Well, Hey There

Hola hola y'all!

How is it happening over there? Not a ton happened this week, but it was nevertheless a good one.  We had two exchanges which was awesome and I loved it.  I went with Sister Hoffman to YSA for a day, then stayed here with Sister French for a day.  They are both super great sisters and it was fun to get to know them both.

Sister Hoffman and me - Sister Hoffman is actually a Salt Lake City missionary, 

just serving in our mission for 2 transfers.  They do something called Outbound

which is where the sisters get to serve outside Salt Lake and get a real mission experience. 

We got transfer news yesterday, and nothing is happening to Sister Dibble and I.  This is my fifth transfer here in Charlotte, and Sister Dibble is moving into her seventh :) Bless her soul.  We've decided we'll just be companions until the end of my mission.  There are quite a few changes in our zone, so we're excited to get to know different sisters and have a little bit of a different feel in our zone.

Story Time: so Sister French and I were knocking my favorite apartment complex (Dunlavin Way) and we knocked on this door.  A younger guy opened, and we told him who we were.  He got sooo excited.  "I know you! I took lessons from the Elders in Honduras and my family and I went to church! How do I get back in contact??" It was awesome.  And now we're teaching him.  In that same complex, we saw a dad playing with his son outside.  We went to talk with him, and after awhile I handed him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told him it would help his family.  He looked so happy and took it gratefully, and began to tell me that all his family has been falling apart and he just wants to find peace.  Well, sir, there ya go.  We hope to begin teaching him soon.  THEN we had a lesson with Darwin.  He is awesome.  Our ward mission leader was there which was awesome, and he helped share a lot of great experiences which really brought the spirit.  Overall it was an awesome day.... until the whole entire zone called us.  So here's the story.  we had so many lessons and talked with so many people that we really didn't have time to mess with the phone all day long.  So we didn't.  But then when we got home finally after all our lessons, the Mattsons (the older couple serving in our ward) told us they'd called everyone in the zone, telling them we'd been kidnapped and were dead..... so that was a disaster.  But also a good laugh.  After that, Sister French and I decided to do facemasks, which was awesome.

Sister French and I....after a very long day ;)

Anyway, the rest of the week went well.  Not too many exciting things to report.  The work is really excelling in our area.  It takes awhile to gain Hispanics' trust, but once you have it, it never leaves, which is a huge blessing.

So this is a sign for a church.  I have no idea what it means.  

Something about Christianity maybe?.... we're still not sure.

I was reading all the different accounts of the Easter story on Sunday, and decided to read a little past in John, about the Apostles on the way to Emmaus.  I always think, wow, that's lame.  They spent SO much time together, and they learned from Him, but they didn't recognize Him.... I just kept thinking how weird it was.  Then I thought, well Sister Belliston, Christ has walked with you your whole life.... do you recognize Him all the time? So now, that's my challenge to you! I hope y'all can recognize Christ in your life.  He walks with us everyday, helping us out much more than we realize.  I love y'all so much.  I'm grateful for this Easter season, that we can reflect especially on what Christ did for us.  I love Him and know He lives.

I hope y'all have a wonderful week!
....and loving it
Hermana Belliston

What the Weather!

Hola Y'all,
My word.  This week was actually insane. 
UPDATE: the weather in North Carolina is actually more unpredictable than the weather in Logan Utah.  So, last Tuesday, it snowed.  Quite heavely actually.  Nothing stuck, but it snowed for awhile.  So that was weird.  But this week the pollen came out.  Oh my word.  Everything is yellow.  SO yellow.  Our car is dark gray, but now actually is yellow all the time.  And allergies are real.  But then we have torrential downpours in anticipation of Summer.  And we had a tornado watch yesterday.  Hurricanes anyone?

BUT, I have to tell you the funniest thing that's ever happened to me.  On Friday, we were out finding in Pineville (close to South Carolina).  We went down south and found 2 new people *woot woot.*  It was raining pretty hard, but then it would just randomly stop.  Anyway, we found those two people and afterwards we were really hungry.  We had an appointment up north (waaay up north), so we were in a hurry to get some food and get on our way. We went to the closest Wendy's.  We pull in, and the drive through line was six years long, so we decided to go in.  Just so you know, it wasn't raining when we went inside.  We ordered and were ready to go out in about 5 minutes.  We look out the window, and it is POURING.  All you Utah people have NEVER seen rain like this. Sheets and sheets and sheets of rain.  We just stared out the window and couldn't handle it.  Our car was probably 50 feet away, but there was literally a flood happening outside.  My word.  We got ready and just BOLTED out the door.  I was outside running for maybe 5 seconds, and all of a sudden I felt my bag break! My fries, burger, and chicken nuggets went ALL OVER THE PLACE. Everywhere.  I screamed at Sister Dibble, but she was tugging at the car door trying to get in.  For some reason I was trying to save my already sopping burger and fries, but then I gave up and hopped in the car.  We were outside for maybe 15 seconds, and it looked like we had just taken a shower.  We were soaking wet and we just died laughing.  We watched my nuggets and burger be washed away by the flood and it was quite tragic actually. Literally it was the funniest thing on earth and I really wish y'all could've been there to witness it.  You know the saying "when it rains, it pours"? It's a real thing y'all.
Anyway. that was definitely the most exciting thing that happened this week.  We almost drowned just walking.  Good times.

We went on a couple exchanges and had a good time.  I love being a Sister Training Leader.  We get to help a lot of the Sisters in our zone and just have a good time.  We're going on more exchanges tonight and later this week.

Our people continue to do super well.  Most of them have kind of hit a wall, so we're figuring out how to help them progress and get excited about the Gospel.  On exchanges this week, Hermana Workman and I left a note at this door, and the guy texted us the next day, thanking us for it.  Hna Dibble and I went back the next day and we talked about the Book of Mormon and read 1 Nefi 1 with him.  So he's awesome and promised he'd come to church next week.  It was super great.

We had a phenomenal zone conference. President Adler roasted all of us for not living up to our callings,  but he did it in the best way. The thing that struck me the most was that we get to choose. It's up to us if we do well, if we make it to the Celestial Kingdom, if we power through our trials. It's up to us.

Anyway, things are going super well.  Not a ton going on, but we've always got something fun to do :) We just got back from the zoo and it was awesome.  Such a fun time.   It's called Tiger World and it was super great.  All the tigers, leopards, lions, monkeys, and birds were all wide awake because it was early morning and they hadn't been fed yet.  It was so fun to see them get fed whole, raw chickens.  Also kinda nasty.  But all the lions were roaring and growling and being grouchy and pacing and stuff.  It was so fun.  We'll go back sometime :)

I sure love y'all and hope you have a great week.
...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Brandy

Hey Y'all,

This week went by SO fast.  It was nuts.  I went on exchanges with Sister Skousen, a Sister Training Leader Assistant.  She's a Sister AP.  It was really fun and I learned a ton from her.  The very next day I went on exchanges with Sister Fessler. She's super great and it was fun to just be with her, getting to know her a little better.  I forgot to take pictures on both exchanges so sorry....

The rest of the week is kind of a blur.... but let me tell you about the funniest day ever.  So, we were down finding in South Carolina.  One of our referrals didn't have an apartment number, so we decided to call the missionaries that referred her over.  We gave them a call, and they said "Oh, well are you here now?" and we said yes.  3 seconds later, Elder Higgins comes pelting full speed around the corner, tie flapping. They just got out of a Bible bash with someone a few apartments over and they were very excited to show us where this referral lived.  It was just so great to see them so excited to help us find our people. Oh, p.s., the woman they referred us to came out and told us that she was Catholic and had no interest in what we were saying.

After that, we put in another referral to go see.  After about 20 minutes, we drove into this VERY nice neighborhood.  This was different.  We were really excited to see what kind of Hispanic lived in such a nice place! We were driving along, and we turned the corner.  Ahead we saw a Chevy Malibou, and it had a little box in the corner.... hmmm... definitely missionaries.  We waved as we got closer, thinking it just a coincidence.  Then we looked at our address, and saw that it was the address to a very nice house the missionaries were parked outside of.  And, low and behold, Sister Adler, standing on the porch.  Our referral's address was the address to our mission president's home!  We were SO confused, but we just died laughing.

So we drove away, going to see yet another referral.  We drove past his house... and it was actually a candy shop.... but we were hungry so decided to go check it out.  We parked in another parking lot, then started walking.  On our way over, a really drunk woman yelled at us, telling us we were beautiful.  When we got to the candy shop, we discovered it was closed.  Everything was just so weird.  We walked back to the car, and the drunk lady started walking towards us.  She introduced herself as Brandy and kissed our hands, assuring us she wasn't gay but was just being chivalrous.  She was SO drunk.  She asked us about "Jesus Cristos" and wondered what was wrong with Methodists.  It was so random and weird but Sister Dibble and I just laughed and laughed.  What a random day.

Well, it didn't really stop there.  We had ward coordination that night, and our whole ward council started arguing, trying to tell us how to do missionary work in the best way.  Sister Dibble and I were just so tired and done that we had to laugh.  What a day.

That was basically all week.  Super random things like that all the time.

And then there was conference.  It was so great.  We played soccer before the first session, and it was the most epic game of soccer I've ever played in my life.  Wow, it was amazing.  We had two huge Hondurans play against each other and it was intense.  I played goalie and, believe it or not, did pretty well ;) It was great.  Anyway, then we watched conference.  Everything was so good.  I loved how many of the talks focused on families and how to strengthen them and help us against attacks from the adversary.  I think the talk that stood out to me was by Elder McKay.  He spoke about the Immediate Goodness of God and I loved it.  It's incredible how much enlightenment we can get from General Conference.

I love being a missionary! It sure has it's ups and downs, but usually there are a lot more ups than downs if you look at it right.

I sure love Y'all!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Bautismo de Tanya

Hola y'all,

This week was kind of super wild.  It was amazing.  We had SO much to do.  I have some pretty fantastic stories.

So one day we were knocking doors, and not finding any success.  Wahoo.  The trailer park was kind of sketchy, but we decided to keep going.  We got to the last door on one side, and a nice Hispanic lady opened the door.  She was super nice and it was the best.  She told us she was from El Salvador, so we asked her about papusas.  She told us she was making them the next day, and asked if we wanted to come make them with her.  Um yes.  So the next day we showed up and made papusas with her! They were straight up the best papusas I've ever had in my whole life.  They are really yummy soft corn tortillas with chicharon  (pork stuff) and queso inside.  They are divine.  So, we made them with our new friend, Carolina.  All of a sudden, she says, "Oh, I gotta go pick up my hija from school. There's juice in the fridge and ice in the freezer.  Be back soon." and leaves!!! She just left us in her house.  Two strangers.  Eating papusas and juice.  It was actually magical and I loved it.  So that happened. And now we're going to go teach her.  It was great.

That's us eating papusas while Carolina picks up her daughter from school. 

Legit the best papusas I've ever eaten in my life. 

On Thursday we had MLC, Mission Leadership Counsel.  It was phenomenal.  Brother Donaldson from the missionary department came and trained us. He talked about Connecting People with Heaven.  It was so amazing.  During the whole conference, I felt like we needed to go see a referral that we had got a few days ago, so after the conference ended, we went to her house.  Her name is Elena, and she is awesome.  She is going to start reading the Book of Mormon and is so excited about it.  She also came and played soccer with us.  Awesome.  Anyway, after we visited her, we went to dinner with Josh at Fahrenheit.  It's AMAZING.  It's on the 21st floor in Uptown Charlotte.  You can see all of Charlotte from up there.  It was beautiful.  And the food was amazing.  Wow!

Literally just me and my best friend, Charlotte.   

And Hna Dibble. She's nice too.

Josh took us out to a restaurant called Fahrenheit and it was magical. Blessed.

Then Tanya's baptism happened this week.  It was beautiful and amazing.  I love Tanya. I wish I could have recorded the spirit that we felt at Tanya's baptism.  It was amazing. The day of was crazy for us! The zone leaders called us right after we finished planning and asked if we could have an hour long zone planning session, so we did.  Then we rushed to have Spanish class, rushed back to play Saturday Soccer, then we got word that one of our people we're teaching, her dad passed away.  So we made some brownies and printed off a conference  talk.  Well, we tried.  We went to our office to print off a talk for her, and the programs for the baptism, but there was this guy.... he was taking a millennium with his homework. It was 4:30 pm and we were panicking.  So we flew over to the Mattsons and borrowed their printer, and then ran over to Veronica's to drop off the brownies and card, and the zone leaders called us.  This was the conversation:
Them "Sisters, we just drove by the church.  Your baptism is in an hour, and your car isn't there.  The font isn't filled, is it?"
Us, panicking, "We KNOW, elders, we know."
Them "Well, would you like us to fill up the font for you?"
Me, literally crying, "YES PLEASE!" So basically the zone leaders saved the baptism.  But we got to the church about 5 minutes after that, got everything set up, and Tanya and Hermana Labrador got there 30 minutes early.  That is unheard of, folks.  PS, Hermana Labrador is our member who has basically adopted Tanya and it's the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  It was so great.  Anyway, Tanya was so nervous, bless her.  She doesn't like all the attention, but a lot of people in the ward came to support and help her.  It was SO sweet.  The program went really well, except the pianist didn't show up, so dear Sister Mattson had to play, but she forgot her glasses.... so then I had to play, and conduct at the same time ;) ah man I loved every second of it. Tanya did so well.  She was super nervous when she got in the water, but after, she was just shining and radiant.  She absolutely loved every minute of it.  We asked her how she felt and she just said "like a weight has been taken from me." Weird how that happens when we take upon us the name of Christ, our burdens become lighter.  So it was an amazing experience.  All the ladies in our ward want to adopt her, but I told them to get in line.  They all adore her and just want everything the best for her.

Those are the Labradors, the members that low key adopted her. 

Hna Labrador calls her mija. My daughter. Its the cutest thing.

On Sunday she got confirmed, and that was so sweet.  The spirit was tangible.  Everyone could feel it.  It was amazing.  Tanya seriously just glows.  We asked her how she felt when we went to see her after, and she just laughed and said "wow." That's all.  True story.  She is so confident, and knows what she needs in life.  People keep telling her she needs to go on a mission, go to the temple, get married in the temple etc.... but yesterday we asked her what she wanted, and she told us she'd have to counsel with Heavenly Father.  She is amazing.  I've learned so much from her. She is the best thing ever, and I love her to death.

Wow.  Sorry my emails are 3,000 years long.  I just love being a missionary.  It's the greatest thing ever.  The Spirit is just all over the place and I love it!

Funny story of Hna Dibble: We were drinking our sleepy time tea right before bed, so I commented about the peppermint in it. Me "mmm, peppermint helps you sleep, so that's probably why it's in the tea." Without skipping a beat, Hna Dibble says, "Hmmm, maybe that's why Santa sleeps so much." Oh laws. I died.  It was the funniest thing ever!  She didn't realize she'd said it until it was out.  Oh my, it was great.

So the week was basically awesome.  Love it.  Love y'all.  Love the Gospel.

.....and loving it
Hermana Belliston