We Don't Do Mormons...

August 27, 2018

Hola Y'all! So, not a lot happened this week yet again, but I have some stories.

First off, David is doing SO well. We talked about the commandments this week, and he has zero problems with any of them. He really is just a dry Mormon. He has this never ending thirst for knowledge, and thinks that there is a lot more to the Gospel than there really is for us to teach him. He wants to know everything about the church, but he needs to get baptized first. On Wednesday, we talked about the temple and how our goal is to one day be married in the temple and start an eternal family. Without missing a beat, he told us we better invite him to our weddings! Oh, you better believe he's coming to my wedding, and he'll be baptized by then too ;) We plan on putting him on date tonight!!!

We've been doing a lot of work with inactives and menos activos, and we've been having success! It's amazing to me at how much love I feel for these people! they are truly amazing, and Heavenly Father has so many blessings in store for them! These Lamanites really are the greatest and I love them so much. I wouldn't rather be anywhere else in the world :)

We had interviews with President and Sister Adler, and I just love those people more and more every day. Our interviews were supposed to be at 11:45-12:15, but President Adler LOVES to talk, so ours ended up being at 3. Only 4 hours later ;) it was great and I'd never miss out on a chance to talk with him. I asked him a question, and I think it applies to everyone, missionary or not. I asked him how I can know that I'm serving with my heart, might, mind, and strength. That's a pretty big order! He looked at me for a bit, then said "Do you feel close to your Savior?" I said yes, of course, and he said "Well, then you know you are serving with your heart, might, mind, and strength. If you're close to the Savior, then He is happy with you, and because He is happy with you, you can know you are giving it your all." Wow. I love it because it applies to all of us, no matter what we happen to be doing or no matter our situation. If we are close to the Savior, we are doing right.

Okay, so Saturday was super crazy! We didn't know really what to do, but then we got a referral! Yay! so blessed. So we went to go find him. Unfortunately, he wasn't home, but we had some formers in the area we thought we'd try. We parked next to this little blue house, and decided to knock on the door, just to see. It opened a tiny crack, and a man said "what do you want?" well, we just told him we were missionaries. "Thanks, but we don't do Mormons. We're on the same side, but we don't do Mormons." Oh. Okay! I laughed pretty hard as we walked away.... But luckily we found someone else at home! We knocked, and an old lady opened. "Que paso?" she asked us. Um. We were a little confused, so then she asked us what we wanted. I replied we just wanted to get to know her. She sighed this really heavy sigh, then opened the door and told us to come in. We were SO confused! But we went in, and got to talking about her 13 children. Her name is Angelina and she loves the Word of God. We weren't really sure why she let us in, but then out of the blue she asked us if she could come to our church. Of course! We got a ride figured out for her and she actually came and enjoyed it! The Lord works in mysterious ways, folks! But it was such a tender mercy just to find this cute little old toothless woman and talk with her about Heavenly Father. On the way back from her house, we passed the little blue house again, and the man was sitting on the porch. He yelled out to us that he was sorry, and hoped he didn't offend us, but that we needed to be careful in the neighborhood. He talked with us about Joseph Smith and how Zion absolutely can't be here in the America's, but that he appreciated what we were doing. So, the man who doesn't do Mormon's talked with us for about 15 minutes about Joseph Smith and how everyone just needs to be friends. Yep. The South is the best :)

Well, that's about it! Life is really great. It's been a little cooler this week which has been nice. NC really is the prettiest place on earth. Lots of people have huge gardens, and when we see a plant we don't know the name to, we knock and ask what it is! It's actually a pretty fun and effective way of finding, believe it or not!

I hope y'all are doing well! Remember that Heavenly Father loves you and wants the best for you :)

....and loving it :)
Hermana Belliston

Vivimos en una manera feliz

Hola Y'all!

This week seemed to go by pretty fast! I'm now entering my next 6 weeks of training, and I will say I'm excited! Life is so great.  Being a missionary is the best :)

I hit three months this week apparently... time flies when you're spreading joy! We celebrated by making banana pudding.  Seriously the best food on the face of the planet.  I will make some for y'all when I come home, no se preocupe.  

Hermana Guiral is the primary president, and after church yesterday, I was just plunking around on the piano, and she comes flying in "Hermanita!!! Por favor puede tocar el piano el domingo proximo??!" She was ecstatic that I "know" how to play, and now I have a list of primary songs to learn for next week.... Haha I'm very excited actually and I hope the kids will forgive a lot of wrong notes and awkward pauses :) I have decided though that sharing the Gospel through primary songs is about the best thing ever.  So simple but true - literally the essence of the Gospel.

We had lessons with Ruby and David this week which was great.  Both are such great individuals and we love them a ton.  David is about the most humble person I know, and he is so ready to hear the Gospel :) We really love him.  We sang a Child's Prayer for him, and he really enjoyed it.  He sings songs to his 3 year old Daryel all the time and it's the cutest thing.  He also prayed the most sincere, heartfelt prayer I've ever heard! He hasn't been willing to pray as yet, so it was a HUGE tender mercy.  I literally felt like I was walking on clouds after.  You'd think it's such a small, inconsequential thing - a prayer - but it makes a world of difference.  It's so amazing to see people start to change and start to feel the spirit present in their lives.  I am so very very blessed to be an instrument in seeing that happen!

Yesterday we were in Asheboro trying to get in contact with Ana and Alejandro, but they weren't home which was a huge bummer.  But we saw a bunch of Hispanics sitting on a porch outside, so we walked over and started talking with them.  One had been baptized when he was 8 in Mexico, but he doesn't remember anything about the church because he immediately went inactive.  They were all drinking beer, and one of the ladies told us the best time to come say hello was Saturday mornings when they were all sober..... I laughed pretty hard to say the least ;) They weren't really drunk yet, which was good, and they all accepted Article of Faith cards and one of them (the wife of the "member") asked for a "Mormon Bible."  The others were all actually really curious (could've been the beer), but we gave them one and they legitimately wanted us to come back next week! haha I love North Carolina :)

Also, yesterday at church was amazing! Oh man! We had two less active/inactive families show up, and they both brought non-member friends!! Haha I love that!! Pasa milagros! It was AWESOME! I about died of happiness.  Not to mention the members who brought people as well... So this week our teaching pool could potentially double :) Mi corazon.... I love it.  Sundays have been pretty disappointing in the past, but yesterday I couldn't stop smiling.  Heavenly Father is so good and blesses me with more than I can ever deserve! Sometimes it's actually super overwhelming.  

Thanks so much for your support and help! Y'all are the greatest and I love y'all so much! I hope y'all have a very blessed week :)

....and loving it!

Hermana Belliston

It looks like the cloud is casting a shadow on the sky.... Nothin' Could Be Finer!!

As always, making sure our less actives feel loved ;)

Pasa Milagros

Hola Y'all,

Life here in Piedmont is rollin.'  Not much to say but I'll try to make it interesting ;) I have a couple of really interesting stories though, so be prepared ;)

We met a lady named Consuelo on Tuesday.  She is AWESOME.  Super not Hispano though her name is.  She had a great Southern drawl and she talked to us for close to an hour.... whoops.  Anyway, she's got 11 kids (2 sets of twins and a triplet as well).  She talked to us about the perilous times we live in and how "beautiful babies" like us need to be careful.  Ooohhh  that drawl is beautiful ;) She told us to love and respect our parents and to call them up every night and tell them "mama, I sure love ya 'n respet ya.  Thanks for all ya do for me." So there you go, to all the mom's out there from Consuelo to you ;)  It was great.

On Tuesday night we had dinner with the Vazques familia, and I saw first hand the wrath of a Latina madre.  Que wow.  One of Hermana Vazques's daughters was asking if she could go out on Friday and Hermana Vazques hit the table with a spoon and went off in a streak of Spanish.  I jumped, and Hermana Powell was dying trying not to laugh.  It was pretty hilarious because their bark is SO much worse than their bite.  

We were in our office on Thursday morning, and as we were leaving I saw this nice black lady sitting in a rocking chair.  I said "ma'am I sure love your hair!" and she responded with "Praise God!!" It surprised me, but then I asked her if she wanted a picture of Jesus and she nodded and said "Hallelujah."  Have I mentioned I love the South?

So, for the past couple of weeks things have been really really slow.  We haven't taught many lessons and we haven't seen very many people.  I get SO frustrated when we don't have lessons because that is why I'm here! One day we decided to try Karla, a lady who had never been home because she works two jobs.  Well, she finally opened the door, invited us in, and we taught her the first discussion! She agreed to basically everything we said and said if we needed anything, to call her and let her know.  She works a TON so we're not sure when we'll be able to get back with her, but that was a miracle for us! Not to mention the next day, we felt prompted to go to Thomasville and Lextington, both of which are bien lejo.  Anyway, we got down there and taught two other lessons! Folks, I haven't taught a lesson in weeks and I taught three in two days! Que wow.  Can I get a hallelujah?! When we listen to what the Lord has to say to us, He will guide us.  It's that simple.  

Remember David? Well, since we had our lessons with him about Baptism, he hasn't texted, called, or answered his door.  We were basically frantic this whole week trying to get ahold of him.  Finally, yesterday he sent us a little text that started with "Mis queridas hermanitas..." My dear sisters! then he went on to explain that he'd been working a lot that week and had just been too busy.  HUGE weight lifted off our shoulders and we have plans to visit him again this week :)  Also, at church yesterday Irma Giron (inactive for 14 years with a nonmember spouse and children) came to church along with the inactive/nonmember family Sanchez!!! Along with Hermano Verduzco.  I felt so blessed.  Sunday's have always been a struggle because no one will come to church! But yesterday it was great and everything worked out so well :)

Anyway, hope you know how much I love y'all :) Things really do always work out.  Weird.

... and loving it :)

Hermana Belliston

Doesn't happen very often, but we ran into the Burlington sisters while we were out in the rain one day.  Super duper fun and they're great.  The blond one (Sister Smith) came out the same time as me.

I don't know what the deal is with this, but in Lexington there are pigs all over the place with Cardinals on them.... kinda wack but a super cute little town.

We were taking pictures for Facebook in Lexington, and this is one that I liked :) if you have any brilliant ideas for a caption, let me know ;)

And last but not least, El Libro de Mormon.  I can't begin to tell you how much I love this book.  It has a power beyond any book on the Earth, folks.  Read it and love it and you're life will be so much more full of the Spirit.

From the Mission Office

I received this email last week and thought you might like to see Emma's mission president and his wife...

"Just wanted to share these photos with President and Sister Adler.

Thank you for sending Sister Belliston!

Sister Kitchen
Mission Office"

Busy Day

Emma sent photos today, but had appointments and didn't have time to write. She said, "Please let everyone know how much I love them and how I pray for yall every day :) "

New Missionary Training with Hermana Powell

New Missionary training was awesome! I learned so much about heeding the promptings of the Spirit and I absolutely loved it.  It's super great how Heavenly Father works with his mission presidents to let them know exactly what their missionaries need to hear.

  

Hops Burgers..... Que wow.  

I've never had a burger this good.  We were on exchanges and I ate the whole burger and all my fries... 

I really wonder what Sister Price thinks of me.  Your stomach gets bigger in Spanish land, okay?

It was raining, the sun was completely shining, and there was this beautiful double rainbow.  

Literally raining sunshine.

 

I really didn't think sunsets could get better, but they do! 

I commented to Hermana Powell that Heavenly Father must have a lot of fun creating things like that.  

It's pretty amazing.  

The sun here is SO great! 

I don't know why it's so different!