Hot...Cold...Hurricane?

Hola y'all,

Well, so last week we were boiling in 100 degrees, 100% humidity, and now we're down in the 60's with rain and a slight chance of hurricane.  It's a blast and a half.  I could live where it rains every day and be completely content. 

This week was good! There was a lot of lightning and thunder and rain and so much fun.  We got to teach a lot of kids this week, which was so good.  They know so much about the Gospel and it's so great to teach them. Truly, if we could be more like them, the world would be a much better place.

Yesterday was awesome because 10 of our people made it to church! Sara and her four boys walked in and sat next to us in the front.  It was hilarious. All of Sacrament Meeting, Joseph, the 11 year old, was falling asleep.  He hit his head on the pew 5 times before he got up to walk around to wake himself up.  Bless him.  But then Cindhy, Carlos David and his friend that we're teaching, and Marleni came to our ward.  They loved it and all made friends with each other and I love them.  They're the best ever.  Then Darwin came to the English ward afterward.  It's so fun to watch them come to church and begin to understand the importance of the Sacrament and why we make such a big deal about it. 

We also got transfer news and Hna Dibble and I are staying again! haha But this time we get a trainee! Her name is Sister Smith and we will be picking her up Thursday.  We are so excited.  Wahoo! 

Happy super late birthday, Sister Dibble! (literally 4 months later)

I'm not sure how to spell such a fancy car but we saw it in Uptown.

So, that's about it for this week.  Just as a thought, I was on exchanges with Sister Johnson this week and we were talking about the three degrees of glory.  She explained to me that the people in the Celestial Kingdom live a certain way while they're on earth.  They say, "God's Will, God's Way."  The way the people in the Terrestrial Kingdom live on the earth is, "God's Will, My Way."  The ones in the Telestial Kingdom live is, "MY Will, My Way."  I love that because it's easy to see if we are doing what we need to be doing.  It's a lot easier to turn our lives over to the Lord because He's perfect and has everything under control.

Exchanges with Sister Johnson!

Hey, I love y'all!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Hot Week

Hola Y'all,

The weeks just seem to get more hot and super humid.  HOPEFULLY, we have a hurricane soon ;) Pray for that.

Not a lot happened this week but Darwin is officially on date for the 14 of September! He is amazing.  We had a lesson with him a couple weeks ago and he had read up to Mosiah 15 and yesterday, he was in 3 Nefi 25! He's awesome and we're so excited for him.  We found him knocking doors a very long time ago, and it's been a rough patch for the guy, but he's ready and willing to do it all.  I love him!

I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real.  Having Someone who understands us perfectly makes all the difference.  I was talking with someone about the uniqueness of a mission.  No one will ever know about my mission the way I know it! It's the same with everything in life! No one really quite gets the way we feel, think, and why we act the way we do, but Christ does.  He knows exactly what we need and how He can help us the best.  He loves helping us and only wants us to reach out to Him.  I read a quote from the Continuous Atonement a few days ago about forgiveness and I loved it.  It states:
"But that same Jesus who forgives those who know not what they do also stands ready to forgive those of us who know exactly what we do and just cant seem to stop."  My word, we make the same mistakes over and over and He just always picks us back up and asks us to try again.  I think after so much falling down and getting back up, we get pretty frustrated and then can't seem to forgive ourselves.  About that, another quote says, "We struggle so much to forgive ourselves that we wrongly assume God must be having the same struggle."  We have to know that once we've repented fully, partaken of the Sacrament, we are clean.  100%.  No matter how many times we've messed up or 'gone too far,' the final outcome of our repentance is 100% clean.  Christ does that through His Atonement and, wow!, am I grateful for that.  The Atonement  of Jesus Christ changes lives that seem wrecked beyond compare.  It's real. 

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Iglesia?

Emma's letter from August 12, 2019

Hello to some of my favorite people,

My word sometimes weeks are really chock full of miracles and I don't really know what to do.

Update on Sara and fam: we went over to their house to have a lesson, and as we were leaving, I asked if they'd read the Book of Mormon.  Sara was kinda sheepish and said no, so we asked the boys.  Henry has read a little of the kids Book of Mormon, and Roberto as well.  We got to Edgar and he paused and said, "Hmm, I don't remember the name, but this prophet gets rejected in this city, but an angel tells him to go back and another guy invites him into his house and then they do missionary work." Ummmmm so Alma and Amulek? "Oh yeah, those guys."  My word.  That 14 year old boy has read half of the Book of Mormon in 1 week.  I love him.  We were completely blown away, but now we understand why on earth they have such good questions.  My word it was awesome.

BUT story of the week.  One of them.  We were sitting in church yesterday, and we were both pretty blue because no one was there! We've had people at church for the past 6 weeks, and this week no one was there.  We were pretty bummed, needless to say.  The last speaker was about halfway through his talk when the back doors of the Chapel opened and in walks Sara, Edgar, Henry, and Joseph in a line.  She walked right to the front and sat down on the front row.  Hna Dibble and I just died.  It was the most magical feeling I've felt for so long! It was the best feeling to see these people that we've been working with really hard this week walk in and finally make it! Oh man, it made my heart so happy.

But, it gets better.  Sara and her kids loved church.  After church, she was chatting with one of the members of the stake, and he was telling her that the missionaries and the church would change her life.  She kept nodding and finally said "I know.  It's going to be very difficult because my husband wants nothing to do with it.  It will be so hard.  But, when I am a member in a month, it'll be worth it." Oh my laws.  I love that lady. 

BUT it doesn't stop there.  So, Darwin.  Idk if you remember him.  He had a baptismal date a while back, but he never got permission to get work off so we told him we'd wait and see if his boss would loosen up.  He never did, but we figured out that he could come to an English ward because it starts later in the day.  That was a blessing.  So we asked him if he wanted to come to the last ward and he agreed so fast.  Watching Darwin come through those doors was such an amazing experience.  We've worked with him since February and he is incredible. He loved church (even though it was in English) and he is going to get baptized probably before the month is out.  I love prepared people.

So anyway, this week was incredible.  We have some amazing people we get to work with and we're so excited to see them get ready for baptism.  Heavenly Father truly prepares people for us and makes our lives so much easier! He loves to bless us. 

Something I've noticed within the past couple weeks is that when things seem to be going well, a lot of other things start falling apart.  That happens.  It's hard.  I hope y'all know that missions are SO hard.  Such a trail of my faith.  But it really is so worth it.  It's such a blessing and I love it, even and maybe especially, when it's difficult.

Tostadas de tingas: they are magical. Hna Dibble and I made our first successful 

batch this week.  I'll make them for ya when I'm home. Thank me later 

Agua de sandia: I'll make this too! Its just watermelon water and sugar,

 but its divine. Taste of heaven truly.

We went on a hike!! It's literally a rock that sticks out of the ground that people hike and 

call it a mountain, but when you get to the top you can see for years and years. Its gorgeous. 

...and loving it

Hermana Belliston

Beautiful Sunsets and Rain!

Utah Street?!

Just jammin'

 Lots of beautiful sunsets here in the good ol' NC

 OH MY HURRICANES! It's not even hurricane season and my word we are soaked through. 

We were knocking one day and boom. Sheets and sheets of rain. And it is so warm. 

We're both now sick because we're wet 24/7, but it's a blast and a half. 

Hurricane Season?

Hey y'all,

No fear, not actually hurricane season but we got a TON of rain. Knocking doors was such a blast. We got soaked and it was the best ever.

So this week I really don't have a ton to say. Not a lot happened. We finally got to teach Sara's husband and he told us he has doubts, but that he's open to learning. Either we're crazy or its true, so he gets to decide :) Sara asked us how many times we could come over before we go home and we told her every day if she wanted. She got so excited and wants us to do it. She is so sweet and we love her to death.

Other than that, just lots of laughs and a good time. Hna Dibble got food poisoning, but she's good now. At soccer on Saturday I got nailed in the face with the ball (hey, remember Scott Sterling nephews mios? Yeah, I literally felt like him). I got a bloody nose, but mostly it was just funny. It's because everyone plays so well and I just happen to be in the way.

Life is good. Being a missionary in the NCCM is the greatest.

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Mario's Baptism

Hola y'all

What a week! Tons of miracles.  And moving! We moved again.  So my new address is 1420 Ivy Meadow Drive #1318 Charlotte NC 28213

First off, Mario's baptism was phenomenal. He's a goofball and loves to joke around, so about 15 minutes before he was supposed to be baptized, he sent us a text - "the baptism's today, right?" My word, Mario.  Yes.  You're making your first covenant with Heavenly Father in 15 minutes.  But he showed up and was super excited to be baptized.  Devin Grady was able to baptize him and it was a really sweet thing to see.  I really wish all y'all could see all these beautiful things.  It's truly incredible.  Mario has always been happy and quite spirit filled, but he came up out of the water and was a completely different person.  He was completely clean.  On Sunday, he got confirmed by Elder Mattson, the senior elder in the ward.  It was a beautiful confirmation.  I watched Mario take the sacrament, and I know that he was clean once again, just like he was when he came out of the water on Thursday. The Gospel is incredible.  It changes and refines people and it's awesome to see.  My word, I love being a missionary.

We celebrated after Mario's baptism by eating a ton of sushi and an apple pie that I made.  

It was so great. I don't really know what anyone in the picture is doing....

Ask mom if you want to see pictures of the baptism. They're much better :) 

We've also been super blessed to be finding a ton of elect people... One was Sara and her five kids (Edgar, Josef, Henry, Roberto, and Sarai).  They let us right in, and they were so excited to learn about the Book of Mormon.  It was so cute.  Then we got to stay for Henry's birthday celebration which is always a blast and a half.  He turned 13.  What a guy.

We also got to chat with someone named Ludin and her mom and daughter.  Talk about elect.  They were so interested in learning all about baptism and what we do as missionaries.  Ludin has "that thing" in her eyes.  That's always encouraging ;)

So in short, this week was great.  We loved it.

Hope you have a good week!

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston

Moving!

Hola Y'all,

So this week on Tuesday we found out we were moving Thursday.... needless to say my arms are still sore and I'm super tired. But hey all good. We'll be moving again this Friday- don't ask me why, that's just how it goes :p we get the lucky job of deep cleaning 3 apartments. Yikes. But it's a good time. Hna Dibble loves to clean so what can ya do? 😂

This week we had an awesome lesson with Mario and he chose a baptismal date! He's getting baptized the 25th of July! Haha - he's the best. He had his interview on Sunday, and our District Leader interviewed him.  His name is Elder MacArthur, and hes fairly new. He came out, took us aside and said, "Mario did a really good job, just a couple things. He mentioned some stuff he's done in the past that hes not sure he can get over, and he mentioned something about prison... I didn't quite catch it, but I would definitely suggest moving the date back." I think my heart actually stopped. I was quite close to tears. THEN MARIO BURST OUT LAUGHING.  Oh my word!! I lost it. Of course he passed with all the right things, and he's probably never done anything wrong in his life, but I wanted to wring Elder MacArthur's neck! They thought it was so funny but wow we were pretty mad. It was a good time...

Anyway, but that's the big news of the week. Prepare yourselves for some great baptism fotos next week :)

This is Cindy, Carlos David and Enrique. Enrique is traveling back to Honduras this week 

so we had a final goodbye today. He will get baptized in Honduras, for which we are very excited.

Devin's birthday party (same day as Elise's and the twins;))) From front left Edwin, Anthony, Hna Dibble, Darwin

Left back John, yo, Dana, and Devin. It was a blast and a half :))

...and loving it
Hermana Belliston