10/28/13

Family I love you!

This first paragraph is exclusively dedicated to My Grandparents: You are the most wonderful people in the world! Thank you so much for the different ways all four of you have influenced my life! Grandma Rose and Grandma Burr--Thank you both so much for the letters you both sent me! You two are my angels :) I firmly belive that the Lords hand was involved in prompting the both of you to write me this week. I really needed to hear from you (and I actually have letters for both of you that I started a while ago...taking longer than I expected..but don't worry I will finish them today and send them your way!!) Grandma Rose--thank you a hundred billion for the lunch money, I will be useing it wisely today ;)

Ok ok, well I guess the Lord has a sense of humor cause he didn't have to send me to Russia to freeze me in half! This week I have been the most consistently cold than any other time of my life! I really don't even like being cold. Apparently this is the part of fall where it feels like -20 degrees when its actually 40 degrees. I'm not even being dramatic about this! Cause listen to this next part...apart from the outside being freezing, is the other part called our walls are very thin (cause they were build like hundred years ago) and we have all wood floors (another sign of coldness). Our heater is one of those electric ones that line about half of the walls (do you know what I'm talking about?) but oh wait...It broke last week. and we are dying. So after about 5 (hundred) hours of being too cold during studies, we called that landlord man (whose actually a woman, sister B keeps telling me so but I keep forgetting) He said, "oh we haven't turned on the furnace yet" ok bye. wait that doesn't make sense man. So we go about our day and this is what we come home to (see first picture below) This is our new heater. So we put it in between our beds and prayed that we wouldn't freeze to death that night ( was certain we would...or that it would catch our beds on fire...also a big concern). The next day we studied in our bedroom (and the days and days after that cause the rest of the apartment is an ice box) We haven't braved into the bathroom long enough to shower either...Just kidding. bad joke. We've been showering. but we hate it cause its so so so so so so cold. We do have hot water though don't worry :) Then last night when we got home. the heater decided it didn't like being used so much. So it exploded our extension cord. There was smoke and sparks but guess what it didn't even shock us our anything bad like that :). Luckily we noticed another heater our in the hall way that looked like ours...so we snatched it right up and slept well last night. 

Other than the part of my life that is frozen. This week was FANTASTIC! (if you discard all the parts that were not up to par). Lets just talk about A___ shall we, She always brightens my day :) A__ is our miracle investigator that I told you about last week. This week, we took her out to dinner with us, a member and the elders. At the end of the dinner, the member Brother K___ started boldly questioning A___. "Why aren't you a mormon yet?" and stuff like that (total interrogation). The spirit was there though, so it was ok. He eventually asked her if she knew that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. She said yes. Then he asked her if she knew that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was the true church. She also said yes. By this time Sister Bettilyon and I are about to explode out of our seats! She ended up telling us that she isn't baptized yet because she wants to make sure she is doing it for all of the right reasons (she had a friend that joined very hastily and fell away just as quick) and that she also intends on getting another tattoo.(can you say cop out?) 

After dinner we talked with her in the parking lot for a bit. We kinda apologized for Brother K____ boldness incase she felt threatened or interrogated (which she did). She said it was ok and we got to have a really good discussion with her. She said that she knows that one day she will be baptized but that she knows the Lord has a timeline for her. Right now she has prayed to see if she is on the right path (which is being involved in her Lutheran church) and that prayer was confirmed. She knows more than your average investigator and well more than most that are ready for baptism. We shared some scriptures with her (Alma 5:62) and it really spoke to her. This was all on Wednesday, then on Saturday night she came to dinner with us to the C____'s house. She loves the C____'s. So do I. (Randon will be married to M___ C____ one day :)) We had another very spiritual discussion with her ("what have ye against being baptized?") and she came to sacrament meeting with us yesterday. It was the primary program. We had asked her to be specifically praying for a confirmation on when she needed to be baptized while in the meeting. She felt the spirit so strongly in that meeting. It was wonderful. We only got to talk with her a little after the meeting, enough for her to set up an appointment with us and tell us she is going to make us treats!. So on this wednesday we'll be able to talk with her more on what she felt on Sunday.

Now I'm going to tell you about the L____'s. Mumsie you may recall the email you received from a M___ L___. This is her family.  M___ is the mother and only active one in her family. The sister missionaries found them some how a while back (maybe a mo before I got here) and M___ was over the moon! She has had many blessings saying that one day her husband will come back to the gospel and she felt that the missionaries were the answer to her prayer! So she begged them to make weekly visits and so we have been visiting ever since! T__ is her husband and super funny. We love him. Every time we come over he greets us with "What the hell are you doing here?!" but only because he really loves us and that is his way of teasing us. (he always gives us treats like cinnamon bagels from Panerra (don't even get me started on Panerra). B___ and H____ live at home (H___ is our age and B___ graduated a year ago) Anyways, our visits with them always go so well and the spirit is always there so strongly. Last time we were there is was so good! At the end of the lesson we asked Brady to pray (no one ever agrees to pray except for M___) He said "Yeah I'll pray" we kinda look really shocked at him and he said "You thought I'd give a T__ answer didn't you!" haha so he prayed and it was so good. Then T__ asked us about the phase "its the thought that counts" and if we agreed with it...yes? So then he tells us about how last sunday, M___ was out of town. While he and B___ were eating breakfast, Tom turned to B___ and said "Should we shock the sisters and show up at church today?!" "Well I don't want to go but if you do I'll come with you" was B___'s response. Then they decided not to come and they had already gotten us to say that it was the thought that counted. Which its not but THIS IS SERIOUSLY EXCITING PROGRESSION!

ha every time I write out a story like this one...I realize how unexciting they all actually sound...oh well just pretend with me :)

K___ and A___ got home from their cruise last night so we did a stalk by. They told us all about their trip and how wonderful it was! They stopped in Cocoa Beach and then down to the Bahamas. Ready for a victory fist pump?!--Listen to this: K___ AND A___ DIDNT HAVE ONE DROP OF COFFEE ON THEIR ENTIRE TRIP!  FIST PUMP! They told us how hard it was with all of the fancy fancy cappuccinos and crazy stuff but they did it! yayyyy! K___'s baptism date is December 7th. What a good day right!? so lets all hope she comes through this time...I have a feeling she will. :)

OH my family listen to this! i was watching billions of mormon messages while sister b was on the facebook and I AM IN A MORMON MESSAGE! its called a work in progress...see if you can see me ;)

Ok here's the fun part of the letter called Interactive activity: Randon McKay and Austin James your assignment will be to gather up your father and all watch the best Mormon message called Sanctify yourselves. You will love it! Michael Ammon--You can watch that one too but your assignment is to watch the one called A Secure Anchor. You will love it! Ummm thats all the assignments I have this week. Mom and Jenna--you can watch those too :) and also here comes a challenge to erry one reading this: I challenge y'all to the the book of mormon in its entirety by the end of the year. We've been challenging many families that we have meals with to do this and they have already shared miracles with us just from reading their scriptures. its so easy people!

OK I have a few more things I want to touch on. First: Panerra. This place will be the death of me. I love it infinity. The C___s took us there for dinner last week and we are addicted! They have this soup called Autumn Squash Soup. It is like candy! It kinda tastes like that one squash soup that mom makes...with apples and squash..so good! and their bread is good and their sandwiches are good and their salads are good and...maybe I've been there too many times. If I don't come home at the end of my mission it will be because I am staying here for Panera :) (Zupas dosn't have anything on this place!)

Next: Mexican Hot Chocolate. Kill me this stuff is so good! We had breakfast with the elders at sister A___'s on saturday. She is Guatemalan and made us the best Guatemalan breakfast of my life! oh so tasty!

Have I told you about our ward? Its half spanish...only 75% of the spanish members are inactive. The elders are working on that (I dont know if ive told you anything about the elders now that i think about it...They serve in the same ward as us but are spanish speaking..we see them alot to colaborate ward stuff and they have strep...Pray sister b and I dont get it! we've been feeling a tich under the weather...) ok thats all.

Family I love you love you love you! Seriously. Have y'all taken a look at all of our family lately? I'm talking aunts uncles cousins grandparents...They are all so so good and wonderful! People out here don't have families like we do! so quit taking all of that for granted please.

I hope you have a super week and are staying warmer than I am.  ok ok love you love you long time

love Sister Bailey

fall is so pretty here! Ombre trees are my favorite

OK these are the YW of the ward that love sister b and i. They dressed up as us for their halloween party. M___ C___ is the one in pink sporting my tag. She even got her hands on a necklace with a beehive on it and painted her nails gold like me :) Sorry the lighting of this pic is awful. 

this is PA! So beautiful!

This is our heater friend

We woke up got dressed and ready. did our studies and then were reciting our purpose when we realized that we were uncannily matching...

One time we found some cool trains

10/21/13

Heyyy familia!

How are you lovely people doing?! My week was pretty good for the most part. Y'all are lucky that I am alive to tell email you this week! Fisrt of all: My water bottle is trying to poison me with mold! I hate mold! I'm just minding my own bussiness drinking out of my camelback and I look down and it is compleatly overtaken with mold! (well ok fine there are tiny dots of mold in the mouth piece)--WHICH IS NOT OK!! Then I got a little bit panicy and wondered if mold can kill you...or grow inside of you...dross. But that was like a week ago so it must be ok cause I'm alive! Second thing: I got a flu shot...and wanted to die. Don't get it this year...especially within 12 hours of speaking in sacrement meeting. I think I was allergic to it (or my body just thought it would be fun to pretend to be allergic to it) cause I woke up the next morning and my hands were coverd in hives...I don't know if you've ever tried to scratch the palm of your hand...but it's not a thing. Then they spread all over my body and my head felt like it weighed 5 thousand pounds. But I went to church even though all I wanted to do was lay down. The elders both have the flu and Elder Mask was suppossed to briefly talk in place of the youth speaker that they couldnt find. That's were I come in..they ask me to take elder mask's spot...ok. At this point I'm feeling really crappy but figure I can probably make it up to the pulpit without passing out with the help of the Lord. I did. I don't really remember what I said..I know I talked about how I decided to come on a mission and some stuff about memeber missionary work...whatever I said must have been good cause way too many people came and comented on it after the meetting for it to not be stellar. Brother Slaugh came and told me that it was very bold and impactful...uh you can thank the spirit for that one. Anyways, I'm alive and totally fine :).

So I lost my stupid watch that I've already super glued back together 25 times. I called the Nitz family to see if I had lost it at their house when we watched conference. I did! Sister Nitz found it in the couch! She said she would bring it on sunday. Her daughter Alyssa came up and gave it to me yesterday and says "oh and heres the old band." huh? I looked at my watch and it was a compleatly different band! haha It turns out my watch had yet again broken itself and sister nitz brought it somewhere to get fixed with a new band!! what the goodness?! people are way to nice to us! Speaking of nice people, Mom, you asked about how we get fed and our money situation. Yeah...we basically dont have any money. But we eat at a members house everynight and they send us home with the leftovers and then some so we can eat lunch the next day ;) Members give us jam and canned peaches (like grandmas :))  canned tomatoes, homemade honey, and lots of snacks. So we're set. We gave in the other day and went and bought some mac and cheese with what little money we have left for lunch. It was really good. you can send me that stuff :)

I went to Philly  last week! I loved it! I had my very first cheese steak. oh myyyyyy so good. We went to Gooey Looey's. (Pat and Gino s are over rated. no one out here likes them.)

We have the most incredible investigator! I think I may have alreday told you about her, Her name is Amy and she was a HQ referral. Her good friend Jen refers her every year in october so she has met with a few misisonaries in the past. She stopped meeting with them the first time because it freaked her out that they invited her to be baptized the first time they met her and the second time because they told her that her brother that had just died a few years ago was in spirit prison...she didn't like that. I wonder why.
We were prompted to have her read Lehi's dream this week and when we came back to teach her the next time, she had read it and really loved it. She loved it so much that she called her mom in North Dakota to tell her to read it too. Her mom wouldn't so she read it over the phone to her. We asked her what she learned from studying it, she said "I don't know if this is what it really means or if this is what I was supposed to get out of it..." then she continued to explain lehi's dream to us with perfection! I felt like I was in a seminary class or gospel doctrine! It was absolutly incredible!

 Pennsylvania is the weirdest thing, fall out here is actually a season instead of a week. The trees take their sweet time to change...most of them are still green. Its super pretty though. Probably prettier than anything you can imagine but thats ok :)

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Bye favorite people

sister bailey

somtimes sister b makes me hold all of our weekly planning supplies

The District

this is Sister Coldesina. she has dementia so she doesn't know who we are but we visit her every week. she is always so excited to see us! I think she thinks I'm her grand daughter...oh well. she is super funny. talking to her is like talking to a BLR :)

The phillies statium! PS the guy that owns the 76ers is in our ward. his wife is a member but he isn't. I met him on sunday and decided that I am going to be best friends with him so we can baptize him and go to some games :)

this is a pic of a mural in Kennett square. Its herriet tubman. Kennett was the first stop of the underground railroad.

a pic of the temple to be. we made a card for katie when she was sick the other week and taped this on the front...cause we are crafty like that

sister bettilyon takes random pics of me...stalker

10/15/13

NOTE: Alyssa's P-Day was changed from Monday(10/14) to Tuesday(10/15) this week because of Columbus Day. Sister Bailey had a member from the ward (Melanie) email mom and inform her why she wouldn't be able write home and wish mom a "happy birthday". 

Who's the best Mom in the United States?

It's You Mummsie Wommsie! It's you SARA JO!!!!! MOM!!! You are the best mom! And it was your birthday yesterday! I was so sad when I realized I wouldn't be able to email you! That's why I had Melanie email  you :) She's nice like that.

Well this week has been really good. Last night we had dinner at the Crapo's. Brother Crapo is the ward mission leader. We decided to have our lesson be on Missionary work. It was so good! They have the cutest little girls so we got them excited to be missionaries one day. We brought our extra tags and had them put them on and sit by us while we read some of the Everyday Missionary book with Brother and Sister Crapo. It was so cute! There names are Madaline and Evie. Evie is the little one. She stood by our chairs and jumped up and down literally the entire lesson because she was so excited :).

Remember Surf Taco's?? Well, I'm over those. It's all about Michocanna Taco's now :) Don't worry, I will bring you there. It's owned by the same people that have the Ice Cream shop in Kennett Square. I would go on and on about the Tacos like you are probably expecting from me because you KNOW how I feel about Surf Taco right? :)

We had whats called "Golden Retraining" this week. It's when all of the goldens and their trainers meet together and the president teaches us and so do the AP's. We had to go to Delaware for it. (which is like really close...I'll tell you how close in a min) Oh my it was so fantastic! First of all, almost all of my MTC district was there and that was really exciting to see all of them again. It felt like seeing you guys again! I learned so much there!

So apparently it's hurricane season, which means it's time for some tropical storms up here. That means that it rains for 5 days straight and its rather odd. The Brandywine (its a river...or a creek. I actually don't know the difference out here, creeks look like rivers and rivers look like oceans to me) floods every time a tropical storm rolls in. Sister B and I were driving while it was flooding and it basically took over the road but it was not a big deal. Everyone out here acts like that is normal. Weirdos.

Katie Avila is one of our investigators. She has been taught by the missionaries since last January (Emily Gofferson, or whatever her last name is,was her first missionary!) anyways, she's had several baptism dates but hasn't kept them. The missionaries dropped her over the summer because she works so much and wasn't really interested for a bit. Sister Bettillyon and her last comp picked her back up at the end of the summer and her husband, Adrian, wasn't happy about it. He is a very less active and would just spirt anti christ things at the missionaries the whole time they were there, so for teaching appointments, Sister Penrose (a lady from the ward) would go pick her up and bring her to their house to teach. Adrian was mad about this too because they were taking Katie away from him on her time off from work. Right before I got here. The missionaries started meeting with Katie at her house again but in a separate room where Adrian couldn't bother them. That's how my first meeting with Katie was. In that meeting, Adrian came in the room at the end, we were reading from Alma and he listened. I didn't know anything about Adrian so this was all pretty normal to me. We had Katie say the prayer and we left. Sister Bettilyon about flipped a lid when we got to the car over the fact that Adrian didn't drive away the spirit when he came in the room (also when we were in there, Katie forced me to hold her massive pet rat...) Then she told me how he usually is...our next lesson with Katie was in their living room with Adrian. He was quiet. About a month has gone by and our relationship with Adrian is really good. We have to meet with Kaite at night because she works so much. Usually 8 o clock, which is when they have dinner for some weird reason. So we teach while they cook and eat. We've been stopping by when we knew Katie was at work to bring Adrian treats (usually things members give us that we don't want/need) to let him know that we care about him too and we are not just there to teach Katie. We stopped by on Saturday night while Katie was at work and gave him some pumpkin cupcakes Sister Boyd gave to us at our dinner appointment that night. He was happy to see us! We talked to him a bit about blessings (he is struggling to find a job, has anxiety issues and panic attacks) and he was really interested! we told him we might stop by to teach Katie on monday night and left. So monday night comes and we go to teach Katie and they were waiting for us! When we got there, they told us that they had already had dinner because they thought we might come!! We taught them about the plan of salvation. It was amazing! Adrian was participating and he really remembers a lot more than we thought he did about the church. He kept on finishing our sentences and had really good questions and insights! I don't think you people realize WHAT A MIRACLE THIS IS!!!!!!

Katie's next baptism date was supposed to me November 2 but we moved it to December 7th so she can come to church enough before she is baptized. yayyyyyyyyyyy :) this is really happy!

We have a new investigator named Amy Prince. She was a HQ referral. The referral said that she needed a blessing of comfort. So we went to visit her last week and she is so awesome. She is a grad student at the university and has gone through about 3 sets of missionaries back in South Dakota. She always stopped meeting with them for one reason or another (she didn't like how the first ones wanted her to be baptized the first time they met her, the second ones told her that her brother is in Spirit Prison...yeah...show me where it says that in PMG) She opened up to us and told us her story. Her brother died 5 years ago to the day that we visited her. he was in a car accident involving alcohol. Anyways, at the end we asked her if she wanted a blessing and she said yes! So after church on sunday, we went to her apt with brother Castleton. It was the most powerful blessing that I have ever witnessed. He talked about how her brother was learning and progressing and wanted her to do the same. WOW it was powerful. She was crying at the end and the spirit was very very strong. :)

There is a less active in our ward that we go visit named Sister Worall. She is the funniest woman on the planet. So we were doing some service for her the other day, putting her cupbord handles back on (she took them off to polish them or somthing) So we are chatting and putting them on...she looks over at me and says...UH sister bailey, is somthing wrong there?. Huh? I had no idea what she was talking about. I stood up and look at the cupbord I was looking at...oh boy. I had screwed on the handle backwards...wow. Sister Worall was laughing so hard she was crying!! its was way funny

The other day we were driving from West Grove to Kennet Square. We know the way so we didnt put it in the gps....all of the sudden i saw a sign that said. Welcome to Delaware...Uh Sister Bettliyon..where are we!??!? whoops

Well, I'm going to Philly today! That should be fun. I think we are going to the Rocky steps, Love park, and other touresty stuff. We cant see the Liberty Bell becasuse apparently the government isn't a thing anymore....that's what I heard at least. (by the way....iPhone 5 color??.ok fine i'll take one)

Love you family, especially you mom

10/7/13

Oh hey family.

This ones going to be a shawty cause we have to go to zone unity in Broomall. I wrote a letter to Mike today so you can all get the scoop from him. Don't you feel special turtle?? :) I love getting your pictures! I wish I could spend more time on the comp so I could read your emails and respond! I just have to take pictures and read them later. I heard it's been really cold in Utah? It's been real nice and warm here. It was 85 yesterday and Saturday but today it's 75 and rainy. yay. Fall is real life here, y'all are missin out. 

Was it just me or was this Conference the best one ever?? Oh wait it wasn't just me, President Monson thought so too :) 

We have seen so many miracles this week! The best one is with our crazy investigator, Michelle. Have I told you about her? Well she's nuts. Anyway, we told her about Conference earlier in the week and she really wanted to come! Which is a miracle in and of itself! So then we were at her house on Friday and she was running around being crazy so we sat down in her backyard and talked to her daughter and neighbor. We ended up inviting both of them to Conference and they both really wanted to come. Michelle's daughter Maddie was so so excited (she's 17) Miracle!!! 

But then we called Michelle on saturday and she wasn't feeling good, she asked "isn't there some way I can watch it at home?" Uh yeah Michelle, there totally is. So we got that figured out with here. Her neighbor couldn't come because she had some sort of dispute with Michelle and her husband wouldn't let her come cause she thought it was a thing with Michelle. Then this is were it gets really sad. Maddie was so excited and was telling her dad about conference. He gave her a really really hard time about mormons and said a bunch of bad stereotypical stuff that i won't tell you. So she didn't end up coming. So we need to have a talk with her. She said she still really likes us so that's good. So this all sounds sad and not like a miracle when I type it all out...but it is really happy (except for that part about Maddie's dad) and it is seriously a miracle. 

We had so many other miracles this week I can't even count them. We have 9 investigators and we couldn't be happier. 

I love you all and tell Uncle Stuart that I love getting his emails!!!

Love, 

Sister Bailey