Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!

December 24, 2018

Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!

Y'all are the best and I love you to death. I hope you are enjoying the season and hopefully a white Christmas :)

 I love this season that we have to focus on Christ and His life and birth. It is so beautiful! I know He lives and loves us more than we can comprehend. People out here love talking about Him here and I have been able to hear so many good testimonies about Him.

We were able to do service for the homeless people this week. We put together sack lunches and handed out clothes and food to them. They were so grateful and happy all the time. It was so fun and it just made me happy! Good times.

I just love y'all. Thank you for all your support and love. It is such a blessing to have y'all in my life. Heavenly Father loves us and He loves blessing us!! I'll see y'all soon ;)

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

And also we played soccer with President Adler and his sons  - it was literally Germany versus Mexico and it was a blast. They all have hardcore German accents and it's great. We didn't get a picture, but Hna Koerner and I took one before we left.

And we made....

Mission Wide Conference

December 18, 2018

Feliz Navidad a todos!!

This week was pretty normal. Except yesterday when we had a mission wide Christmas conference!! Woot. It was so great!! All the missionaries were in one place and it was great. I got to see all my previous companions (all two of them) and it was great :)  Mostly it was a bunch of really great music and some funny talents. We played gospel trivia and Charlotte Central Zone won!!! Woot. We had Hna Taniguchi on our team though, and she is truly a very smart Asian so that's probably why. Anyway, then we sang Silent Night for President and Sister Adler in German and it was really sweet and they were really touched. President Adler gave us some words of wisdom for the upcoming year. It was a very spiritual conference and I wish y'all could've been there to hear it.
We also got transfer news and our whole district is the same :) another 6 weeks in Charlotte!

Other than that, the week was pretty regular with some pretty awesome lessons. It's just such a great time to be a missionary and to talk with people about Christ and His birth. I hope y'all are still lighting the world and helping others feel the Christmas Spirit :)

Well, I'm really excited to see y'all next week!! Yay for Christmas and for the miracles that it brings. I love Jesus Christ and am so grateful for His life and example. Gracias a él, tenemos todo lo que necesitamos.

Les amo mucho!!!
Hermana Belliston

NIEVE!!!!

Hola y'all!!

Yes. That's right. It SNOWED!!! everyone told me that it doesn't snow until January or February. Well, joke's on y'all.  We are about to have a white Christmas!

Basically just LOTS of snow and ice. So fun. 

Literally all the bread and milk is gone from the stores. 

All school is closed. No one is at work. Wow.

Not a ton happened this week. We were on bike week and I was sick for the first few days, so we didn't get too much accomplished. But we did bike six and a half miles to see a referral, and on the way there, we talked to a man who was convinced that he's been to the North Pole and that he talks with Santa every other day. Very interesting, but his yard was nice! It had a ton of lights. Other than that though, it was a pretty normal week. Alberto told us we need to repent and humble ourselves because we believe in a prophet..... not sure how all that works but oh well. There ya have it.

I hope y'all know how much I love this gospel. It truly is a joy and it brings so much light and happiness into the lives of those who receive it. Its amazing. I hope y'all are lighting the world and looking for opportunities to serve :) it's the greatest thing you can do!!

Stay warm, stay dry, stay safe!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Herman Blessin'some

Hola y'all :)

How is the Christmas prep going? I LOVE Christmas.  Its aboutta be the best ever! We have a Christmas countdown that we are doing as an apartment and it's great. Everyone here loves talking about Jesus and wants to light the world with us. It's the greatest ever. Bienvandias al sur 😊

Well, the reason for the subject line is that we talked to this Jamaican this week who kept calling me "Sister Blessin'some."  I think I want to change my name ;) he was so cool and just reminded us to pray and thank God every day when you get out of bed. Amen!

So, we showed up to teach a lesson, and the family was
having a birthday party. It was so fun! Also,
I didn't catch that they said the cake was mocha
until after I'd eaten a little bit of it... but I didn't finish it!! 🤫

Not a ton happened this week. We traveled to South Carolina to do a booth and we talked to a bunch of Columbians. They are literally my favorite people ever.

We had a ward talent show this week which was a blast. I was reminded how Hispanics cant sing all too well and it was the greatest. Hermana Koerner and I danced. She did some modern stuff and I pulled out my rusty Irish.  It was so fun!

Other than that, we did a zone service project in the pouring rain which was good. We kind of looked like drowned rats afterward, but it was good! With light the world, we are really trying to involve other people from other religions to join us. So far it's been awesome. We have some good plans to do some caroling and help out at some homeless shelters. Light the world is such a great opportunity to serve!! I hope yall can make time to participate this year.

Zone service project - picking up trash at a VERY clean park...

Sister Jackman and I. She's in my apartment and she's awesome. 

Well. I sure love yall :) hope you have a great week :)

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Día de Acción de Gracias

Hola y'all!

Well, Hispanic Thanksgiving is where it's at :)

I don't actually remember a lot of what happened this week, but let me tell ya about Dia de Gracias.

So, we went to interviews with President Adler on Tuesday, and we asked him what he was going to do on Thanksgiving. He told us he was going to play fútbol, and we got all excited because where there's fútbol, there's Hispanos. Then he told us to call the Assistants and get the address and time and come! So on Thursday morning,  we showed up and played the most legit game of fútbol ever with our president and the assistants. Hermana Dibble and I played on the same team as President and the assistants, and this kid named Jack (note for Jack Hart: he is your age and he totally beat all the adults at soccer and it totally reminded me of you. Keep it up and we'll play when I get home). Our team creamed the other ward and the other hermanas. It was awesome and I loved every second of it. We invited this Ecuadorian to come play with us as he was just jogging around the field, and then he creamed them too. It was literally the best to see President Adler playing his favorite sport. Pictures to follow.

After that, no one was super interested in hearing our message, so we went to familia Granados for dinner. It was soooooooo good. Take aTurkey, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, then make it Hispanic and that's what we ate. Wow. It was divine. Would recommend to a friend. Then we sang a bunch of hymns with them and just had a good time.

Obviously with this time of year I've been feeling very blessed and have been noticing all the blessings that I have and that we have as members of the church.  Que wow. It's pretty overwhelming when I  start counting all the blessings I have! I am so grateful for my family and friends and all yall do for me. I couldn't be out on a mission without yall :) of course the biggest thing I'm grateful for is Jesus Christ and His gospel. It is such a privilege to be a representative of Him and to wear His name. He is our Savior and He loves each of us more than we can comprehend. I am so excited for this season where we can contemplate more on what He did for us and how we can share that message with others.

I love yall! Hope yall have a great week. Stay warm! ❄☃️

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston