Licorice and Study time

Pictures found of Jef and President

It fits! Thanks Mom for the Christmas present.

Love this

Sister Belyea and Manning

Sister Billock, Willis, Belyea and Burbank

Sister Burbank fell asleep reading the Book of Mormon

Hello ALL

Before you read this letter, I would politely ask that you go to youtube/itunes/something and look up the song called “Loneliest Walk” by David Osmond. (Osmond son? I don’t know!) It’s such an incredible song, and Sister Burbank and I are obsessed with it right now. It might take a couple of listens to fully understand what it’s talking about, though. The first time we heard it, we thought it was about the MTC drop-off. Hahaha, it’s not.

So… unexpectedly, Sister Burbank and I were asked to give training at MLC this past week! Talk about stressful. We trained on the importance of “progressing investigators” to each one of the Zone Leaders/STL/President/A.P.’s. Wow! It went pretty well, but it was all just a little too intimidating for my comfort zone. Oh well. We survived it.

I got to see Sister Ramstedt and Sister Paxman at MLC! It sounds like Simpsonville is doing great. They’ve been working hard and it sounds like they’ve been having a ton of fun as well. I just love those two so much. Apparently they got to go to Dennis’s funeral a couple of weeks ago. I wish I would’ve known so that I could’ve gotten permission to have gone! Kinda makes my heart hurt to think about it.

Guess who else was at MLC? Stephanie Holm! She got up and bore her testimony in Mandarin Chinese. She talked a little bit about her experiences over in Taiwan and that you will look back and love each one of your companions more than ever. It sounds like she’d had a really tough mission- but it also sounds like she learned a lot. I love missionaries.

New years! Happy New Years everybody!!! So.. we were in bed. Asleep. By about 10:45.

Pretty pathetic.

However, we went to go see an investigator, (the Moody Family,) that lives by a member. The investigators weren’t home- but the members were shooting off tons of fireworks! We stayed for a second and celebrated with them. Next year I’ll be watching that darn ball drop.

Speaking of slang language- I’m trying to work on cutting it out of my vocabulary.

We went on an exchange this week with the West Columbia Sisters! I got the chance to serve in their area with Sister Manning. Such a freezing cold day. That’s truly the first thought that comes to my mind.
Cold.

However- we knocked a lot of doors in the cold and such- but we did get to meet an awesome lady named Kristy Carter! We taught her the first lesson and then I got the chance to invite her to baptism! She accepted and is working towards getting baptized on the 25^th. I love inviting people to follow the example of our Savior! Baptism is awesome.

We had ZTM on Friday and Sister Burbank and I did another training. This one went a lot better than the one at MLC. We talked about being “fire in the belly” missionaries and how this new transfer/year/month is an opportunity for us to push our life’s “restart button.” We committed our zone to do the Purification challenge and to “change.” We only had A.J’s baptism in our zone last month, although we had a goal of 11 baptisms. NOT OK!

At ZTM, our Zone Leader- Elder Saunders had us write down 6 questions to ask ourselves. They’re pretty profound.

1.      What was the legacy that Christ left?

2.      What is the legacy a missionary leaves?

3.      What is the legacy I will leave?

But more importantly,

1.      How did Christ leave his legacy?

2.      How do missionaries leave their legacy?

3.      How will I leave my legacy?

We talked a lot about how Christ had only 3 years of ministering- but he changed humanity forever. Makes you think a little, I guess. I love My Savior. A lot.

Yesterday was a good Sunday. Sister Willis was able to come and say her “goodbyes” to the ward. Turns out she’s serving in Greenwood with Sister Burbanks old companion/trainer- Sister Billock! (It’s a small world/mission.) Sister Willis got up and bore her testimony, ( I was a puddle of tears,) and then Sister Burbank got up, too. Apparently it’s a tradition in her family for all of her brothers and sisters to get up on the first fast Sunday for the year and bear their testimony- not matter where in the country/world they are. Well, that set the tone- and the ENTIRE sacrament meeting was SUPER spiritual about missionary work. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! I swear there was not a single dry eye in that place. It was amazing. I love fast and testimony Sundays!

One of the quotes that was said yesterday went something along the lines of this;

“The reason Missionaries have such big hearts- is because they have to leave a piece of it with each area they serve.”

^ so true.

So Saturday was transfer calls. Sister Burbank and I will be staying in Gaston for at least another 6 weeks. We’re not 100% sure if we’re still STL, but… since we didn’t get a call... we think we still are.

Well. I love you all. I’m eternally grateful for your love and support! Please continue to be safe and serve others. This is a great time of year to reflect on the past and to look forward to the future.

I truly, honestly, 1,000% love you all so much.

Have a happy and healthy week! Go and listen to that “Loneliest Walk” song again. :)

Enjoy to the End,

Sister Belyea

P.S.- The reason this email is called Licorice and Study time.. is because those are 2 things that I just couldn’t get enough of this week. Life is good.