crazy and wrapping it and taking it easy. which has been really hard because I love to play ultimate frisbee every week.. but oh well. maybe its helping me slow down a little bit to be with my companions a little bit more. The Lord does work in mysterious ways. By the way, things have been so much better this week with my comps...we have worked things out and are on the same page now with planning and teaching lessons.

Next, thank you mom for also sending pictures. I need them so badly. I need more physical ones of our family to be able to look at during the week haha. Thanks tho :) 

Ok so... Let me tell you more about the CCM/MTC! Every day goes by super fast now.. its weird. I cant believe we are starting week 4! We said goodbye to the last district on Monday so now its just us and one other district in our zone. They leave on this Monday so we will be the only district in our zone until next Thursday when we will get some newbies! that will be fun. 

So, our zone plays this game every day during our meals.. its called "What are the odds?" We made it up. Haha. So basically we concoct something really gross (left over foods all shoved into a cup with some kind of liquid) and then you play against someone and the loser has to eat it/drink it. It ts so funny.. I dont participate very often because i don't want to throw up! hahaha. But yesterday I played and I lost. So I had to eat FLAN. Ughhhh. So gross! haha. It actually wasn't as bad as some of the things people put together tho... like they take a bite of a habanero... or they have to eat watermelon covered in hot sauce...or drink soup of some sort haha. Anyway, it's hilarious. 

Last night we played Pictionary for like half an hour in our classroom before dinner, and it was the most hilarious thing... Seriously these guys in my district are so funny. We were on teams and my team name was "Team Luz" because I always go around singing "Jesus es mi Luz"...so everyone knows that that is like my thing. Anyways.. we start going and I keep getting extremely easy words like diamond, rainbow, judge and the other teams are getting stuff like Giddeon, Moroni, ect. hahaha So it was so funny because it just kept happening...I was crying from laughing so hard. 

So this week I came upon this scripture: D&C 67:10 

And it hit me really hard: We all have the ability to be able to come to know Christ and see Him if we humble ourselves enough; if we have that strong unwavering faith, and just believe He is there.  

It has been so awesome lately as I have been reading my Book of Mormon...that is, when I don't have a lesson to be studying or planning for (which now is gonna be never because we are starting to have 3 investigators this week) and it is so cool because I am finally understanding the Book of Mormon as a story line, not just random events or a chapter of scripture that I read. We talked this week in a class about how the Book of Mormon doesn't contain anything that isn't of importance in some way. In Jacob either like 2 or 3... It says something like how difficult it was thousands of years ago to write on the plates of gold...we know that it took a lot of effort to engrave their writings. So literally everything, every story is important, if they felt it was that important to engrave. 

We also were talking about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and how perfectly planned out the timing was of the Gospel coming back to the earth. It really is amazing to think about all the preparations the Lord was making for the world to be ready for Revelation on the earth again. And then I found this awesome scripture in Mormon 8:16 ... that whole chapter is really good. Go read it if you can! haha...It talks about how the world wouldn't be in darkness forever and that the Word of God would be brought back onto the earth through the power of God.. so yeah. basically.. its been just an awesome week of building my testimony on all of that.

OK i am done for today. I love you all soooooooooooo much. I miss you TONS. But it's great here. We go to the tienda and get snacks when we need them.. but its all Mexican stuff haha. They have these mango ice cream bars that are to DIE for :)

Talk to you again soon. 

Hermana Weller

email Raini:
natalie.weller@myldsmail.net

Hermana Raini Weller Pics @ MTC in Mexico

Here are the pics Raini sent yesterday...I will be posting them to Facebook, too.

Raini and her MTC district in front of the Mexico City Temple.

This is her district on the bus driving to the temple. They go there on Thursday mornings to start P-day.

 Raini, with her 2 companions

 Raini and a couple elders on the bus...

 The exercise area and small mountain at the MTC

 Hermanas: Weller y Bingham

 Hermanas: Weller y Miller

 Again, her district, in class

The trio companionship...

Week 2--MexicoCCM (MTC)

Missionary Training Center, week #2

Centro de Capaciación Misional, semana 2 

It was so great to email back and forth today with Raini...she must be reading and typing so fast to cram all the reading of emails that piled up for the week and then try to respond to all of them in just ONE HOUR!! 
(they get one hour per week to correspond on the internet)
So, if you don't hear back from her right away, please don't give up on her...she had about 15 emails in her inbox today. And, she actually added photos this emai! Yay! I've been wondering why it's been 2 weeks and still no pics?! 
(I guess she left her cord here at home)

Hola,                          5 Dec 13
Its so weird that I have been here over 2 weeks now.. where has the time gone? So this week was good. We started teaching two new investigators.. but we just have one per day. One of them is a 50 year old man who is blind and lives alone and the other one is 18 and just parties every weekend. His mom is a member of The Church. They are both fake, of course..haha...they are actually both our teachers for language, so they come into our other classes and give us opportunities to practice teaching the Gospel. But, its kinda weird since we know them for real. It's tough.. Because they aren't real people it is some times really hard to think of them as real investigators and to care about them like that, because they're not real. But its been getting easier to teach in Spanish. I love it when I am able to actually say what I want to say in the language. But a lot of time I have to stumble through it.. haha. 


This week was really hard with my companions. The past few days we have been on such different pages, and its really hard to have the Spirit with us when we aren't on the same page. [Shauna's side-note: I remember telling Raini prior to her leaving how companionships were one of my greatest struggles on my mission. And even though I had heard that, I didn't think I would have problems--'cause I thought I was so easy to get along with! Hahha! But, a little tidbit for those who don't know what "companions" are: as LDS missionaries, you live, sleep, eat, and breathe with your "companion" ...they are like roommates, but you don't know them ahead of time, you don't choose them, and you never know how long you will spend with them (anywhere from 2-6 months). And you are not allowed to ever be by yourself...you spend every minute together. The only time you can be by yourself is in the bathroom! It's very challenging...but is such a great way to learn charity, tolerance, patience, kindness, etc...like "on-the-job training"...you can see below how she's learning this lesson already--]

But...today is better. I am just praying so much to try and feel more love towards my companions and to be able to see their strengths so that we can work together better. 
I decided to ask our district leader for a blessing to help me with this companionship stuff...All I can say at this point is that I am so grateful for the Priesthood! To have this power back on the earth is such a powerful gift that we have been given from God. It can truly work miracles. I love it.

The other thing that this week I have felt is a huge thing for me is FAITH. Faith has such a short shelf life that we have to constantly be working on it and doing things to strengthen it... When we keep strong faith and trust in the Lord and keep all His commandments.. that's when we see the reward of our faith. I need to be more diligent and more faithful! 

This week I have definitely had my faith tried and then strengthened in my Savior. He is such the perfect example to me. As a representative of Him I really have to try and be as loving, kind, and charitable as He was when He lived on the earth. I know that He is willing to forgive and make us feel confident and clean again if we truly utilize his atonement.

I am so grateful to have him as my example, my brother, my Savior, Redeemer, and Advocate in the final judgement. 

I love this church! We had a pretty cool experience in class the other day.. our teacher took us to the little grove of trees and told us to have a question in mind of what we wanted to know.. something that we wanted God to answer for us. Then he gave us 10 minutes to just go into the trees by ourselves and to pray about it. It was so cool.. If we ever have a question- we can go to Him and humbly ask. And if we have true faith that we can receive an answer, we will. This is something we all can do. Go into a quiet place and pray and then just wait to hear the answer. Usually you can get the answer.. sometimes God will take time to give it to you. but it will come eventually.

OK well that's all for today. I have to go and have some more fun while we still can.. Love you all. 

Please send me some pictures if you can. That goes for everyone! Oh, and can you post on my Facebook some of those pictures and tell people to write to me! haha.. I miss people from home sometimes. But tell them they cant send me old fashion letters after like December 10th or so....I probably won't get them. It's just that emailing everyone is really hard 'cause of time so.. maybe I should just wait till I get back into the States??

Oh well, I love you Mom and Dad and everyone! 

-Hermana Weller

Week 1--CCM (MTC)

HOLA!

wow. i can not believe that it has already been one week since i left! But it has been so great.. Last thursday was like the longest day of my entire life... I thought I used to be busy.. no. they pack so much into one day it is insane. 

But lets start with first things first- the food. Uhhhhmmm well... the comedor[dining room] is good some days. But, it tears me up some days and if the food is gross there is always a whole station full of nutella and peanut butter and bread as well as fruit loops. So i have had to resort to that a few times. I just cant handle it some days tho...ugh.

Next- my companions. I have 2 companions! Trio woo! haha.. Sister Bingham and Sister Miller. bingham is from new mexico and going to anehiem california and miller is from utah going to washington. They are very different than me. but i have come to love them.

This week we actually started teaching an investigator ... 

It was really hard. The very first lesson was a disaster. We didnt really know what to do, so then the next day the lesson was much better. Then our third lesson we taught was pretty dang good.. I felt like my spanish was kinda coming together in actual fluid sentences instead of hola... uhhhh....umm. 

We taught him about faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost and enduring to the end...the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We then invited him to come unto Christ and be baptized, he said only if he felt the Book of Mormon is true. So, he was going to continue reading and praying. I memorized the invitation in Spanish again and he said yes! But, yesterday he revealed to us that he is our new teacher! Haha...he wouldve been baptized Dec. 5 if it was a real investigator! haha..

..so that was a really cool experience because as a companionship we had to figure it all out on our own what worked and what didnt to get the spirit there. We realized after the first couple lessons that just having a memorized script that we went off of was not the way to go. We realized that we had to understand the lesson for ourselves have a testimony about that specific topic before we could share it in spanish.. the lesson and true meaning of things have to come before the language.

Thats the thing that has been interesting is that they literally this first week give you so much time to just kind of figure it out for yourself. it is so hard to do it that way. I just sit there some days staring at the book of spanish and i dont know what to do to actually get it to stick. I have been praying so much to be able to retain the things i study and to be able to understand others better and I can definitely see it coming.. In one week I can now pray and bear my testimony (very basically) in spanish. How incredible is that? 

Through the Lord we are able to do this. He called me to speak spanish for some reason and I know that because of that He will help me get there if I am obedient and I put forth the effort to learn. 

ok...Lets see.. 

Oh yeah! my district is the most amazing people ever. On saturday night I kinda started talking to some of the elders in our classroom about before the mish what they were doing with their lives and stuff and then it just started a whole big discussion of everyone for like an hour about who we are haha. so it was nice it definitely broke the ice. And ever since then we kinda have a problem re-focusing... oops.. its good though haha. Theres a guy in my district who played baseball at BYU last year so he knows Keaton [a high school friend], kinda crazy! but he is so cool. But last night we had a little spontaneous district devotional where we all were just supposed to share why we are here. Why we came out on a mission. And it was SOOOOOO spiritual. It was awesome. it was so good, it really brought us together even more. they are literally like my family. we all were crying. it is so cool because we were able to hear other peoples' struggles they had in their lives before coming out, and yet we all are here ready to help each other and build each other's testimony before we head out to the field. All the guys are either going to Ecuador or Orsorno Chile! (shout out to Trent!) 

Anyway... how are things going back at home?? I miss you a ton but it actually hasnt been too bad.. I am so busy that i dont think a lot about home. but its only been a week haha.. Today we went to the temple and it was beautiful!!!! it was such a good experience too. I really got something out of it today which was so nice and needed. 

Welp. I will try and send some pictures. 

OH! and please dear elder me at dearelder.com. i get those i think on tuesdays.. they are printed out. i would love to get some love...from anyone!! you can also send like donuts or cinnamon rolls on there to me too haha:] 

my district is so funny though. and my zone is awesome too. OH yeah! we play ultimate frisbee every other day during our gym hour. so the other day we got challenged by another district to play soccer in this caged basketball court thing that has goals too haha. so then i was like oh im so down!! and the guys were like...ehhh? ok.... so they didnt start me that day when we played and i was like really?? 

just cuz im a girl. grr... but then i subbed in and i killed it haha.. we were down one and I SCORED. hahahah I was like well.."you might say its what i do''. and then i got mad respect from everyone. So we might play again today if we have time. 

ok well i love you so much and i miss you. 

[Raini's testimony in Spanish]

yo sé que jesucristo es mi salvador. yo sé que somos los hijos de nuestro padre celestial. yo sé que tenemos un profeta que habla con Dios. 

[I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that we are children of our Heavenly Father. I know that we have a prophet who speaks with God.]

Con amor, 

Hermana Weller

Whew! I was getting worried...

but they let her at least send a quick email home notifying us that she made it there safely!

Let me preface her email below with a few explanations, especially for all our loved ones who aren't that familiar with the LDS mission experience:

Typically, missionaries get 2 calls home per year, Christmas and Mother's Day. So, we knew to not expect a call from her today...but I didn't know what to expect as far as from someone at the mission training center. And, it IS Mexico, and this MTC there is brand-spanking new...so I really didn't know what to expect! But, it's all good!


We took Raini to the airport this morning and arrived around 8:30am--2 hours before departure. We took our sweet time checking in, (the flight wasn't even showing up yet on the monitors), eating breakfast at the airport with her, etc. So, after about 45 mins. we got up to see the monitors. There is was, flight 503 to Mexico City...boarding NOWWWWWW!! ?? what?? yup, it was pushed ahead an hour! So, we had to book it to security and say our goodbyes really fast. There was a Polynesian family saying goodbye near us with 3 or 4 times as many people...and hugging their elder wayyyy longer than us...we felt rushed and stressed that Raini might miss her boarding if the lines were long. So, we took a few pics, shed a few tears, and sent her on her way.

Here's her report in her very first email!

Dear mom and dad, 

i got here safely!! there was actually 7 other missionaries on my flight so that was pretty awesome. two of them were from hawaii so they had leis-- it was kinda funny, they gave all of us one! and then the other 3 were from washington and then one was from idaho. so there was two other sisters so we talked quite a bit. the flight was fine.. didnt have any real problems with my sinuses! woo. then when we landed we had a guy from the MTC there to meet all of us.. one of the girls luggage got lost.. i am so glad that that wasnt me haha i felt so bad for her! but then the driver guy drove us on over the the MTC through the city.. we havent gotten a chance to see the whole campus yet but it is really pretty from what i saw when we drove in. I just got my name tag!!! it feels so awesome to have it on. 

THURSDAY IS MY P-DAY. So be prepared for me to write you at some point thursday and try to email me right back so we can have a little chat sesh:) i will go to the temple first thing on thursday though so it will probably be a little later in the afternoon or something.

the other sisters are really cool, and we have been having a good time so far! its been fun. one of them has never been out of the country and shes never lived away from home because she just graduated high school in june so she is just having a hay day! haha. but yeah! tomorrow we start right into it! i have two companions. their names are sister bingham and sister miller. i am sure i will have some more to tell you about them next week because i havent even met them yet! welp. I hope you guys are doing okay.. i think it was better we had a quick goodbye this morning or else i would have had a lot harder of a time. But i love you guys so much and I am so happy to finally be out here. I cant wait to start learning spanish so i can actually communicate with all the people that are taking us places and helping us haha. 

ok i will talk to you again soon. LOVE YOU!!!!!!

-Hermana Raini Weller

I'm so relieved that her flight was uneventful and she's safe and sound on Church property. Like I said this morning as she waved goodbye..."she's in God's hands now", and I know He will watch over her and protect her.

The first of many blog posts to come from Raini's mom, Shauna. :)

There's a lump in my throat and I'm fighting the tears. It always happens this way with me...I'm all fine and dandy--not sad, not emotional, not stressed, not freaking out--UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!!!
It's a matter of hours at this point. Her bags are packed and sitting at the front door.
We will drive her to the airport tomorrow morning where she will fly directly to Mexico City.
This is my last day with her for a long time--18 months to be exact.
I find myself just watching her. She is standing at the kitchen sink, cleaning up after her bagel and ham sandwich she just made. I just took a snapshopt of her in my mind. Long, soft curls cascading the top half of a grey UofA sweatshirt, dark jeans, fuzzy socks, and that beautiful smirky smile.
But, to be honest, more than anything, we are so excited for her missionary adventure. She is so ready, so prepared by the Lord for this mission. If you were at her farewell, you know what I mean. I had a special experience toward the end of Raini's talk on Sunday, I want to share...
My mom said to her cousin, Judi, last October before she died: "Look at Shauna. She is my reward." Although that was humbling for me to hear about myself coming from my mom, I didn't fully feel the impact of that statement until it hit me as a mom looking at my own daughter who had just given the most wonderful talk at her farewell, Sunday.
As I watched my little girl change almost instantly into this strong, spiritual giant standing at the podium in front of 300 people, an indescribable sense of humble honor swept over me, and that same phrase came almost audible into my ears as I heard the words: "She is YOUR reward."
I thank the Lord for these tender mercy moments that remind me that my mother is not far from me, ever helping me keep proper perspectives.
Being Raini's mom is truly rewarding. I can't express how proud of her we are. She has been such a great example to us and I thank the Lord daily for her in our family. Thank you, everyone who has supported her during this wonderful time of her life. We had over 60 people come over and enjoy in our celebration. And, there are countless others who are sending love and support from afar.
I will be posting her weekly missionary letters and sharing her experiences on her blog site and via email, for those who prefer that. If you haven't already "signed up" for the weekly email, and you'd like to receive the email, please either post your email below, email me your email, or P.M. me with your email.
I will be posting photos, excerpts from her letters, and any other inspiring or interesting information from her experiences in Mexico and North Carolina.
Also, here is her contact information.
Sister Natalie Rainier Weller 
North Carolina Raleigh Mission
Mexico Missionary Training Center
Charretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828
Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero
07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal 
Mexico

Or you can email her direactly at:
natalie.weller@myldsmail.net

You may write good 'ole fashion letters to the Mexico Missionary Training Center address above, or you can email her directly. Her physical address will change as she gets transferred from area to area beginning in January. That will be updated on the blog and emails, too.

p.s. if you see more and more Spanish in these posts, bear with me, I'm just so excited to be able to speak with her "en español"!

The Last Few Days!

Tomorrow is my farewell. It is finally starting to set in that this is real. I am LEAVING! Its hard to believe that after waiting this long to go, its finally here haha..
Recently I have just been so excited to go. For a while I was extremely nervous about going, and those feelings recently have been replaced with more excitement than nerves. I went to Tucson a few weekends ago and I got to see my old friends! It was amazing to see one of my very good friends there who joined the church last year and see her progressing more and more in the gospel. To see her so happy still going to church and now she is bringing other people into the church and helping them improve their lives solidified why I am going on a mission. Its contagious. Once you know how wonderful it is to know where you are going after this life, where you came from, and why we are here.. then how we actually CAN return to live with our Heavenly Father through our Savior Jesus Christ.. it changes your life. and you want to share it with everyone. And that's where I am at right now.
I am pretty nervous about my talk tomorrow but I am going to rely on the spirit a lot haha. Then I probably wont post on here again before I head out on Wednesday so my mom will then have to take over the posts on here with my weekly emails.
I am extremely grateful for everything that I have been blessed with leading up to my mission.. a great job, good friends, and having time to spend with my family. I cant wait to see what the Lord has in store for me and to meet the wonderful people in North Carolina who have been prepared and are eager to learn more about the plan God has for them.

There's so much to do!

I am down to only 39 days until I enter the MTC in Mexico City.. We went on vacation this past week (we actually went to mexico ironically haha) and now that I am back I am all of the sudden feeling the pressure of needing to make sure I have everything together because I am about to set out on this journey for the next year and a half of my life! There's some shopping to be done, shots to get, doctors to see, and lots to pack up!
I know that there are a lot of people out there that think I am crazy to just leave everything I have right now behind and go to North Carolina for a year and a half. I mean I have a full ride scholarship at the University of Arizona, a job that I am loving right now, my family and wonderful friends.. But as important as those things are to me.. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the happiness that is found in knowing the true gospel far exceeds those things. Because I have been given much, I too must give. I was blessed to have been born into this church and I grew up learning and gaining my own testimony of this church- so now I have the opportunity to try and share it with people who don't have it in their lives.
To know that you are a daughter or son of a loving Heavenly Father, that you have a personal Savior who is full of forgiveness and grace, and to know that you can return to be with them one day with your loved ones is the greatest piece of knowledge to have in my opinion.. and because of this I want everyone to know it!
I have to continue to keep this in my head as I wait to leave on my mission because sometimes I do have those thoughts of- "am I really leaving for a year and a half?", "I could be almost done with school in a year and a half".. But I know that this is what I am supposed to do at this time in my life. I can not wait to be a servant in the Lords hands and help others come to Christ.

90 Days

Well today is the first day I am documenting anything about my mission onto my blog for anyone who wants to read it! It is 90 days until I am reporting to the Mexico MTC. Thats just crazy to think! Which.. I am a bit nervous about the whole Mexico thing.. not even because of safety or anything or even scared about learning the language as much as I am scared for the food! I haven't been hearing the best things about it down there. Bean burros, here we go. 
If you haven't seen my youtube video of me opening up my mission call to Raleigh North Carolina go ahead and check it out. I was so overwhelmed with emotion and excitement and the spirit was strong that it all came out at once in tears! I know that this is the place where I am truly supposed to be for the next 18 months. I know that my Heavenly Father wanted me to leave as soon as I could because that was my desire. Leaving just a few days after my birthday is such a blessing. It is going to be hard to not be home for thanksgiving or christmas but I am so excited. It is all going to be worth it! 
Well stay tuned and I will try and update this before I leave. Once I have left, my mom will post my weekly letters for y'all (starting to get my southern accent already) to read.