Hola y'all,
NOTHIN' COULD BE FINER THAN TO BE IN CAROLINA IN THE MOOOOORRRRRNIN'!!
Nothin' is better than waking up in Carolina! boy do I love this place!
And this is how I feel pretty much every day waking up!
K, let me recap on the CCM real fast: last week there were a bunch of Apostles milling around which was crazy awesome. Elder Holland walked behind me on my way to class, and I literally ran into Elder Uchtdorf so that was super great. Then I got to meet my new Mission President, President Adler in the CCM and become very well acquainted with him and his wife. They are amazing. They arrived in Carolina about 24 hours after I did which was fun and super duper crazy. So now he's my mission president and I think all is going well!
This is my president and his wife at the MTC with my departing district. Que wow. What an experience!
This is Hermana Bartholomew with our MTC district. I love all these people so much!
Hermana Jimenez is from Chile and is the sweetest human. She was a phenomenal teacher.
First off: North Carolina is green and is made of trees and humidity. I absolutely love it. It's perfect for me! We've had a drought for about five days now so that's been pretty rough (jajaja) but hopefully we'll get a good thunderstorm soon! Yes, there are fireflies and they're SO cute! reminds me of Nauvoo from forever ago! There are beautiful trees with bright pink and white flowers. It smells to me like a tropical rainforest so that's a definite plus. North Carolina's state bird is the Cardinal, and they are all over the place and are so beautiful, just like everything else here. I've already decided I'm not leaving.
When I finally arrived at the apartment with Hermana Powell, this is a sign that says
"bienvenidas Hermana!" and it's really cute ;)
These trees are everywhere... I don't know what they're called but que wow....
So, I'm up in Piedmont, near what we call "Narnia" because no one else is near it. Since we're Spanish Hermana's, we cover two English stakes, which is sixteen English wards.... Que wow. In all that area, we have a tiny Spanish branch of about 30 people sometimes. We're working on it. It's great though. To get from one corner of our area to another, it takes about 3 hours, so there's no way we can visit all the people we need to which makes me really sad.... but it's okay! we'll figure it out someday!
This is our branch building. It's in the sketchy part of town so it's surrounded
by a metal fence with a code to get in.
My trainer is Hermana Powell and she's great! She's a little timid and quiet, and I'm kind of really not like that, so we make a good team of opposites, keeping each other in check :) She has been so great with all the crazy changes and becoming a trainer between getting a new President, a new Preach My Gospel, and a new companion. She has almost been out six months, but has the mission down pretty well. She's super awesome and I'm excited to learn from her!
This is my trainer, Hermana Powell. We got Pelicans which is shaved ice and is better
than Pinks. Y'all should be jealous.
We have an Elder named Joseph Smith, and this Elder Smith taught Juan, whose last name happens to be Bautista... so Joseph Smith taught John the Baptist!! And we have an Elder Adam who is serving up north in Eden... Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor and I absolutely love it
Ok y'all, frozen hot chocolate is about the best thing on the planet. I'd mail it to y'all, but that's a bit difficult....
Now for the story: So I get here and I'm really excited to meet my trainer and all. First off, we had a DIVINE meal at the mission office. Honestly, the MTC food didn't seem that bad, then I had Southern Mac and Cheese and Banana Pudding and my life became complete once again. It was amazing. Anyway, I met Hermana Powell and we started driving up to Piedmont. She then tells me we've got a baptism on Saturday (the 30th). I was SUPER excited. They had also had a baptism the weekend before. I'm tellin' y'all, these people are ready, we just need to find them. Okay, so their names are Juan and Tanya. Originally they were the English elder's investigators, but they turned them over to us to they could attend church with the Spanish branch. Get this: Juan and Tanya have been married for over thirteen years. Tanya speaks much less Spanish than I do, and Juan can't speak English.... Strange people round here. I loved it though! It was so funny. Okay, so we got a frantic call from the Elders on Friday afternoon, begging us to call Juan because he told Tanya he didn't want to get baptized anymore. So we called Juan while we were driving. He starts talking and of course I'm not picking up much. Apparently, he was still very excited to get baptized and couldn't wait to eat our fudge cookies we made. Confused, we asked to speak with Tanya. I was excited because she spoke English so surely I would be able to understand that. She starts talking.... and I understood LESS than what I caught from Juan! Southern is a different language, kids. Que wow. I about died laughing though because I'm such a gringa and such a greenie, but I'm having a blast not knowing anything about stuff. But we got it figured out, and they were baptized on Saturday. It was a really great experience. Tanya is a pretty harsh lady, but she about melted when she saw her husband get baptized (three times because he was so nervous and wouldn't go under the water). It was really incredible and I'm glad I got to see it on my first week here. I hope we'll have a lot of success, though I'm not naïve to this whole process thing.
This is Juan y Tanya!
This is all of us that had the opportunity to work with them. They are so great!
Truly, this week was incredible. Fast and testimony was fabulous. I absolutely love these beautiful people. They are SO kind and they help me with my Spanish and help me know that I'm doing alright for just getting out here. I love them all a whole lot and I know that love is only going to get bigger. A little boy got up and bore his testimony, and it was simple enough that I could understand it! Then it hit me that that is how my own testimony is (in Spanish). I can't say much yet, but what I say, I know. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve these people. They are all so humble and ready to hear the Gospel and I'm excited to help them receive it.
I love y'all so much. I hope all is well over there! I think that's it... Nothin could be finer 
.... AND LOVING IT!!!
Hermana Belliston
Also, here's my address for Piedmont in case y'all were wondering!
