12/30/13

Well I did have the Merriest of Merries thank you very much! After we chatted (That waas so fun wasn't it?! Lets do it every week) we spent some happy times at the Brown's house. I didn't get to tell you about the Browns while I was chatting with you because I was inside of their house and they would have thought it rather curious for me to talk about them on my Christmas call eh? Anyways, The Brown family is from England! English people are seriously the funniest of funnies! Sister B and I just laughed for the entire meal time because  every time they open their mouths something funny comes out. They are simply lovely. Oh and we live there now. :) We moved from the Lowers to the Browns on the day after Christmas. Yay. 

So we've had been instructed to stay inside because of the sickest companion in the united states. So I made 100 loaves of bread...ok 6 loaves. So we could deliver them to people on Friday. You know for thank you for being our favorite people kinda deal. So we did that on Friday. Meanwhile Sister B is still being the sickest and saddest. 

So I'll be getting a new companion tomorrow or wednesday. But it's ok because I CAN DO HARD THINGS!! and so can sister B :) we spent the morning at Presidents house while they were sorting it all out and I got to talk to the Loveliest Sister Anderson. Just continue praying for her and also you have to do something for me ok? I NEED you to take her to lunch ok?! Will you do that? I'm committing  you to this. Also when you see her give her 100 hugs and MAKE her copy all of the pictures she has on her camera of our time together and give it to me. 

OK This week was weird but next will be weirder!..bye 

Love, Sister Bailey. 

12/23/13 | Jolliest of Jollies

Merry Happy Dearest Family,

This week was pretty much a blur. I had (have) the most awefulest of colds and my symptoms were really bad for really long so I went to the insta-care and they told me I had an upper respiratory infection...aka a fancy cold. So she gave me some antibiotics to take if it didn't go away in 3 more days. So we'll see. (also I would be dead right now if it weren't for your sicky package mumsie!!! I ate all the cough drops and used all the tissues :))

She also told me I needed lots of rest, which I hadn't been doing because I like working too much. We had been in cahoots with Sister Anderson too and she kinda chastised us for working too hard through my sickness...So we decided to (instead of go caroling at Love Park in Philly with a bunch of missionaries) stay home all day and sleep and do restful things for P-day. 

Then it started raining inside our bedroom...for reals. 

I was in the shower around 11 am and sister B burst into the bathroom.."Water's coming out of the ceiling fan!!!"..um what's that? I hurried and got out of the shower and as I was getting dressed I hear her scream "THERE'S A RIVER!!" I opened the bathroom door and water was pouring out of the ceiling and down the walls. Dripping from the ceiling and out of the fan. We called the landlord and she said she would sent the maintenance man right over. It took him forever to get there but he finally came. When he walked in he stopped in his tracks, "Oi! That's allota water"(in a very Nacho Libre voice) and ran upstairs. Umm yes, we were serious when we said it was raining in here. He finally came back with the Landlord and they explained that the people that lived above us had left for the holiday's...unfortunately they had left their faucet completely on and it had been flooding all night. Nice. By this point water is pouring down three of the walls, streaming through half of the ceiling and filling buckets in the bathroom doorway...(right were that lovely patch of black mold lives). <don't worry we are getting the mold checked out this week. They had turned the water off upstairs but it kept draining into our bedroom for a good 30 min. By the time it finished draining, the entire ceiling was yellowy orange...I don't know what it was but I'll send a pic. There were big puddles everywhere and we were running around grabbing all of our things so they wouldn't get too wet. Our bedding was all soaking so we grabbed as much as we could, threw it into our suitcases and left. They were having some cleaning company come to clean all the water up. We called Sister Lower and explained what was going on and she told us that we must come and stay at her house! So we drove down to Kennett and she fed us yummiest soup and grilled cheese. And now we are here at the Library. yay. So much for resting today eh?

Despite all the crazy, we were blessed with 2 new investigators this week! A serious Christmas Miracle!!! That was the focus of our Zone this week and we didn't think we would be able to get any considering all of the time we were able to go out and work would be spent teaching investigators. 

Sister Bettilyon is back to square one of sickville. She finished her antibiotics and was feeling really well (even though the doc told her she didn't need to finish them because they wouldn't help with the supposed virus she had) Then day by day, she drooped back to where she started. The doc referred her to an infectious disease specialist and she has an appointment for Jan 9th...Hopefully we can get her into another one before that. 

Well we actually had a pretty happy week! We were laughing during the rainy apartment episode and ya'll know what happens to missionaries when you lock them in an apartment for a week...they get Kookoo. 

I love you all and hope you the Jolliest of Jollies!!! I'll talk to you live on Wednesday!!! I'm calling probably around 12 my time :) yayyyy. 

Oh I almost forgot...PA is the most wonderful! It's been 60 degrees since Friday :) all of the snow melted and I'm not mad :) we've been driving with the windows down and everything! It's simply fantastic! it feels like summer.

OK BYE!!!

Love, Sister Bailey :)

12/16/13 | Christmas is coming...It's practically here!!!!!

Hello family!

So I have an idea...give me some pointers on what the chirstmas letter should say and I'll write it :)...maybe. Or should we let everyone be disappointed so they all realize how much they miss me?....you should just tell them that it's better this way because they can all just read a weekly letter from me instead of a yearly one..and it's better because it's all about me instead of you hooligans. :) 

Alright, this week was a good one! It's finally feels like winter. (it was like 60's last week or something) but it finally decided to snow here! --Side note to the people of Pennsylvania: Dear PA, Learn how to drive in the snow, No you will not die if you drive faster that 10 miles an hour, especially if you have 4 wheel drive.-- ok ok. People seriously don't know how to handle snow. If there is a storm warning for the next day, people start driving literally 15 miles an hour everywhere. its the weirdest thing on the planet. We had two snow days. That means we can't drive our cars cause the roads will be too bad. We are still allowed to go out on foot but it's hard in a blizzard and we aren't in Canada so we are babies and think that "too cold" is a thing. So on Tuesday we didnt' go out. (oh plus no one we teach or any members or less actives live in walking distance...except for the Banesy! She's a less active member (her real last name is B___) and she talks like John Travolta on Hairspray :) we love her) Cause is was a blizzard of some sort. Saturday was supposed to be super bad so we ended our exchanges with the Broomall sisters early so we wouldn't be stuck with each other. Saturday was another snow day but it didn't snow....till like the evening. lame. but listen to this miracle that happened: Sister Bettilyon and I had both felt some sort of cold coming on and we had heard from members that the storm was going to be really bad and last a few days (thank goodness it didn't). So we asked Elder Marse if we cold run to the store to get some medicine just in case before the storm hit. He told us we could so we headed out. We had accidentally missed a turn and passed the store we were headed to but just decided to go to the next store down the road. We got there and did our shopping and went to check out. As we were buying our things, one of our potential investigators came over and said hi to us! Her name is S____ and she works there at the store. She had just come out of the back room to her register and had only checked one person out before closing up her register! She came and found us!!! It was absolutely a miracle! We got to talk to her for a little bit and she told us that that was her last day working there! She gave us her cell phone number (which is so good because we haven't been able to reach her on her home phone) and told us to give her a call so we can come by! Wow right?! Every time I think about this experience, I just think about how many random things that shouldn't have happened, happened so we could catch up with S____! It all started because President was prompted to call a snow day, and then it didn't snow in the morning like it was supposed to, we ended up at the wrong store and got to the check out line at the exact moment so S____ could find us!!!! I know the Lord does things like that for us every day, it just takes us a while to realize it. 

Here's another miracle: M_____ (one of our investigators) had invited us over for cake and ice cream for her birthday that night. Her husband used to be very anti-mormon but has warmed up to us over the past 3 months. We don't see him very often because she prefers us to come when he is gone just in case. They have a very broken family so it was such a blessing to see them all around the dinner table and you could tell that they really do love each other despite their normal, everyday actions. J (M___'s husband) had gotten up to leave to run some errands and was almost out the door when I asked him if we could say a prayer together before he left. I totally thought he would say no but he said YES!! and came back to the table and we prayed together! I'm pretty sure that was the first time that family has ever said a prayer together! The spirit was so strong and I know J felt it.YAYY! 

OH and I invited Maddie to be baptized!!!! yayyyy she's praying about it. Good thing I already know what her answer will be if she listens. 

^all that happened on exchanges with Sister Bradshaw. I love her and she is awesome because she told me that I was the best sister in the mission or something...

Last night we gave Elder Taylor his new planner :) He promoted us to Unofficial Jr. Zone Leaders. That's how good it was. President was there too and saw it...haha it was so funny he was trying to figure out how it did it ;) then he asked me to make one for all the missionaries in the mission...yeah no thanks. ha.

I went to the chiro this week...5 out of the 7 bones in my neck were out of place...ouch. 

I love you bunches. I wish I could write more but my meany compa is telling me we have to go do laundry or something....

bye love you all!!!!

Sister Bailey

Elder Taylors Planner (we named the camel Pashmina)

Sister B's planner

12/9/13 | Happy Day!

Hello Family!

How are you all doing? I'm doing rather swell :). It finally decided to snow yesterday! Alllll the day long! We got snowed in after church! Kookoo. It took all of them member that live down in Kennett Square (30 min away) 5 hours to get home!!! It took us only an hour (its a 10 min drive). But today is better. The roads are cleared off and its a little bit warmer. Its supposed to snow again tomorrow...I guess you would actually know better than I would considering I can't watch the weather report and you can google it.

So last monday we went to Philadelphia! It was grandomundo funn. We went to the Rocky steps and made friends with the NICCEST Hobo who took our pictures and didn't even run away with our cameras like Sister B thought he would. Apparently he has met with missionaries before but then he lost his house and it's rear impossible to set an appointment with someone that doesn't have a home. :( 

Philadelphia is just crawling with missionaries on mondays cause we LOVE PHILLY! We ran into at least 25 other missionaries! crazzy! From the Rocky steps we walked down to the Temple site. I was sooo excited to see it! They have a little visitor center that Elder and Sister Carr are in charge of...They show you stuff and give you a rock from the temple quarry...but they were out to lunch so we didn't get any of that stuff. So sad :( But the temple is surely getting built and that was happy to see!
Then we walked over to love park. Its just lovely. At Christmastime they have this thing called the Christmas Village, which is TOTALLY my jam! They have themes and this year the theme is something like middle east or eastern europe...Turkey and Nepal kinda stuff. They just have loootttts of vendors with Turkish Towels (uhhh google it, basically I want 50 of them) and Handwoven Pashminas from Nepal :) swooonn. I was just in Heaven!!! We spent way too much time there and found more missionaries and ate spinach puffs from a man in lederhosen :) not sure why he was there but they were scrumptious. 

Then we drove over to B____ and E___'s. They are the Hippies that own Old City Tee's. Its a little gift shop thing. We found more missionaries there. I guess you could say we had a successful P-day last week eh?

On Tuesday, we finally got to go see a doc for the sicky! yayyyyy Good news, It's not Lymes, It's not Arthritis (we were convinced it was for a day or two) It's....Some virus that nobody knows!!! yayyyy Apparently it's like Mono where you just have to suck it up and wait it out. At this point we were on week 4 so what are two more weeks of sick right? They told us they weren't going to test her for what kind of virus it was because it doesn't really matter cause you can't do anything about it. She's feeling better and better errrry dayyy! yayy!

Speaking of herr. Transfers are this week and Trainers only stay with their Golden's for 12 weeks....But The Lord has other plans for us because you can't break up B squared till errry one in West Chester is Baptized!!!  This is so happy because now we get to do all the work and more that we couldn't do when Sister B was sick! This is going to be a transfer of Miracles!!! Just you wait! 

Oh myyy, The West Chester Ward Christmas Party was this week (I'll attack pics) It was just magical! M___e came with us and got to meet all of the youth and she loved them! She told me she was going to hide behind me the whole time cause she's afraid of people but she was totally normal! The theme was a night In Bethlehem and we were all supposed to dress up :) I did of course the best that I could cause I love dressing up like I'm in Jerusalem...Sometimes I do it at home for fun cause it's cozy. We all brought cans of food to trade for stones (money) so we could buy fruits and cheese and nuts and pitas and beef and lentil salad! YUM! we brought blankets and sat on the floor (mom I wish i would have taken pics of how they decorated! It was just jaw dropping over the top!) They made a stage and the youth did a little program that was actually like the Nativity on steroids. Too legit! They had musical numbers and the bishopric were the wise men! When Joseph and Mary were wandering through Bethlehem looking for a place to stay, they finally were offered the stable. We were all invited to follow them to the stable, We walked around the entire church building halls and then out to the parking lot where they had set up a LIVE NATIVITY!!!!! With cows and sheep and goats and angles singing, shepherds and wise man and a real life baby Jesus! It was so wonderful!!! M____e loved it too! After the party we took her on a church tour and she loved it! She's going to be able to come to church with us in january when we switch times cause she works Sunday mornings. Then when M____e left, Brother Moyer told us to come out to where the animals were, Mr. B___y was going to come pick them us soon and he wanted us to meet him. Mr. B____y is the nices quaker man! (I finally met a Quaker!!!!) he owns a dairy that apparently sells the BEST chocolate milk in the united states or something. 

Oh my I almost forgot to tell y'all the best part of the week! Zone training: it's this thing were your zone meets together and basically have district meeting as a zone...lots of learning and role playing etc. We had one last thursday and it was simply fantastic!!! President and Sister Anderson came to it (I just love them, you would too) The sister training leaders had us do the funniest role play! They set up the High Council room like a dining room and we had to pretend like we were at a members house for dinner. we all had a paper on our plate that told us how we had to act. I had to act like snow white. They went around and asked us questions about us, our investigators etc. So I got to tell them all about our seven small investigators that we found in the woods, usually we sing to them in lessons. President and sister anderson thought it was the funniest thing for some reason...I mean i'm not that funny am i? Sister B had to act "rude." President Anderson was asking questions now and he turned to her and asked if she had a boyfriend back home...she goes "yeah like 6." and President turned Bright Red! hahahaha I guess you had to be there but it was just the funniest. We did another role play on asking referrals and it was really good and insightful! as we were leaving the room to go back to the yw room, President turns to Sister B and I and told us that we are just so funny! We should start a comedy club!  ohhhh yeahhhhh

Our investigators are doing pretty well considering we haven't been able to leave the apartment for more than an hour or two a day for the past 5 weeks. A__ just went home for Christmas but we are getting our iPads next week so we'll be able to facetime teach her over the break! yay! Katie set another baptismal date for January 12! We are picking G___ back up (she's the first baptismal invitation, lifes just been getting in the way of her progression, her sister is deathly ill in the hospital and she has to help watch her kids and stuff like that but she is soooo ready for the gospel!) B___ J____ and his girlfriend are supposed to be married in the coming week and that means he can get baptized soon!!!! yay! 

Well Familia, I hope you are having a wonderful Christmastime just like I am!  I love you to the "squishy and back" (-pika mi digio) have a happy happy happy!!! 

LOVE, Sis Lyss :)

I just love PHILLY!...and elk 

LOVE park!!

I wanted all of these ornaments!!!

Do I look Jewish???

me and sister k :) she is our favorite lady, we do our laundry at her house

L and L C____, we had thanksgiving with them and they are the cutest!

The Nativity

12/2/13 | Thanksgiving is for Foxes

First of all, Sister B and I about DIED when we got your thanksgiving card!!!! I do hope that all of your thanksgivings were as wonderful as mine! In the morning, we went to Philly with the Broomall Sisters to meet up with a few Zones that were having a Turkey Bowl! So funn! I brought a thermos full of yummm tea cause I'm just a cool hipster like that. We got lost and ended up driving around downtown philly for a bit on accident (I'm not mad!) We finnally found them and President and Sister Anderson were in the parking lot in their car cause it was freezing and they didnt want to go out! ha. It was alot of fun. Then we went down to the Co____'s for dinner! They have the cutest little boys on the plannet! (I'll send pics next week) Their names are Logan and Lucas. We played with them for a little bit before dinner. Dinner was yummmmm. They had all the normal Thanksy stuff and had the best thing called pinnapple bread cake stuff. Kinda like bread pudding. you eat it with the ham and it was so good! I'm getting the recipe. After we ate we played Blokus...JUST LIKE A BURR THANKSGIVING! It was mega fun and then Sister C___ made us Ginger tea--This was the best tea I have ever had...you will LOVE IT!

Ginger Tea:

Boil water with some ginger in it 

Strain into your tea cup

Heap a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk 

Stir

Drink

Smile!

Then we went on our merry way to the Ca___'s! yayyy I love them!  This is a pic of M___ and S___...they emailed it to me cause they heard Pika asked for a photo of the ward :)...M___ has a crushy crush on the Pika! yayyyyy they shall be married in the morning!

When we got to the castletons, the girls were just putting the finishing touches on their thanksgiving play that Sami wrote when she was 10 (sounds like something me and Jenna would do) It was so funny! ha. Then we had Pieeee YUM!

Then we went to the L___'s and played scatagories and catch phrase. yayyy more games! They sent us home with sooo manny leftovers (they were so good we ate them after district meeting on friday)

As you can see--I did have the happiest of happies for Thanksgiving :) The rest of our week wasn't as jolly joyful. But thats ok! The problem is we have to stay in the apartment for most of the day (we can usually make it to our dinner appointments and one to two more a day) and how are you supposed to baptize people when you dont leave your apt!? Solution (so far) Use technology! I've been text teaching our peoples while the sicky compa takes naps. yay!

Did I tell you K___ dropped her date?...well she did and she's really hesitant to set a new one. Pray for her. k?

Ohhh wanna hear about Ma___!? She is Mi___'s daughter and we've kinda been trying to teach her but we had a major breakthrough with her. She's funny, she HATES a normal lesson setting where the missionaries are sitting across from her and ask her inspired questions from the spirit etc..so for a while we weren't alowed to look at her (it made her feel uncomforable...weirdo) and we had to answer our own questions before we could ask her (like "what did you like from that scripture?" or "how did you feel while we watched that Mormon Message?"

 and usually in the lessons we have with her, Mi____ will interrupt with something but she was at the doc so we had M____ all to ourselves. It was awesome! the spirit was so strong! She has become our best investigator, she keeps all of the commitments we give her! We watched a MM called Look to the light...or somthing. we've actually been watching this one with pretty much everyone..look it up you'll love it. Just kidding I'll just give you the linky:

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911029438001

I'm making sister b a planner of all planners. Thats something we do out here in PA. we decorate our mission planners and they are super cool (remind me to show you the one the elders made me) So I'll show you the one I'm making her when it's finished. you will love it!

I love you famemiley! I think about Aunt Sue a lot for some reason...I think it's because the bishops wife reminds me of her...anyway..tell her helloww! and the rest of the Gubs. I like them...and all of the BURRS! I misssed all of you for thanksgiving!!!! Aunt Natalie: how was your trip to NY??

Bye have a good weeky! OH and Mrs Boss, you are the coolest person on the planet...being on the news! you sly fox!!

SO MUCH LOVE YOU CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT: Sister Bailey

PS. I'm on my way to Phillly today! jealous?