Wet Week

Hola Y'all,

This week was long and very, very wet. And super cold. But it was awesome! Most of the pictures will explain.  We're on our way to play Top Golf with some members! It's going to be a lot of fun :)

Mostly we just saw a lot of miracles. So that's awesome. Mauricio brought out a pad and pencil and literally took notes while we told him about the Book of Mormon. We have a lot of fun getting roasted by 5 year old Hispanic Chicas,  but we laugh a lot and work hard :)

At dinner with the Dominicana. They made us American tacos....

It's been a long time since I've had those!

Weekly planning - popcorn, hot chocolate, and el agua. Nailed it.

So, my companion is Italian y'all. It's the best. 

Apple swans

Not a lot of notable things happened this week. Just knocking and changing car tires. Yes, Hna Belliston popped and changed her second tire. We did it all by ourselves so we're pretty proud of that ;)  It was just a good week.

This is when Hna Belliston ran over a screw and when we put the tire on. 

By ourselves. Save the applause.

Well, sorry for this short and kind of lame email.... Hopefully I'll have something juicy next week ;) Love y'all lots!

  .....and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Changes

Hola y'all,

Wow let's talk about changes!! I just talked to mom and dad for a little while this morning..... just chatting ;) it was super fun! At first when we heard the news, I wasn't excited. Kind of takes the fun out of it! But now I can see that it can be such a blessing to missionaries. I told mom and dad a bunch of the miracles that happened this week, so if you have any questions, just ask them ;) Haha jk, I'll tell y'all, no se preocupen.

We went to south Carolina and decided to take pictures.

I hit nine months this week! Time is flying and it's really crazy.  I hope it starts to calm down soon. It's going way too fast for me. But things are going really well. We get a lot of things done and we have had some of the best lessons I've experienced.

I saw Hna Coleman at Spanish Conference. 

She goes home soon so we had one more picture!

We had a great lesson with Santos this week and he is doing well. The spirit was so strong. As Hna Dibble says "we fuegoed him." Yep, we just told him how it is and he responded really well.  Lets just say that his 15 year old son, Javi, is going to baptize him.

 With our goal to be instruments in the hands of Heavenly Father, we both really felt like the Spirit was able to work through us to help him. One of the things I've been asking myself at night (as kind of an accountability exercise is "what has Heavenly Father been able to do through me?" I think it's a great question, and it's really fun when you know He would be proud of you :) I would recommend doing that ;)

A huge miracle happened with a referral named Francisco. We stopped by his house and he rescheduled with us for this past Saturday. Never in my life have I met someone who will keep a return appointment, so we were like great, whoopie. But we always have to try at least! Well, we tried and boy am I glad we did. He was there, and we got to know him. He told us that he's been searching for churches, but never feels right and always hears a voice saying that it's not quite right. So he has stopped going to church and has stuck to reading the Bible (does he sound a little like Joseph Smith?).  He was very sorry he couldn't come to church yesterday because he was working,  but he literally told us "me voy a arrepentirme" I am going to repent. Wow. So he promised to come next week, and the weeks that follow as well! He's very excited to come and learn more about what we believe.  As we were leaving, he started telling us that he was about to leave before we came over because we were a little late (um, excuse me sir, Hispanics are never on time) but he kept hearing that little voice telling him that he needed to stay and wait a little longer.  Wow.  He is so in tune with the spirit.  More on him next week.  We are seeing him on Tuesday :)

Ok, funny story.  We were going to go see Norma, a potential in our area.  She is an old Dominican lady who is super nice (and a little crazy).  We stopped by, but there were a whole bunch of cars, so we knew something was happening.  We knocked, and someone I didn't know told us they were kind of busy and to maybe come back another day.  Ok! So we started to leave, and Norma's daughter comes flying to the door "VENGASE!" COME BACK! So we went back and they heaped plates full of rice and chicken.  Then they gave us this Dominican drink.  It was pureed (I'm sorry I can't spell) black beans, sweet potato, raisins, 4 different types of milk, and cinnamon.  It was weird.  Not bad, but very weird.  Good stuff.  Anyway, then they totally adopted us into their family (we literally took family pictures with them).  Then Dante (Norma's son) was like, hey! you should bear your testimony to me! That is the best thing anyone can say to me right now.  We got all excited, then he invited us into the living room, then his sister started FILMING! He totally went all announcer and said "Here we are with the missionaries from the Mormon church (we both cringed so bad), now tell me..." then he asked us where we were from and how long we serve and what we do, etc.  It was so funny. My Spanish went out the window.  It was so funny though! good stuff :)

And that's my new Dominican family.

Sorry this email is a millennium long, but one more story.  We went over to see Sandra and fam, and they were so happy to have us.  They wanted to teach us how to dance (chiste, your hermana already knows how ;) and so we danced bachata and salsa with some Columbians :) It was awesome to dance again, but to dance with real Latinos was even better :)

Anyway, I love y'all.  Sorry for this long, long email.  Have a great week!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Chick-fil-a is the Lord's Calories

Hola a Everybody

So the subject line comes from our dear Zone Leader,  Elder Healey. I'm not sure why I thought it was so funny, but I did.  That's all :)

This week was good! Biking in 75 degrees in February seems to work really well by this hermana. Hna Dibble and I actually had a good time biking until her tire blew on Friday and we had to walk the next 3 days. No worries though. We still laughed and had a good time :)

We enjoyed biking in 75 degree weather this week (no coats needed until Sunday).

About our investigators:  Santos, so.... he's not really progressing.  We have a lesson with him this week and we're going to be very firm and if he won't commit to baptism, we will stop teaching him. Yep. I really don't like that. But when people who aren't progressing take time away from other people who need to hear the Gospel, then we need to change that. Sad day. 

FAM COLUMBIA!!! WOOT! I love them. They are Sandra, Martin, Daniella, and Natalia. They're from Columbia and therefore they ARE SO NICE. If it wasn't drug capital of the world, I would live there so fast. Every single person I've ever met from there is so nice. Bless them. This week I tried Columbian food for the first time!! Sandra made us Sudado de Pollo, literally interpreted meaning sweat of chicken. I have no idea why they call it that, but it was super delicious.  And we had guanavana agua which topped it off. I love this culture. Anyway, we haven't taught them much, but Sandra and Natalia both have some crazy deep questions that are super fun to answer in Spanish.  But they are awesome. We are going to visit them with Hna Caudillo this week, and we are going to offer them a softball baptism date :) Hermana Mattson (the older couple) told us that every investigator that she ate with was baptized on her mission. So now we have a goal to eat with one of our investigators every week. It'll be awesome. I love these Columbians. After we had dinner, we had an awesome lesson with Sandra and her step daughter, Natalia who is 17 and really has some deep questions about after this life. Wow. Her first one was why she had to be baptized as a baby. Hna Dibble and I got so excited to share about our knowledge about things like that. Sandra and Natalia drank it up. It was awesome. Natalia then asked where Satan is right now. We talked about the importance of listening to the good voices in the world. So good. Then they asked about if we have our memories after we die. I've thought a lot about that since we taught them. Some people really don't know these things, but when they hear the truth, they recognize it. Whether they choose to accept it or not is their choice. It was a really powerful lesson. I love teaching the Plan because they know it! We've all lived it since the beginning.  Its amazing:)

Those are the people we are focusing on hardest. we are hoping to find a lot more people soon so we can teach more. We have a new ward mission leader (Hno Martinez) and he is amazing. So hopefully the ward will be more involved. It'll be great. 

On Friday we were biking to an appointment with Christian 

(he didn't end up being home), and Hna Dibble's tire just blew. Kapoof. 

Good times. So we ended up walking on Sunday which was fine, just a little chilly ;)

Also, one day we got a referral for this guy named Mauricio. We were on bikes so we couldn't take him the Bible he wanted.  So we texted him and said if he wanted his bible, he could come get it from the church sometime. Honestly, we didn't expect to hear back from him. We were currently at the church, prepping for English class. He texts us, and he's literally in the parking lot of the church, here to get his Bible!! Haha so we walked out and gave it to him, invited him to church and English class, and he seemed so interested in it! Nothing has happened so far,  but he was interested enough to come get a Bible! It was pretty fun and just cool to know people really are interested in Heavenly Father and His ways in  their lives.

We ran every morning this week for exercise and it was awesome! 

That's where we saw that really beautiful sunrise :) Buenos días, Carolina del Norte! 

Another Food Update: Hna Belliston had Hispanic rice with bananas. It's a Mexican dish. Don't judge it until you've tried it. Its divine. The rice has to be made with tomatoes and garlic though or it isn't the same. 

 

Yesterday Hna Dibble and I were just greeting people at church, and both of us just look at each other and melted. We love these people so much together and we are so happy that we get to serve together in this place. The ward is awesome and we love them. It's a blessing:)

I love this Chica. We're best friends. We both love these people more than we can say 

and we have such a great time teaching and meeting people. Hispano tiendas love us ;)

Anyway, I sure love y'all :) thanks for everything. The mission's the best place ever. I love the people so much. There's nothing like it!!

Love y'all!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Hold on to Your Sombreros!

¡ADVERTENCIA! This email is about to be all over the place and probably won't make much sense, but I hope you enjoy.

I'll try to go in somewhat of an order.

First we had a really fun time at dinner with our lovely older couple, the Mattson's, celebrating Hermana Mattson's 74th birthday.  It was super fun and just a great time.  A lot of the beginning part of the week was just trying to get to see all the people that Hermana Koerner wanted to see before she left, and do some finding.  We tried to put Santo's on date, but he didn't want to so we're now trying to figure out what we can do to help him.

Hermana Koerner and I - last P-day!

Hermana Vizcarra - one of the best cooks I've ever met.

Dana is Santos' youngest daughter. 

Sorry its super blurry - but that's Santos and fam! Well, part of them.

Oh man. This little chica se llama Steffani and she is hilarious. 

We met her knocking and she was so cute. She took it upon herself to 

correct my Spanish and to lather my face in stickers. I have truly never been happier.

This man is Paul and he worked at my old apartment and was so nice. 

He suggests everyone live by the poem Desiderata.

Adios Hermana Mia!!

Then on Thursday, Hermana Dibble and I became companions.  Oh my word I love her.  She is from Draper Utah and we are best friends.  I've known her for awhile now because 1) Spanish missionaries know all the Spanish missionaries and 2) we've been working in the same ward for 3 months.  So anyway.  It's the best.  Pictures to come.  Satan has been pretty mad that we are companions though and he's really trying to ruin our work.  Our toilet flooded, my tooth got infected, we almost got in a car wreck, and our car got towed.  But HEY.  Life is so good and we get along so well.  Everyone wonders who these blonde chicas are who speak Spanish.  It's so great! Y'all would love her to death.

  

So.  Funny story of the week.  Hermana Belliston had to get a root canal this morning.  We wake up, eat some breakfast, and walk outside to get into the car and drive to the appointment.  We walk to the parking lot and Hermana Dibble and I look at each other, very confused, and she said "Um.  Where's the car?" Our first thought was that Elders had done something with it somehow, but no, it was unfortunately not the case.  It had been towed.  Oh boy.  We both burst out laughing, but then we had to call our vehicle coordinator and tell him and he was pretty mad..... And then we had to call the Sister Training Leaders and have them take us all the way to South Carolina for my appointment. They just laughed at us, and we just felt really dumb.  But it all worked out and now we have a parking pass and my face is really puffy but it's all good.  It was actually quite funny, but we felt pretty dumb.

This was us. This morning. When  our car got towed. Fun. 

Yay for root canals.

 Another good story of the week happened yesterday.  We went to a park to study, and some really, really nice people from Jordan (like the Middle Eastern country) came and asked if they could use a couple tables close to us to have a little family get together.  They came and they brought tons of food and tea and coffee, and just had a fiesta.  We finished studying and just packed up to get to go, then this 90 year old grandma yelled at us in Arabic to eat some of her food, and of course we weren't about to say no.  Wow.  They gave us so much food.  Rice, beans, chicken, hamburgers, potatoes etc., etc., etc.  Literally everything Hispanics eat but seasoned differently.  It was so good and they were so nice.  We're basically best friends.  They offered to take us to Jerusalem sometime, so catch me there.  It was so great.  People are so nice.  

This place is awesome.  I love it.  Being a missionary is super great.  Hermana Dibble and I are working on changing and become instruments in the Lords hands.  Interesting thing though I noticed as I was studying this week is that the Lord gets to make us instruments, and we get to just be there, willing and wanting to be changed and moulded.  It's a process and it hurts to allow Him to mould and shape, but vale la pena - it's totally worth it.  He is the Gardener here, y'all :)

I sure love ya.  I hope you know how much I love you.  We are currently enjoying 75 degree weather (knock on wood) and it's beautiful.  Hermana Dibble and I have a goal to find, teach, and baptize a family here this transfer.  Heavenly Father helps those who trust in Him!!

Life is so good.  Have a fabulous week y'all :)
....and loving it :)
Hermana Belliston

Transfers!

Buenos días y'all!

So we got transfer news this week! Nuts!!
I will be staying here in the Charlotte ward South, but moving to a different apartment with Hermana Dibble. Hna Dibble is basically  my best friend and I am so excited to work with her. She is a joy and I wish y'all could meet her. She's been in the ward her whole mission (7 months) so she's a little bored of it, but hopefully we can see some really good things happen here :)

Other than that, the people are doing awesome. Santos is still progressing, he just needs a little push and he'll get baptized, which is so exciting! I'm excited to keep working with him. He's awesome. I love him to death.

We had zone conference this week which was amazing as usual. President talked a lot about pride and really cautioned us to be careful and really take a look at ourselves.  Pride gets us from the inside and makes our lives everlastingly more difficult.  As a mission and personally, we've been working to get rid of the pride. It's a process, but it's so worth it.

This week I gave a talk in church about missionary work, and something really stood out to me. As members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we are missionaries. Will we accept our call? Our call can be found in Mosiah 18:9.

Well y'all,  I sure love you. Thanks for being awesome.  Y'all are great examples to me and to everyone around you :)  Have a blessed week!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Also this is the new address:
8720 Autumn Lake Court #3207 Charlotte NC 28213

This is me eating my first Papusa. It's manna from heaven. 

Well, technically from El Salvador, but close enough. 

Soggy Semana

Hey y'all!

We were on bikes this week, and of course it was raining for the major part of the week.  But it was still great! One day we took the bus around, and got lost about 4 times. We got to walk around Uptown Charlotte and decided that there are no Hispanics that work there. Rats. But it was a fun experience anyway :)

While we were biking, we found this really awesome family from Columbia (still definitely my favorite country ever). They were so nice and let us right in and we taught them the Restoration and they asked questions and just seemed to drink it in. Heavenly Father has definitely prepared His children to receive this message.

Sister Tebbs, Sister Jackman and I have begun an Uno competition. Gotta say, for your girl Hermana Belliston,  it was a rough start. I had only won 2 rounds out of 19 (not even an exaggeration), but now we've played 35 rounds,  and I've won 10 of them!! Woot. We play it at night after we all get home and it's the best ever.

So yep. All is well :) Heavenly Father is so good and He is always watching over us. I'm giving a talk next week in Reunion Sacramental, so if you have any great insights about missionary work, send them my way!!

Love yall so much!
...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

This picture is totally from caroling like 5 weeks ago, 

but I just found it and thought I'd send it!

Hey Y'all

Hola y'all,

Nothing much happened this week. Just enjoying our last few days of having the car :) It's been super cold here and now we are on bike week! Its aboutta be a lot colder :p

We were able to see quite a few of our people this week which was great :) Yesterday we had an amazing conversation with Santos, and he told us he is ready to be baptized!! "Bien pronto" he told us. I am super excited for him.  We were hoping for the 26 of January, but he still wouldn't commit to a date. But it'll come! So that was definitely the highlight of the week. He is super ready and his whole family has been waiting for a long time for him to get baptized so its such a blessing for them as well.
Anyway, that's really about all that happened this week.... Its coming along, ya know, the usual. Saving souls and such.

I hope y'all have a super blessed week. I sure love you! The church is true! Life is good.

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston
Sorry I don't have any pictures this week... I've been slackin'... Here's a picture of my study area and a couple of my favorite things. Mom and Dad sent the plaque and card - and I LOVE them!