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

BEST DAY ON THE MISSION!

Hola Y'all,

That's right, best day on the mission so far.

SO.  Last Monday we had a lesson scheduled with Tanya.  It was awesome.  We were going to teach her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite her to be baptized.  We'd been thinking about it for a long time, and decided on the date, March 30th.  Kind of short notice.  But hey, that's how the Spirit works, yall.  Anyway, we go in, and she's all excited about the salsa she just bought, so she brought it with chips and super delicious cheese.  She doesn't have enough chairs at her table, so we just sat down with her on her floor and chatted while we ate chips.  It was magical.  Anyway, then she randomly asked us about the Priesthood.  She'd heard it in church, and didn't know much about it.  We explained what it was and how it works.  When we explained that only men can hold the priesthood, she smiled and said "well that's perfect, because I get to have children, so he can have the priesthood."  She understands the gospel SO well it's amazing.  So then the spirit just guided the lesson into the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Finally, we read 2 Nefi 31:12-16 and she looked at us, literally begging us to ask her.  Hna Dibble said that we were so impressed with her and knew that she was ready to be baptized, then I asked if she could be baptized on March 30th and without a pause she said, "yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!!!" She covered her face and fell over on the floor, SO happy and excited! She told us she thought we'd never ask her and that she'd been waiting for so long! Haha! She's literally been in the United States for less than a month... She's the best.  Anyway, so we've got a baptism for Saturday at 6pm planned.  And she already passed her interview.  I hope every single one of you gets to meet this chica because she has strengthened my testimony so much.  It's amazing.  She is the best.

Tanya and exchanges with Sister Boone. 

Right after playing futbol with President Adler ;)

We also went on a bunch of exchanges this week which was fun! I went with Sister Preator to Kannapolis and that was a blast.  On Saturday, I took one of the new missionaries, Sister Boone, here with me and she loved being in Spanish land for a little while.  Both are super awesome sisters and it's super fun to get to know other sisters.

Exchanges with Sister Preator. 

UPDATE: She can fit inside a washer. 

She is truly the smallest human I've ever met.

My word heather, funny story.  So on Thursday, we were planning for Veronica's lesson.  We were sitting in the car, and I was looking up scriptures or something, and suddenly Hna Dibble flips the mirror on the car flap thing open and just yells "OH MY WORD LOOK AT MY EYEBROWS." She scared me to death, so I looked at her eyebrows.  She had a few straggling hairs, but nothing horrendous.  Anyway, she looks pretty shocked, and said "I look like an actual pilgrim.  We have to go home so I can fix it."  I LOST it.  I thought it was so funny.  I couldn't handle it.  This is what the mission is like.  It's a blast.  Literally the best thing ever.

Dinner with Hermana Regino.  Mexican restaurants are good, 

but not as good as authentic, hecho en casa.

Just jamming in 75 degrees.  It's a blessing.

Funny story.  We were knocking an apartment complex and 

we look over and see the YSA sisters doing the same thing.  

They took a picture of us and sent it to us.  

"Don't knock on apt C," they said.  It was a good time!

Anyway, I love you all.  Hope you have a great week :) Be safe.  God is good, y'all.  Just look for Him and you'll find Him :)

Take it easy now
....and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Pictures From Past Weeks...

These photos wouldn't download for the past couple of weeks. These are pictures Hermana Belliston sent on March 4 and March 11....

Mom's bread and jam!! Not to mention the salsa *tear* 

My word Heather, homemade food is the best!

Just Hna Dibble and I. Besties. For life. 

So we went to this cool Korean BBQ place where you cook your own food!! 

It was legit. And super tasty. And that's Josh, our 2nd counselor in the bishopric 

and the guardian of all missionaries ever.

We went to Monroe and saw the greenest grass you've ever

 seen in your life. Wow! It was amazing. 

Then my companion. Just being my companion. Rough day.

And Hna Dibble. I don't really remember why we had milk in our car, 

nor why she was drinking it. And now I wonder why she's sick... 

And a beautiful North Carolina sunset

We were practicing for a live video, and we didn't realize it kept taking pictures.

Niurka - she's a returning member from the Dominican. 

She's awesome and makes really good food.

Sisters, You are Historic!

Hola y'all,

We went to transfers this week, and the Assistants came up to us and said, "Well Sisters, you are historic.  You are the only Spanish Sister Training Leaders to be whitewashed in this mission." Well, what that means is that neither of us has been Sister Training Leaders before (usually there's always someone who is a Sister Training Leader who trains the new Sister Training Leader, but both of us have never done it before) and Spanish misioneras are not usually called as Sister Training Leaders.  Hence, why the Elders told us we're making history.

Enjoying the sun - 64 degrees yesterday!

Anyway, this week was pretty good! Not a ton happened, but we've been meeting with Tanya.  She was so funny this week! We took her Chick-Fil-A this week and she just about died.... oh man.  She'd never had it before.  She just kept saying "wow" over and over again.  It was so cute and funny! She's the funniest person.  She's doing so well and she loves learning about the Gospel.  We pray with her every night and she reads the scriptures every day.  It's awesome. 

TANYA!!!! We love her. She's so sweet.

We had a pretty awesome lesson with Francisco this week, too.  He just got home from a 13 hour day and he invited us right in, and we talked about the plan of Salvation.  He is so great.  We invited him to pray and ask Heavenly Father if the resurrection is a reality (he doesn't believe in it yet)  and he leaned back with a huge smile and said "me gusta eso mucho.  Muchisimo." I like that a lot, a LOT. It was so great.  Man, Hispanics are the best.

On Saturday we were able to play soccer with our ward.  Wow.  We got schooled.  Actually, not really because we had an even amount of Hispanics on either team, but it was a close close game.  Wow, it was awesome.  It was so fun!

So, this really awesome thing happened where we played soccer with our whole ward

 and Tanya came.  Update: Hna Dibble is terrifying when she plays any sport (she played 

lacrosse in college) and we were on opposite teams this time.  Ooohhhh boy, she's so intense.  

The whole ward agreed.  It was so fun. The assistants came with some people they're teaching 

and we played a pretty intense game.  Oh man would recommend to a friend.  Or just anyone.  

It's the best. And we have a bunch of professional retired futbol players. 

Well, y'all.  Missionary work is the best.  I love it.  We get to go on exchanges with a couple of our sisters this week, so it'll be awesome.  Sorry for this super long email.  I just like to rant ;)

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

My Word, Heather!

Hola y'all,

THIS WEEK WAS NUTS! Where do I even start?!

Actually, at the end, it looked like nothing happened cuz Hna Dibble was dying with a cold.  And probably bronchitis.  So needless to say, I got to study a lot ;) But she's doing better yet, and I bleached the whole house (clothes, dishes, you name it, I bleached it) so I haven't gotten sick yet :) Woot.

Anyway, miracle person of the week.  Tanya came to church last week and was super cute.  She is a refugee and came with her case worker, a member who lives in Waxhaw (pretty far south of here). She is 18 years old, and just came from Guatemala a week ago.  She is SO great.  You would love her.  We went and visited her on Tuesday....and Thursday.....and Friday.....and Sunday.   Our first lesson, she brought up baptism, and told us she wants to be baptized, but maybe after she learns a little more.  AH. Then we were able to show her the Plan of Salvation and she was dumbfounded.  She'd never heard about basically any of it before.  She told us that she knows God has a plan for her, so this just helped her see how special it is.  She didn't know what the Atonement was, and we had a very sweet experience explaining what it could mean to her.  She is an orphan and has had an extremely hard life, but now she knows there's Someone who knows exactly how she feels and what she's been through.  She loves having us over, and she's been reading the Book of Mormon.  She is incredible and I really hope y'all get to meet her someday. We are probably going to put her on baptismal date this week.

Other than that, nothing crazy happened this week.  Random thing though, we got a call from elders in Baltimore, Maryland.  Hna Dibble and I both have companions or people from the MTC districts serving there.  The elders there called us about a referral they sent us, then we asked them if they knew Elder Featherstone, who was in Hna Dibbles district at the MTC.  They laughed and said of course! One of the elders just got finished being his companion! Then I asked if they knew Elder Randall, and they said he was serving in the same branch as them! Then I asked them about Hna Hunter, one of my MTC companions.  They died laughing.  All they could say was "She's crazy!" and I just thought, yep.  That's for sure.  But she's also the best and I miss her like crazy! So anyway, that was a fun experience.

OK, drumroll please!!! We got transfer news yesterday! First, background story.  So, we had dinner with Niurka and her husband yesterday night.  We knew we were going to be getting calls about transfers that night, but we weren't sure what time, so we weren't too worried about it.  Well, we got ready to go, getting shoes on, etc, and I look at the phone, and we've got 2 missed calls from President Adler! Oh goodness y'all, I don't think you understand what it feels like to have two missed calls from your German Mission President.  Oh boy.  Anyway, we flew out of that appointment and called him right back.  His wife answered and she was dying laughing and they were obviously in a car.  President was laughing as well and asked if they could call us back in a few minutes; they were parking the car.  After that, they called us 4 more times before they actually called us for real.  It was so stressful.  Ask Hna Dibble - I was shaking so bad.  Stress.  When they finally called us for real, President just sounded so happy! He said "My dear sisters (please say this in your head with a German accent), we have a crazy idea! but we feel very guided by the spirit to call you as the new Sister Training Leaders for this area." Woah.  Hna Dibble and I were not expecting that, but we accepted.  Mostly we were just so excited to be together for another transfer, but now we get to be Sister Training Leaders! Basically it just means more meetings, but we also get to go on exchanges with all the other sisters in the zone, so it will be so great.  Didn't see it coming, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve, and with a phenomenal companion with me.  I'm really excited.  If you have any ideas of what I can do to help the sisters here, let me know.

Anyway, that was this week.  Sorry for a super long email.  I absolutely love being a missionary and am having the time of my life.  Life is so good.

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Short Week

Hola y'all,

This week FLEW by.  It's crazy that it's already March! wow.  Time is a crazy thing.

The highlight of the week was definitely Zone Conference.  President Adler had some pretty strong things to say and he basically roasted us.  My eyebrows felt pretty singed by his German wrath.  It was so good.  He just kept pleading with us to stay focused and to not have any contention between anyone in the mission.  He talked a lot about commitments, and how the Lord always does what He says He'll do.  I have seen that so vividly on my mission.  The Lord always comes through on His end if we just do what He asks us to do.  It really is that simple folks.  President promised us that if we would teach repentance and forgiveness to someone that night, we would receive answers to all the questions we had that morning.

So after zone conference,  Hna Dibble and I knew we had to teach Santos, so we went over to his house and quite honestly, had the most horrible lesson I've ever had in my life.  It was basura.  Santos and his wife just kept going off in random directions and not answering and not being cooperative to the lesson.  Hna Dibble and I didn't know what to do, so we ended the lesson, pretty bummed out.  Then we chatted with them for a little while, and suddenly Santos just started opening up.  EVERYTHING.  He told us his doubts and worries and everything that is holding him back from being baptized.  It was so great.  So even though it didn't go as planned (Hna Dibble and I imagined him leaping to his feet, declaring he wished to be baptized yesterday, but that didn't happen), all the blessings President promised us through Heavenly Father were realized.  It was an awesome experience and a great learning experience.

We also had the valentines day activity in our ward (yes, we do everything late here), and it was so fun.  We just ate a bunch of delicious food and danced all night.  Good times! I have missed dancing so much, but I got to do it and learn some Mexican line dances which were awesome! Hurrah for Israel!!

We went and played top golf last Monday and it was a blast.  Would recommend to anyone who hasn't played before.

Anyway, gotta go.  Everything is great.  I love you. God is good, y'all ;)

....and loving it
Hermana Belliston

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