¡Milagroso! (miraculous)

HOLA!

So. first off, ___ and ___ :) We got to go and see them with a member this week.. they told us that they had read! woop woop! __ read the beginning stuff up to Joseph Smiths testimony. and ___ had read 1 Nefi 1-13 haha! we were really impressed, but she didnt actually undestand a lot of what she read soooo we were able to explain and use the pictures that are so "handily" put in the front of the BOM about what the setting is at the beginning of the BOM. They understood a lot better and they are going to read again.. Then they started talking again about all the huge changes they have seen in their lives since we have been visiting with them.. and it made me think of a chapter we had read together in companion study this past week- Mosiah 5. I LOVE this chapter.

So we read some of those verses:


And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of theirsurety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that wehave no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.


3 And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of thatwhich is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things.


4 And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this greatknowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy.


5 And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things thathe shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has beenspoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God.


6 And now, these are the words which king Benjamin desired of them; and therefore he said unto them: Ye have spoken the wordsthat I desired; and the covenant which ye have made is a righteous covenant.


7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; forbehold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, yeare born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.


and then we talked about baptism again.. It was amazing because the day before we had a meeting for all the new missionaries and their trainers and we went (obviously) and the assistant when he taught reminded me of a phrase i really like.. "YOU GET WHAT YOU GO FOR" and so we had planned to go in and get a baptismal date with them because they have progressed SO much and they are ready. So after discussing a lot of different things based off those scriptures we invited them to be baptized onDecember 16th and they are now praying about it :)) we invited them to come to church this week but ___ said she was going to definitely have to work :( we were sad but we have still been praying and we sent out a voicemail to the whole zone about praying for them. and guess what happened :)
___ CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we seriously werent expecting it AT ALL and then sacrament meeting was starting and I looked over at the door and saw her walk in! I had a mini freak out haha and we went and sat by her :) it was amazing. so so good.. and the best part of all was that all the members we have brought with us to see her were amazingly helpful the entire time during church.. we were scurrying all over to do different things and we didn't even have to worry about her because the members were being so helpful. It was the best thing ever :)


then we went on exchanges! the sister I got to exchange with came here and she is from Gilbert too!! She went to Highland haha so we knew some mutual people it was pretty funny.. she is so cute :) Sister Oliver is her name. we had fun!



Then, the next day we were able to go and visit with ___ and __.. we finally got to read 1 Nefi 8 with them! We have thought for a long time that would be a good chapter they would like.. and then when we were talking about it and reading it with them Will suddenly came to another realization.. that really he wanted to get married and that it was ridiculous not to get married and follow the commandments as well as the law over a RING. but ___ wasn't having it. so it was slightly awkward because they were arguing and I was trying keeping it centered on keeping the law of Chastity haha.. but they said they were going to come to church this week so that was really great.


But then we got a call during sacrament meeting.. and we called them back and they said that in the middle of the night the apartment below them had a fire and their apartment caught on fire too.. they are now staying in a hotel for a couple of days because red cross luckily put them in one. (that was a neat and unique experience a lot of people don't get lol we got to go and visit them in their hotel!! haha) but they literally have nothing now :/ they ran out of the house because it was like full of smoke and they just grabbed random clothes and left. its horrible... we went and bought __ an outfit for school for tomorrow though at the thrift shop. It was really cute though!!! haha :) she loved it. $6. haha.


We saw __ and __ again.. They are just amazing. I cant even believe the 180 change that __ is making in her life.. So great. She even cleaned up her instagram and facebook so that she isn't following anything that would be a temptation and instead is now following the church and temple pages and things like that.. ___ was trying to sing I am a Child of God when we went over.. Seriously. It is just amazing. :)


They came with us to one of the elders in our wards baptism so that ___ could see what it was like! and they loved it :) it was neat too because we got to help the girl who was getting baptized get all ready and stuff.. Gah! i love baptisms! Unfortunately ___ is now going to have to wait until the NEXT week to get baptized because her mom has to work on next Saturday.. but it is actually better this way because we were trying to plan for her for next week and we have A LOT to teach before she can be interviewed. So it will be good.


SO much fun! this week we also got to go to a kick boxing class that one of the less active members teaches with some of the other women of the church.. and a couple of them have mentioned to us that they have friends that go to that that they want to share the gospel with! SOOO that meant, obviously, we went and got to meet them! haha it was hilarious because i think they were all SO confused when they saw two white girls come in.. but by the end they realized we were normal and in fact we DID speak Spanish haha.


Lastly.. (sorry there was A LOT of good things that happened this week!) Saturday and yesterday we went and contacted a couple referrals that members gave to us.. and they are amazing!! haha Truly, the best people we find are through the members. We are SO glad!! things are just coming together and our faith has been really tested but here come the rewards :)


I love this work so much!!! It has been so much fun, and I truly have learned so much over this past year... Wow. I am excited to push it out and work hard this last 6 months :) #BAPTISM!


to celebrate my birthday/my 1 year mark we went to one of my favorite families houses and did a hispanic culture tradition.. where they shoved my face in a cake...... hahahaha it was funny. i wish i could send the video!!


alright well have a fantastic week. I know that the Lord hears our prayers and He may not answer our prayers right away.. but if we dont lose our hope and faith in Him, He comes through :)) always.


Love,


Hermana Weller

B-day Goodnessssss!

Raini was taken care of with lots of love on her big 2-0 b-day! I'm so happy for that!
Here's her letter this week and some pics.

Wow. This has been SUCH A GOOD WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
Okay. Lets start from the beginning or else I am going to be all over the place lol. :)

SO. We set up an appointment with ___ and ___ for Tuesday but we called and asked them if we could do it at the church because we really wanted to do a church tour so that they could feel the spirit there and want to come to church even more... and to see the baptismal font and everything.. But ___ said that only she would be able to go, not ___. But we decided that was okay. So we went to the church and got everything set up and prepared ourselves and prayed... and the spirit was UNREAL in the church when we were just there by ourselves. But when they got there-- because __ did end up coming with her kids!!! They walked into the church and you could just tell they felt the Spirit, too!! :) We talked and walked around.. showed them the different rooms and talked about some of the different paintings in the halls. The baptismal font was really powerful.


And then we went into the chapel. We told them they could just sit and ponder and try and feel God giving them their answer if this is where they need to be.. so they sat down, but ___'s baby kept crying and being kinda distracting. We were just sitting there, and I just kept being prompted to go and play the piano.. I really didn't want to haha...only because I am really rusty... but I did it. and wow.. it completely changed the feel of the room. The baby fell asleep and it made the room fill with the Spirit of the Lord.. (even though I wasn't playing super good). We went back into the hallway after like 10 mins in the chapel, then ___ said that she really enjoyed that.. she started crying and said that she really felt the Spirit when I started playing the piano.. (Thank you mom for making me do piano for those 5 years.. now is when I regret quitting). But after that lesson with them, we knew we needed to have another lesson this week if at all possible because we needed to know what they have been thinking.. we have literally had THE BEST lessons I have ever had with those two women.
The spirit is so tangible every time.. how are they not committed to baptism still? So we were able to see them again Friday (my birthday). We just talked for the first while.. and they shared about how they have all the sudden kinda realized that they have changed a lot since we started meeting with them, and they know that only good things come from God, and everything we have taught them has been good..
We brought up the Book of Mormon and they said they get it.. at first they had felt like they couldn't accept more scripture than the Bible, but now they see how really they just work together!!!!! :) They are going to read and pray about the BOM this week and next week I can feel it.. they are going to have a baptismal date :) please pray for them and put their names on the temple rolls if you can! They are so close, they just need help being able to get to church because of complications with work. :)

Okay. next BEST NEWS EVER. We went and taught ___ (__'s daughter, the lady who we found that was away from the church for so long) for the first time on Tuesday. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and literally best moment ever.. we explained baptism and how it makes us perfectly clean of our sins and the daughter said "AWH, I WANNA DO THAT!!!!" So we left her that night with the homework to pray and decide about what day she wants/God wants her to be baptized. WE had set the goal earlier that week of November 29th, but we didn't want her to feel rushed if she wasn't ready. We want her to have a good testimony before being baptized. So we went back last night and had a lesson with her. She said "I did my homework!" we said okay yay! She said "the 29th!" and we about jumped up for joy hahahaha. :D that is true inspiration right there. We hadn't even said a date to her!!!! She is super prepared.. she is honestly just such a smart little girl and so ready to learn everything! WOOOHOOOO! we are so excited for her :))
It's especially exciting because yesterday was also the young women's program (its like the sacrament primary program where they sing and then some of them gave talks about personal progress and stuff.. it was neat!) and ___ (the mom) had a moment where she really realized why it is so great and so important for her daughter to get to now grow up in primary and young women's :)) literally.. they have an amazing future ahead of them. Such a miracle that we were able to find them. The Lord is so good. He really does answer prayers! And he really loves his children who are lost, wondering in the wilderness. We are so blessed to be able to help them back home.

Okay, so my birthday was just so much fun! We went to serve at the food bank! And then ____ (the new convert teenage girl we love) gave me my present :) She is so sweet!! Then we ate a ton of deliciousness at the ___'s.. (flan, cake, chicken, Dominican rice, fried yuca root, quiche) and then __ and ___'s house...they remembered it was my birthday, too some how!! :) They got me a cake! :)) and then went to dinner.. ate enchiladas haha and then went to ___'s and she made me banana pudding. So needless to say I was absolutely STUFFED haha! so great though. I felt so loved! :)

Well.. I am loving every day out here. Honestly.. It is truly the best year of my life up to this point. I am SO happy I came on a mission. So SO SO happy :) I have changed so much.

love you all so so so so much. have a great day :)


-Hermana Weller

Happy, bright, beautiful servants of the Lord

Raini is looking so happy!! This was one of her most recent pics!

    

Me, at my favorite place, the Holy Temple of the Lord

                         

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS to Hermana Weller!

Help Raini celebrate her 20th birthday in the mission field! Send a package, a birthday card, or just an email! She would LOVE it, I'm sure!

natalie.weller@myldsmail.net


Here's her latest email:



Hola everyone! :)
Such a great week.. honestly after last week being a bit harder with not having many lessons and not seeing a ton of people, it was so great to see miracles this week!!!

Okay so you know last week how i told you that we found that lady, ___- the one who just moved into the ward and has a 9 year old daughter? well, she is absolutely amazing... just wow. She wants to just completely change her life around, and she knows exactly how she is going to do it. She really doesn't need any strengthening with the gospel principles because she knows it all. She just needed help getting to the church, and they came yesterday! It was so cute because they came like 10 mins early.. She was so excited to come back. and her daughter had so many questions about things that Aida told us exactly what we have been thinking. she wants us to teach her! and get her to the point of baptism!! WHOOO! And for her first time in primary she LOVED it. they are just the best.. seriously. gah! I love them so much and we have only known them a week. They are just so great, the Lord has something great in store for them.. He has been working so hard for her for the past year or so. He wants her back on His side SO much. yay!

We had another incredible lesson this past week with ___ and ___.. I cant even handle how prepared and elect they are! They are seeking the truth so so so badly.. yet they haven't been reading the BOM. so, we started with watching the Bible video of Christs baptism. and it was super powerful and then we talked about the key things about Christs baptism.. 1. immersion and 2. proper authority. It was kinda funny because ___ was like well.. I don't really know why the Catholic church changed those things if that is how Christ was baptized I don't know why they decided to change it... so then we read out of the BOM in 3 nephi 11 when He teaches about authority and immersion and then in Romans 6 the symbolism of immersion. It was really great. But to really punch in the point of the importance of the BOM as well as EVERYTHING else we have taught them.. we read a scripture that I recently found since I recently started the BOM over again. 1 Nefi 13:40-- "These last records, which thou hast seen among theGentiles, shall establish the truth of the first, which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and shall make known the plain andprecious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lambof God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot besaved."
so.. basically. it is saying the PLAIN and PRECIOUS truths and details of the gospel were taken out of the Bible.. because of the errors of men with out the power of the priesthood and everything during the apostasy.. BUT because we have the BOM those truths have been restored. and it is amazing. and so we were finally able I think to help them see the true reason we have the BOM and why we want them to read it so badly. Daisy, (the 16 year old who just got baptized a year ago and is absolutely AMAZING) she was with us and she was able to bare an amazing testimony and personal experience with everything we taught.. in talking about baptism/catholic church/seeking the truth.. everything and they felt it so much. We are going to see them again tomorrow, hopefully they have received their answer this time. :) please pray for them!!

After that lesson and now that it has become just such firm knowledge of the truthfulness of the BOM to me personally we have been sharing that with all of our active members too. We have been playing this really fun game where it is like "telephone" but you write a sentence and then draw a picture and then you keep repeating that cycle.. and it gets changed each time, and sometimes it is REALLY funny because i cant draw... lol. But really, at any moment in our personal lives we might have an apostasy.. there are times where we just feel further away from the spirit.. we might have doubts.. whatever it might be!! BUT just like the world, when it was in that time of darkness and confusion.. we can have individual restorations.. and through the same way that the plain and precious truths of the gospel were restored to the earth is how they can be restored to just personally.. THE BOOK OF MORMON!
I love that book so much. I know it is so so so true. I hope you all feel that as well.

Another quick story! we had a picnic ward activity on Saturday! and we had tried to see a less-active youth, ___, the other day and she wasn't there.. but we called her and invited her to come to the picnic.. we didn't really think she was going to come.. but we were pleasantly surprised when she showed up!!!! it was so great! :) she told us she really likes us.. she didn't really feel it so much with the other sisters I guess. so that's good! and then we hung out with her with some of the other girls her age the whole time there. We played some soccer and squirrel ball with the little girls since the elders were there and we cant play sports together.. and it was actually really really fun! Then after the picnic we went and had a lesson with ___ at her house and shared the talk by Elder Uchtdorf "Your Happily Ever After" and talked about the plan of salvation. she had a bajillion questions so it was good to talk to her.. she is the only member of her family so it is hard with all the other things she is told and she hears.. but then by the end we got to the root of why she doesn't come to church and probably why her family stopped progressing and didn't get baptized.. she told us she doesn't believe in the BOM.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE BOM PEOPLE! if you know it is true.. everything else just falls into place.

but anyways.. she came to church yesterday too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a miracle. gah!!! it was so good.

well. i also really love my companion. I dont ever want to have to leave this area and her!! we just get along SO well. it is so chill and NEVER any kind of contention it is the best. we are putting together a powder puff football turkey bowl game lol because we just we want to play sports too. so its gonna happen. (shout out to dad! we are trying to use all of our talents to do our work!! haha)
But ...my comp (new trainee) told me yesterday that she has never been so grateful for someone other than her family as much as she is grateful for me... wow.. I couldn't believe that she said that! it was very humbling. I am so grateful the Lord gave me another chance to train and that I was actually prepared for it this time.. I love being a missionary. I don't ever want to not be haha..

well. that is all for this week! :) I love you all so much. Thanks for the birthday wishes... I really can't believe I am 20. SO WEIRD. I am going to gain like 20 pounds my b-day this year because everyone and their mom invited us over to "celebrate" aka: EAT really really good food. hahahaha
Thanks again for everything all you do for me. It means a ton.

love,


Hermana Weller

New Comp (trainee) Pics

this was the extent of  our "disguise" for Halloween! haha!

My fresh new "baby", straight the the CCM (MTC, in Mexico)

November in Raleigh

November 3, 2014

This was a good week! It was hard!! But it was good. We have really been relying on the Lord EVERY single day to know where He wants us to go, and what we need to be doing.

Okay- couple of things first. Do you remember _____ ?? The investigator we had in Wallace (my second time there) She is 16.. Well.... she messaged me on facebook the other day and told me- SHES GETTING BAPTIZED THE DAY AFTER OUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she has the same birthday as me (i didnt realize that) and she is excited to get baptized on the 15th :) this was the message she sent me : "I love you too Sister Weller and I know I can always come to you if I ever need to talk to someone... Btw I'm getting baptized November 15. A day after my birthday." Man, I was overly excited.. I almost started crying!! haha. Fruits of my labors are coming forth.. It was so good to see. :) Especially yesterday, it just gave me the hope and joy i needed in that moment!

So, we had interviews again with President Bernhisel this week and it was good. I just love the Bernhisels so much. They are so great :) Sister Bernhisel shared some personal experiences she has had on her mission with me as we talked when i was waiting for my comp to be done, so that was kinda neat.



THEN, started like.. the BEST DAY EVER. We went to try and see some one we had set up an appointment with. They weren't home, so we decided to knock some doors right around her.. We walked up to one of the buildings and knocked a door and we thought the lady spoke English because she said "Hi" when she opened the door, and then welcomed us right in. But we then realized she spoke Spanish.. so that was really great! She told us that she was kind of sad that day and then when she saw Sister Swalberg's (my comp's) blonde hair through the window when we walked by, she knew that she needed to talk to us.. and then when we knocked on her door first.. she said she knew that God had sent us! :) She then told us she used to have a Book of Mormon, and she talked with elders in her country (Honduras) in the past before she came here to the US. So that was really neat.. We got to share Mosiah 24 with her.. the spirit was super strong.. she was crying.. and it was just really good. We even got to bring up baptism with her! We are excited to go back and see her soon. The Lord truly lead us to her in her moment of need. and answered our prayers to be guided to her. We were on cloud nine after that lesson! haha

Then, we went and had a lesson with ____ and ____. Before even starting our lesson, Rosa told us she had figured out a way to leave work early Sunday and be able to come to church!!! We were so excited. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them.. and I cant even describe to you how strong the spirit was. Literally you could like feel it just FILLING the room. There were definitely angels there with us. That was THE best lesson I have ever had. After the movie we read the account in the Book of Mormon of Christ appearing to the people in 3 Nephi 11 and then discussed the feelings of the spirit and how they were feeling at that moment. Then (like you suggested dad!!) we got down and knelt together with them for them to receive their answer of whether or not they need to be baptized. After the prayer, ___ was smiling.. you could tell they felt so good! they were filled with the joy of the spirit! and then she was able to tell us really what was holding her back from knowing is just the fact that they already were baptized as kids.. So we hit really hard the connection between reading and gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and the authority to perform ordinances. So she said "We HAVE to know (again). So she committed to start from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and really to figure out if it is true. :) We are still so excited for her!! she is coming around.. she knows. :)

THEN we went to the trunk or treat activity and a member had picked up the kids of our invetigating family, ___ and ___, and brought them to the activity!! It was so great :) it was a fun activity.. we got to help ___ find some little friends. and we were just so over joyed at the help of the members and the involvement the kids were getting.

Unfortunately when we had a lesson with them again this week, it just again was very ineffective. They are not progressing and it makes me so sad! they have hit a serious road block and for whatever reason have lost that drive and desire to follow Christ. I prayed a lot about it and pondered a lot about what we need to do with them because I don't want to just give up on them but.. I got the impression that we have done what we needed to. We came into their lives, and helped them build their faith in Jesus Christ SIGNIFICANTLY.. but that is all they were prepared for at this moment.. that's all they can handle right now. so I am sad they aren't going to keep progressing, but I feel like we did do what was needed of us.

Halloween.. haha well. it was a good day :) we were tracting around a neighborhood that day and then got kinda lost.. haha but by some miracle we were able to find our way back to our car!! So after that happened we were like OKAY. what does the Lord really want us to do. We just got lost for a while and didn't really find anyone.. WHAT do we need to do?? so we prayed and then we both got the impression to go and see this lady, ___, who we had taught once a week earlier. It is really neat and a miracle how we found them, a member in the ward just moved into that apt complex and her daughter texted us the address.. but it was the wrong address.. but these people are so great. so prepared!!! so we went over there and had an amazing lesson with her!! she read the chapter we had left her the time before!! and she just understood everything we taught. we invited her to be baptized and she said yes. then her husband walked in the house.. (moment was kinda ruined to invite to a date unfortunately) but then he was like I want to know everything!!!! haha so we gave him the pamphlet and they are gonna read and pray. gah! it was so good!! :) #miracles!!!

okay haha then, Saturday all of our plans fell through... and it was like 45-50 degrees and super windy and raining.. haha it was tough. we luckily had a dinner apt that evening and we were able to have a good lesson with that family.

okay last miracle!! wow sorry this is such a long email!!!

so yesterday our bishop gave us a list of 2 people that just apparently moved into the ward and he didn't know who they were. so he asked us to go and see them this week! a couple of our plans fell through yesterday after church so we decided to go and see one of the ladies on the list! We showed up and she opened the door and was like "OH! yay! come in!" hahaha like she was expecting us to come!! it was so funny. she just moved into our ward.. really long and amazing story of how her records got sent to us, but basically she has been inactive for the last 5 years (was baptized just 6 years ago) and she has serious desires to come back. She basically wants to change completely. and she has a 9 year old daughter. :D it was amazing. SUCH a miracle.

I love this work!! even though it is really hard some days... sometimes I just want to cry because no one lets us in.. and I know it is true.. and I know that God loves us all so much...He wants His children to hear our message. He is our LOVING Heavenly Father. He knows us by name :) this is His work. and I love being able to be His instrument.

have a great week!!! i love you so much!

-Hermana Weller :)


Oct. 27, 2014 I'M A MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

1st week with my brand new missionary, fresh from the MTC:
Well this week has just FLOWN by, let me tell you! haha :) It has been so so good though.


I am so excited to tell you all about my new companion- (my baby haha)


Her name is Hermana Sarah Swalberg, she is from Utah (a little town called Green River), she is 21, she went to SUU for the past 3 years on scholarship for track and field (javeline), and she is the best!!!! Honestly, time and time again I just KNOW that God hears our individual prayers and helps us out so much. I had been praying for the couple of weeks before transfers that I would just LOVE my new companion with everything I possibly could, no matter what.. And when I was sitting in the trainers meeting before our trainees came into the room I was so excited. ( I had been kinda freaking out before hand haha) and then when they started filing in, she came over and I was just able to give her a BIG hug and I could feel it, Heavenly Father totally helped me just love her, and feel like she was my best friend for years. Turns out too that its really not gonna be hard for us to get along at all!! haha, she is very "chill" and go with the flow like I am, but since she is an athlete she has good work ethic. She is ready to go out and do whatever it takes to have success :) it is seriously the best. She is also great because she has the best "go and do" attitude. She doesn't question any of the mission rules we have!! she just wanted to know what they were and then do them. So needless to say.. its been a great week and I am super grateful for her :) the Lord is so good to me. She came from the Mexico MTC- but she is still very new at speaking Spanish, so its been fun to help her learn some already.. She gets better every day. and the members are so accepting its so nice :)


So we jumped right into work Tuesday after the transfer meeting. We literally went home and took in the luggage and then went over to ___ and ___'s house for a lesson! I think it was a bit overwhelming for her, but it was good :) Unfortunately __ and __ hadn't felt they still have received their answer still.. They expressed to us that they feel like their relationship with God hasn't developed enough.. they don't think they are on the level yet with God to be able to receive an answer :/ so we are helping them understand how to improve that relationship and recognize their answers more.. it is a process BUT they will get there eventually I think :) It is hard for them to think of changing everything they have ever known and what the "traditions of their fathers" are too.


___ and ___ are doing alright.. we shared with them the other day the Wise man and the Foolish man story from the Bible: ¶Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.



22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thyname done many wonderful works?



23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.



24 ¶Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upona rock:



25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was foundedupon a rock.



26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his houseupon the sand:



27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall ofit.



and it was cute because we had their kids, __ and ___ act out the story as we read it.. and at the end it was really neat because Will put it all together with very little prompting that Christ is truly that rock that we have to build our foundation on. They said they would come to church Sunday, but they didn't again. It is really hard. i just feel very confused and stuck with what to do with them because I know that ___, the husband, KNOWS it is true!! and I don't want to just give up on them.. I love them a lot. But it is frustrating and difficult to know where to go with teaching them, so I think we are going to just continue teaching them once a week, but lay off a little bit until maybe they are more ready.









Something this week that we have been sharing with basically all of our active members is a story from Preach My Gospel in chapter 9 and I want to share it with you too:



Read the following letter from a missionary to her parents: “I taught a wonderful lady on the bus. We were coming back from district meeting, and it was the only empty seat so I sat down and started to look at my mail. Of course, the first one to be read was yours, with the baby pictures of Evan. I noticed that the eyes next to me were also looking at the pictures, and I looked over to meet eyes with an older woman. She gave me a half smile and looked out the window. She then closed her eyes like she was going to sleep. I prayed, ‘Heavenly Father, I want to talk to her. Please help me.’ A minute later she opened her eyes and sat up straight, and I quickly said, ‘Don’t you think he is cute?’ I showed her the pictures of baby Evan and started talking about families with her. I asked her about her kids, and she got teary-eyed and told me a story about how her daughter hates her and wants nothing to do with her. She cried and I cried with her. I told her about the plan of salvation and how Heavenly Father knows her and knows what she is going through. I cried and told her that I know that her daughter loves her because I am a daughter of a mother that loves me, and I love her. I explained that sometimes people make bad decisions and that her daughter has agency. She told me, smiling, ‘I bet your mother really misses you, and she will not let you go when she sees you again.’ She thanked me for talking with her and gave me her address so that we can share the gospel with her. As she was getting off the bus, she said, ‘I got on the wrong bus, but I didn’t get off. No one sat by me until you came … and look what happened.’ God’s plan is perfect!”



This is something that each and everyone of you all can do too. Every morning-- pray with "REAL INTENT and FAITH in Christ" for the opportunity to serve someone.. to be able to have a short conversation with someone where you are able to bring up the church/the gospel.. something small but specific. And i KNOW it will come :) do it everyday.. every morning and then SEEK that oportunity that God puts in your path.. ask for the spiritual sensitivity to RECOGNIZE it. It will happen :) I love you all so much!!!!!!



Thank you for everything you do for me.. and all the love I feel each week when i get online and have a full inbox of emails. I have been thinking a lot lately about just how far I have come in this past almost 1 year out here on my mission.. I am so happy I decided to come. I am so grateful for the many people I have met, and the effects they have had on me :) But I am especially grateful for (you) my parents (i dont know if anyone else really reads these emails) and helping me gain my own testimony growing up, and keeping me on the right path. I love you so much, I miss you so incredibly much. I am so so so so so excited to be able to skype in about 2 months.. geesh.



as for birthday requests... i dont really need more scarves haha I have quite a few. maybe one or two more really warm ones would be good... and then i REALLY need a yellow(more golden) and red cardigan.. LONG SLEEVED THOUGH PLEASE. :) other than that.. nothing that is going to make me fatter.. I am finally feeling like I have gotten back to normal lol.



Thank you again so much for everything. Pray every day this week for that opportunity to be an instrument in the Lords hands!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



-Hermana Weller :)

Raleigh Temple with Sis. Ashworth

Raleigh Skyline

Strange Week!

Hola!

So this week was a little weird because we emailed last week and then we went and did normal stuff the rest of the day. and then Friday we went to the temple and then had a preparation day after that! So it just threw me off! haha :)

But. okay- so we saw ____ and ____ and had an amazing lesson with them. We watched the talk by Elder Bednar (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/come-and-see?lang=eng) that was for the non-members of the church.. It was a really good experience because they got to watch a true apostle of the Lord speak to the world! and it was directed to them, and helped them really understand even more why we are here trying to share this great message with them. We then discussed discerning truth and really how we know if things are from God or not. Then they told us about all the changes they have been making all on their own! They have been trying to not watch as many novelas haha or tv in general! they deleted the games off their phones that they were wasting a ton of time on.. and they have been trying to replace that time with actually talking together as a family and reading the Bible! (we are getting them to read the Book of Mormon too) But they are doing these things because of the added Spirit that they have felt and that is in their home :) the gospel literally changes people in so many different ways.

They basically were just saying how they have more desires to follow Christ and they know that the Lord has sent us to them. So we opened up to 2 Nefi 31 and read:

"And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?


And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son."


and then we asked them if they have prayed about being baptized and truly following Christ.. and they said honestly, no we havent actually prayed specifically about that. We said how come? and then they were like.. well we feel like now we really HAVE to. we NEED to know.. we have to get rid of the doubts that we have and the wonders that we have.. but they are just a little nervous to ask God. (BECAUSE THEY ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER haha) and so they are basically going to try and have a Joseph Smith experience.. they wanted to set a specific time to be all alone, no distractions and to be able to pray and ask God if this is the true church or not, and if they need to be baptized. so we are SO excited!!! we get to go see them tomorrow :) we are actually going to go see them 30 mins after the transfer meeting is over haha! so my new greenie better be ready to hit the ground running! haha:)






I dont know anything about my new companion I am getting this week, all i know is she is american.. The Mexican sister i was supposed to get is STILL not ready to come out into the field because of her enlgish but none the less i am excited to be a mama! and train.. I am a bit nervous still.. but it should be good :)






___ and ___ are not really progressing still :( we had a good lesson the other day with them.. we talked about coffee and about them getting married AGAIN haha. They had another really neat faith building experience. They prayed the last week that they would be able to sell all the food and make the amount of money they needed to so that they would be able to go to church the next day, and they did! and they were able to go to sleep and come to church! but then this week they didnt come to church again.. so it is hard. We are really trying to discern what we need to do.. ___ is very stubborn about getting rings before they are married. She isnt going to get married without rings -___- but her goal is by December. We may just have to be more patient with them and continue to help them be strong and ready to be baptized.






funny story from this week... We had called this new investigator lady to set up a time to go and see her and she told us a very specific time. we even called a couple hours before to verify because she lives kinda far away. then as we were walking through the apt complex to get over to her apt i saw her from a far and she looked and saw us and then literally grabbed her daughter and RAN inside. then we still went over there and her sister was outside and she told us she wasnt there.. i was like seriously? hahahahaha i have never had anyone RUN from me..






The bishop and his family are so great in this ward! He is american (from utah) but speaks perfect spanish and his wife is from Spain. she is such a character hahaha. they are also very well off.. sooooo good news is that when we come back here to visit NC we can go and stay at their beach house on carolina beach and hang out with them! woop woop! :) He was so sweet, yesterday he told us that he really really appreciates us and loves us! He doesnt want sister Ashworth to leave. lol.


Well. That is about it for this week.. We have had a bit of a shortage of investigators lately, we are trying to rebuild our pool but it is just really hard for some reason right now. #doublingmyfaith


I am so grateful for the abilities we all have.. and that we are all able to receive personal confirmation of the truths of the gospel. I know that it is so important, like Elder Uchtdorf said in general conference, for us to gain spiritual light and knowledge every single day. I am amazed how things I have studied and learned in the past continue to just be impressed and illuminated more in my mind as I study them out more and teach them to others. Make sure you as well are doing all you can each day to gain more spiritual light and then share it with someone!


I love you all so much. Have an amazing day and week!!! (and dont forget its my birthday in about 3 1/2 weeks :) )


-Hermana Weller <3

ATTENTION!! B-day...

Hola, haha :)

Just a reminder to everyone out there! my birthday IS in ONE month. The big 2-0. :)


anyways.. what a good week i have had!!! and seriously this next week is going to be so good!

We get to go to the temple again on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So today we are only emailing home and doing shopping/laundry and then we are proselyting the rest of the day! then friday after the temple is our day to do whatever :)

okay this is probably going to be a shorter email because I dont have a lot of time!! sorry!

We had zone conference this past week! It was really good. really spiritual.. I never want this time to end. gah! haha and then we got to watch meet the mormons! (just at the church as missionaries) but we had to leave part of the way through because we had an appointment to get to! but it was really good! i enjoyed it :) hope y'all have gone to see it as well!!


I guess because i dont have much time, i just want to express how much I love being a missionary and just how much i truly do know that we have a Heavenly Father that knows and loves us so much... With all these people we are visiting and trying to find, it is all so lead by his power and his wisdom. We are nothing without him in this work! We arent just trying to help people be better people... we are helping them truly come unto Christ and it is possible because of the help the Lord gives to us. I know this church is true. I really do. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I finished it again this week.. It is my favorite book.. It is so good. It is the word of God.

Have a good week everyone! i love you all so much and i appreciate all your love and support SO much.

-hermana Weller

 Doing a service project for the food banks

 My favorite place, the Temple.

Our district of sisters, driving to meeting

New Companion, Sister Ashworth

August 18 Raleigh MILAGROS

HOLA FAMILY!! I love and miss you all so much :) This has been seriously just such another amazing week.. You probably think I just say that every week because I am supposed to be having a good time out here on my mission but seriously. I couldn't ask for any more blessings right now. The Lord is blessing us SO much. This last week we continued to see miracles upon miracles.

First, starting off with the lesson we had with _____ this past week.. It was POURING rain this day and so we were driving to our next appointment and as we were driving I realized we would be passing by her house and I felt like we should stop! So we did.. We got DRENCHED as we ran from the car to her door haha.. but we had an amazing lesson. It was one of the most Spirit-lead and special lessons I have had on my mission. She shared with us some really personal experiences she has had in her past.. and talked again about _____ (her cousin who just recently died who was a former investigator--so sad). She had a dream once that was almost just like Lehi's dream... so we left her with 1 Nephi 11 to read on her own. She committed to pray about everything. We are excited for her. :) Please keep her in your prayers.

Then these are the best stories ever. ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

Okay so Wednesday we went over to visit our family of investigators, _____'s :) When we got there they started telling us about the experience they had had. So the dad works with granite.. countertops and such. He needed to get a truck to be able to do his work better and to be able to find more work. So they prayed. He said that he prayed to God and asked Him that if everything we had taught them-- if Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the Church was really true.. he asked that God would help him get a truck to answer those questions . The next day, they found a truck to buy! He said he knows everything is true. God answered his prayer and he knows that this is the true church and that everything we have taught them is the truth!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!! Literally I was going to just bust out crying when they told us that.. And it really build his wife's faith, too. She I guess in the past she has had a harder time believing in God and in prayer and things.. and after that experience they had she knows that if you ask God in faith, He WILL answer your prayers :) man. Seriously. MILAGROS! (miracles)





Then. fast-forward to Saturday. We were out with a member to visit some people but they weren't home. So we get a call from ___ (the dad of the family that prayed) asking if we were going to come over that day. We said yes! Cause now we had an opening. He said well can you just come right now! So we went over there with the member that was with us and it was perfect! We finally got to teach them the plan of salvation all the way through with the little visual aide and everything.. and I can't even explain to you what happened.. It is one of those "priceless moments". As we explained the Celestial Kingdom and the fact that they could be together as a family- in a FAMILY UNIT FOREVER, they looked at each other with the biggest smiles on their faces and were just SO excited. I cant even express how incredible of a feeling it was! They loved it so much. and we invited them to be baptized on August 30th and ___, the dad, said YES. He would be baptized tomorrow if he could.. and his daughter loves church too. But ___, the mom, was still a little bit unsure about it. She wants more time. So we have been praying like CRAZY that she will have the experiences she needs to have to come unto the Lord and be baptized... for some reason we felt really prompted to set 3 as our baptismal goal this month and here we are :) They want to be baptized.. they know it is all true :) I cant even express my feelings haha.. God is just amazing.. He works on His elect people SO much and even though just a week or two ago I felt like we had messed up completely because we can't speak Spanish all that well....He has made up for those weaknesses and helped them feel the truth still. IS TODAY NOT A DAY OF MIRACLES?!?!? I SAY UNTO YOU NAY! :)

(Moroni 7:29)

Other than that.. a few not as spiritual things hahaha.. so the other day we went to have dinner at a less-active family's house that we go to all the time. As usual, I didn't park in the little "visitors parking" because we never do and nothing ever happens. BUT. mid-meal.. there was a knock and this Hispanic man said "¿Tienen visitantes con un carro rojo?" (Do you guys have visitors with a red car?) and we were like "¡si!" And then they were like.. "well you probably want to move it! so we literally ran out the door to the car" and I jumped in the front seat and my comp got out to back me up...And because she was back there backing me up the tow truck guy couldn't get under our car to tow us away!!! He got the car next to us instead haha.. But it was crazy haha.. we would have been in big trouble.. :)

Then the other story.. this week we went to this one sister's house for dinner and ate posole (i am so glad you know how to make that now mom haha it is so good) and then after we asked her, "well why don't we come back in a couple days and help you organize your pantry?" ...because it was a disaster and she could use our help! So we come back a few days later......... and started in the project not thinking it would be more than an hour or so.. but as we got to it... we found an infestation in everything! YIKES! But after we were done it looked nice and we were glad we got to do that for her.. she has been kind of depressed. So, it was great we were able to serve someone who needed it.

Other than that.. I think that is it for this week. Please just pray for the ____'s that we wont have any sudden barriers and that they can be baptized on the 30th :) Thanks!! I love you all so so so so so so much. have a fantastic week. Trust in the Lord! Miracles can happen when we have faith in Him and trust that He loves us enough to do so.

Con Amor,

Hermana Weller :)

Raleigh July 21

HOLA!

They always say that after a really bad and hard week, it is a good week. And that was for sure:) last week was so hard!! we didnt find many people to teach, but now this past week was amazing.

So as a Spanish sister, its kinda tough because there are other little rules with teaching people haha. So when we meet someone and teach them a lesson normally it would be counted as a new investigator if we set up a return appointment. But since Hispanic people are all really nice and stuff (for the most part) we have to teach 2 lessons with a return appointment for them to be considered a new investigator. SO. If we were English sisters... this week we would have found 12-15 NEW INVESTIGATORS. Yeah. That is what I am talking about!!!! haha so now this week we just have to go back and complete the process. Alot of them are just really really great too. FAMILIES :) CHILDREN and parents! and also single mom families are really common too.. but yeah. it is just so great.

____ DOESNT HATE US!!!!!!!!! So we were really nervous last week about that.. We went to the mission office though and they let us have a LARGE print spanish Book of Mormon to give to her and so we wrote our testimonies in it and then we were going to just drop by and give it to her, but she wasnt there when we tried. So then we called her that night and she answered!! and said she had sent us a message and we just hadnt gotten it. WOO! then we set up an appointment with her and we were able to go and see her yesterday :) We gave her the Book of Mormon so now she can actually read it because she had a hard time seeing the regular sized one and her children just love us so much too. Ah. It makes me so happy, we are still moving forward with her and it is all good!!

Okay really funny story time. :)

So tuesday. We had some plans to go and visit people in the evening and we even had some exchanges set up to go with us! But the sky was really dark all day, and so of course it started POURING that evening so we had to change our plans a bit. But from walking...(running) from the church to the car, and then from our car to someones house we wanted to visit we got so wet (even though we had an umbrella) and I was wearing a white shirt....... so we had to go home to change. We made some changes in our plans and we got to go see the family with all the small children which was so great. :)

THEN. we got home to do our planning session and it was still raining a lot. and right as we were about to finish up planning the power went out! so we were using a flash light to help us finish up and then we realized that the power had been out for a little while and that sister evans had just bought ice cream last monday and it was going to be wasted and we NEEDED to eat it!! so we went into the kitchen with the flashlight and just huddled around the chocolate ice cream in the dark. Eating it right out of the carton. sister evans said "we are living every childs dream right now" hahahahah man I was dying laughing. Then after we ate BASTANTE ice cream we got ready for bed because it was time to and then the lights came back on haha.

okay one other funny story really fast.. we went into a gas station the other day to grab a fast snack because we had a huge lunch and didnt have time to eat a full dinner. But as we were walking back to our car there was this man and his girlfriend or something sittting at this table and he was like " you are the first mormon woman I have ever seen in my life!" and we were like what?! really? and so then we chatted a little and then concluded with well.. yup! we are real-life mormon woman AND we have a car haha they were really surprised about that one as well lol.

We went and served at the food bank for the first time this past week! That was fun :) we were in the warehouse.. cleaning pallets off and checking to see if there was mouse poop any where hahah fun stuff!

Well I love you all so much! The Lord really does love us so much. We are so blessed. I love being out here and I cant believe it has been 8 months! AH! Time is flying. My spanish is getting so much better. I have been just praying my hardest to be able to learn better and understand even more and I see His help. I love this work! I love you! I miss you all! I dont know if my mail has been getting sent back or what but I havent gotten any mail since I have been here really haha.. So pick it back up people! lol jk :)

love,
Hermana Weller

July 14 Raleigh

Woo! Another great week from Raleigh NC :) It has been definitely getting TOASTY here.. haha yesterday was incredibly hot. Man.


Not a whole whole lot happened this week...
This week was tough.
But it was good. We went on exchanges with the sister leaders which was interesting.. hahah I felt bad for my comp, Sister Evans because she stayed here in our area and had to try and find people to visit who spoke English, but that didn't end up working I guess haha she basically had to teach everyone by herself because all her lessons were in Spanish! But luckily they were just with less active members and such:) I got to go and speak just English! haha it was weird to be back in an English setting...haha but it was a good change.


Unfortunately after our really good lesson last week with ___ we haven't been able to get up with her! We don't know what happened :( But its really sad and we hope that we can some how figure out what is the problem and salvage that baptismal date! She is so great and we know that she really enjoyed everything that we had taught her.

So we have been having a really hard time finding new investigators to teach. This week we are just going to have to buckle down and double our faith we decided. We are going to have to pray more fervently and with more trust in the Lord that he is going to help lead and guide us to those we need to find! We have been doing a lot of good work with some less-actives and recent coverts though so that is really great. One of them that we have been helping get back is about 24 and he is now saying he is having desires to serve a mission!!! It is just so great to see the atonement really work in peoples' lives.

I am sorry this week's letter is not very exciting!!! I don't have a ton to report about this week that was super stellar. I do KNOW though that Christ really did suffer for me and truly has grace and mercy for all of us. I have been relying on his grace so much lately in helping me be able to learn and understand Spanish more... I know that obedience even if we dont really understand it or agree with whatever the commandment or rule might be will bring blessings EVERY time. I LOVE the Book of Mormon SO much! I have been in Alma 26-29 and I seriously just want to be like those missionaries! They are such great examples. I want that joy!! I want to make all my hard work worth it in the end, and that I can pass out because of my exceeding joy just like Ammon did;) hahaha..

Well I hope you all have a great week. and I love you so much. Trust in the Lord. He WILL help us if we have the faith and belief that He will.



-Hermana Weller

July 7 Raleigh

Yet again a fantastic week! :) To answer everyone's questions.. The hurricane didn't really effect us at all! It was kinda windy and it rained a tiny bit, but other than that nothing much happened!

Ok well let's just get to the good things that have happened this week!:) starting with yesterday.

Yesterday was fast sunday. they are always the best!! We came home after church and did a quick comp study and then we went out to visit some referrals we had. Literally for 2 hours we knocked doors and tried going to see other people and no one was home.. It was HOT and it was hard because NO ONE was opening up. But then we went home and ate our feast dinner haha.. and went out again to see some other people. and again no one was home everywhere we tried. Until at 7 we had an appointment with our investigator, _____ and we had a member coming with us to that lesson. All day through out my fast and as well as the hard times during the day I just kept praying that she would at least be there and we would be able to meet with her. We got there and she opened the door! and we had a lesson with her! :) It was such a good lesson too.. we really helped her understand the WHY of the gospel for HER. why SHE needs the gospel.. the blessings of the spirit that come after being baptized and how we need faith and hope to get us through this world. She said that since we have been meeting with her she has felt a lot of peace.. She said we have a peaceful feeling to us when we come and talk with her. :) and then... SHE ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE! woohoo! for the end of this month! please if you would, just keep her in your prayers that she WILL continue working with us to achieve that date:) She is amazing and just needs it so bad. She has 2 little kids that are so cute and they love us so much. and her husband.. well he is going to maybe need a little more time for things:) But one day he will join the church too and then get sealed as a family!!!! :) ah. so great.

A few other things that I have really learned this week from experiences we had..


We went and saw that family who apparently on the ward roster it said do not contact but we did anyways haha.. and they fed us some really yummy food. they are from Peru! But anyway.. when we shared our message we started talking about forgiving people because that is why the wife doesn't come to church any more is because she got really offended or something and the ward doesn't even really know what happened... but it just was so sad. I started crying when I was telling her that the Lord has so many blessings for their family that he wants them to take part in! It wasn't chance that we got into their home that first day.. The Lord is giving her this chance to take part in everything that he has for them and we love her and the Lord loves her and wants her to go to church. But she doesnt see the need. She has strong faith in Jesus Christ.. but as my companion said.. It is just misplaced. She doesn't understand that the "manchas" (stains) or scars that still might hurt from whatever happened can be healed through Christ. We don't have to forever have those bad feelings.. After we left we just were so sad. I imagine it almost as the judgement day. Jesus Christ will be there and he will basically BEG people (like we basically did with her) to accept him and his gospel so that they can have eternal happiness and they will reject it STILL. Makes me think of Alma 28:14. We see so much good from the gospel! but then we also feel the sadness that comes when people don't accept it. :( But the bishop said we have done more in the 3 visits we have had with her than they have ever gotten done in the past 3 years so he wants us to continue going to see her.

I really know just HOW important the family is.. How much we all need both a mom and a dad paired with the gospel! There is a single dad in the ward who recently joined the church and his little kids are just going to have problems.. you can already tell. It is so sad. It breaks my heart! one of them sat with us during sacrament meeting though. he is too cute.


We had a really really good zone conference this week! I seriously love the Berhisel's SO much! they are just amazing people. So inspired and just so loving. :) one of the new assistants was my zone leader when I was in Raeford and he was SUCH a good zone leader so that is so great! We were just very inspired after zone conference and we have been able to apply new things in our teaching from what we learned:)


Well.. that is all for this week really. I love doing this work so much. I know that the Lord loves each and every single one of us on this earth SO much. I have been trying to see every single person that opens the door to us as Heavenly Father sees them and it is just great. My companion is so good at always baring her testimony of that love to those we teach and so i am trying to develop that same charity for these people! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for this short time I have to give everything to the Lord. Our district leader did some math and of a 24 month mission 16 of them are used in eating, sleeping, meetings, church, etc. and only 8 of those months is proselyting time. That perspective has really hit me! Time is ticking! I am going on 8 months of being out! I just want to make the most of this time:)

I love you and I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you even more! Have a great week. :)


Hermana Weller

Hola! Que tal?!

I love my new area.. It has been so great so far. I am in Raleigh 3rd ward so we technically cover the entire raleigh stake (english area) so it is again a large area, but we share it with 2 sets of elders as well. I was completely blown away yesterday when I went to church and there was an entire chapel full of people. and they were all Hispanic! It is the only Hispanic WARD here in our mission, and they are honestly amazing:)





My companion is so great too!! Hermana Evans. She is "from" Hawaiii.. But she is a military child so she has moved all over the place! She went to high school in Tucson but then now her family lives in Hawaii.. So it has been fun to talk all about the different places we both know and have been to! :) she is incredible though, she has such a strong testimony and such a great love for these people. She speaks good spanish already and she has only been out 2 transfers (this is her 3rd) so I am the senior comp but it doesnt always feel that way now haha. We are definitely working together and helping eachother a lot. It is great.



That I think has been the hardest part of this past week. Is just my Spanish abilities. I get really frustrated with myself because I wish I could say more.. or when I do talk, sometimes I say things I didn't want to say or I just feel like I sounded stupid when I said whatever it was I did. I have just been thinking a lot about that and I have realized that I if I really am just being lead by the spirit to say what the Lord wants me to say, I wont have to worry about it. I will say the right things.

Then, this morning I read a talk in the Liahona (Ensign.. actually it might be new era. it is combined in the Spanish one) about "Llegar a ser perfectos en Cristo" translation: "Becoming Perfected in Christ". I would invite you all to read it.. it is soooo good. It just really helped remind me that I dont have to be perfect.. and that being discouraged weakens faith. So there is no use or benefit of complaining about the things that are bad or discouraging. The Lord doesn't expect us to be perfect in general in all the things here on this Earth. That is why He gave us His son, to atone for us so that we COULD make mistakes and we COULD grow and learn. He doesn't want us to mess up or sin, but he DOES want us to grow and learn while we are here on the earth.


I have had some really good personal studies lately mostly focusing on the Atonement. and that is because in PMG it says "as your own knowledge of the atonement increases, your desire to share it with others will increase" (or something to that effect) so I have really been trying to understand all the different aspects of it and it has been great. I love the illuminating effect of the spirit! :)


I wish i had more time to be able to share with you all that i have learned about the atonement, but I just cant express it through a short email. I am just so grateful for it. I am so grateful for this time we have on the earth to learn and that we can feel the LOVE that God and Christ have for us through the Spirit. It is such a blessing too to be able to share that with other people here in Raleigh.. and even though it is hard-- in Spanish!:)



The leaders in our ward are a lot of americans that know spanish, and it is just exciting to think that in the future maybe I will get to go to a Hispanic branch and be apart of that because I will know Spanish woo! haha


so anyways. this week... We had good lessons with people! Hermana Evans introduced me to a lot of the members and we have a new investigator as well! He is the brother of a woman that just got baptized. (she actually got confirmed yesterday which was awesome too!) and he is very emotional about how great his family is and how much change they have had in their lives since they have joined the church. We are so excited for him! We have faith he is going to be baptized this transfer!! Other than that, nothing else to report.


I love you all so much and I am so glad to be here in Raleigh!!! Thanks for all your prayers and support. I can feel it:) I also cant believe it has been 7 months.. but i am one of the oldest Spanish sisters now... weird.


alright have a great week,


Besitos!!

-Hermana Weller

TRANSFERRED to Raleigh!!

Well folks,
After a great almost 6 months.. I am going to be leaving good old Wallace to go to the opposite way of life here in the mission... IM GOING TO RALEIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am kind of freaking out actually right now. I have to speak Spanish full time now.. And I haven't been for the past like 3 months.. I am so nervous! But excited at the same time. Man. This is craziness.. I found out I was transferring after dinner on Friday night right before we went over to the _____'s. So you can imagine when we told her.. It was not super good haha. She was really really sad. But we are going to see them again tonight! The last appointment here in Wallace.


Anyways.. Thanks for the pictures of y'all on vacation, you look so great and look like it is so much fun!! I am totally jealous but it is okay. haha


Let me tell you about the rest of the week and I will get to these past few days:)..So we went Monday and taught another lesson to this great Hispanic family we found last week. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and the mom just started bawling.. She has a few relatives back in Honduras that are really sick and they don't know what is wrong with them.. so it was just perfect for us to teach that. :) we were supposed to see them again yesterday or something but they had to reschedule:/ But it is super exciting! They have 3 kids and are all of baptismal age:) the great thing too is I think Sister Cardenas (the one from Tucson who I had known a little but before my mission) is the one coming here to Wallace to take my place-- and she obviously can speak Spanish for real! hahaha.. So the Spanish work will move forward a lot better now:)


Then Thursday-- we got to go out to Fayetteville to hear from Elder Corbridge!!!!!!!!! I loved his talk in general conference so it was so neat to meet him in real life. He instructed us for like 2 hours too! It was soo good. Literally amazing.. I learned so much and we were able to come back and apply things right away in our area that he had talked about:) He told us we really need to help people understand 1. why 2. how 3. what with everything we teach. We need them to understand the GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST because that really can answer those questions. Helping people know WHY they should do things we invite them to do!! then him and his wife also talked about not beating yourself up and being upset with your self. And it was just perfect. it was literally just what I needed right then.. And I was sitting right in the middle of the chapel-- and he was looking at me like the whole time. I literally felt like he was talking directly at me. It was amazing.

Then Friday we found out about transfers.. sad day haha but at the same time exciting! and then Saturday we went to a baptism with Lorena up in Jacksonville! It was so good:) the spirit was SO strong and I just started crying at the end when we had to sing the closing song "Lord, I would Follow Thee" (for some reason that is ALWAYS the song we have to sing when I am super emotional.. Its one of my fav's though:)) because ____ was there with us and I want so badly for her to be baptized!!! and i was sad I was leaving and all that.. but it was a good experience for sure!

We were at the Niebaur's to say goodbye...

                                                             Here I am with Lorena

Here's our last picture of our zone...

This is Rachel, Yami's mom

                                                                      Yami and I

                                                                    Sister Alvarez and I

Then yesterday at church it was just super unreal that everything was happening, I had to baer my testimony.. and Sister _____ and Sister ____ both were at church! It was so great:) and then we went and ate dinner with the ____'s one last time and saw _____ one last time.. and I didn't really get upset about going until today Brother ____ called us and told me that he is really going to miss me and that I have been one of his favorite "grand daughters" :) They are the BEST. I am going to miss them a ton.

Well wish me luck in my now totally Spanish adventures! I am off to the "promised land" of Raleigh! haha.. I can't believe it.
I love you so so so so so much. Thank you for your support and your emails. It helps so much each week.
I know this church is SO true. The Spirit is something un-deniable. I hope we all are able to recognize when He is speaking to us.. giving us that guidance and direction.. Have a wonderful week.


-Hermana Weller

My Mom Would Be So PROUD!!

This week was really good! The reason I titled this email what I did is because we did some service this week (cleaning) and afterwards I was like.. Wow, if my mom saw this she would be proud of me haha! Really, Mom. You would be proud of how well I clean and how good our house stays!


We helped Sister ____ clean out her car this week.. It was pretty grody (idk how to spell that) because when ___ was still here those kids tore up her back seat! But after we were done with it, it looked great.. and we were sweaty haha.


This week we got to meet yet another friend of ___'s and we are now teaching her:) She is really great! We taught her about the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end) and then at the end she started just crying and crying and we were like.. What are you feeling right now? She said, "scared". And we said what are you afraid of? Basically she said she is scared of going full force into a church again because as a teenager she had a really bad experience:( But she felt the Spirit and she opened up to us and we think she has great potential. We are excited to keep teaching her.


We got to go see ___ with Sister ___ and teach her about prophets and why we listen to their counsel and about the Word of Wisdom. She has been reading the Book of Mormon just from the beginning and she is enjoying it! She said she doesnt really have any problems with the word of wisdom so we are still doing great with her! She came to church yesterday.. and wow. it was a good sacrament meeting!! She was crying, I was crying, it was just really good. We are having her pray about June 14th. (she has to be baptized by that day because June 16th is transfers and I don't know if I am staying or not!!!) haha:) It's not about me.. I just really would love to be able to see her take that step.





Then the other cleaning we did was for Sister ___. She is less active and we have been working with her forever! We went and helped her clean her house (deep clean it!) because her back is pretty bad and she can't do certain things that we have no problem doing. So that was good. It was nice to get dirty and clean and just talk with her and build that trust. She ordered pizza and we ate lunch with her whole family before we left and she said she was for sure going to come to church and then she didn't :( It is really hard to have that happen because they seem sincere and our less-actives we are working with really are changing and want to come. But then they don't. We are going to do what you said, Dad- and go knock on their door before church and make sure they are getting ready.. but some of them live really far away) :)


But yesterday was really just such a great day at church, I love fast Sundays. I always just feel the Spirit so strongly when I am fasting and it is crazy how much easier fasting has become even though I do it longer than I used to. Our lessons were all just so great and the spirit helped me learn some things and write down some things that I want to make sure and apply to my family when I get home and down the road when I start my own family.


I have been loving the Book of Mormon so much this time that I am reading it through.. I have been just trying to absorb it ALL because when I gave away my first book of Mormon experience book I feel like I lost a lot of my ability to just turn and find a scripture. So this time I am trying to just lock it in:)


I love you all so much. I know that the Lord loves us all very very much and He puts people in our lives so we can effect them and bring them closer to Him just through our example. I know fasting is powerful. It can help us to feel the Spirit so much.


Well. that is all for this week.. Nothing extremely exciting! Life is great as a missionary though:) so great.


-Hermana Weller