3/31/14 | Happy Monday!

We had a great week! Our zone focus was invites to baptism; so at the beginning of the week, we were tying to figure out who we would invite. We made up a big list of people we could potentially invite but as the week went on, all of out investigators were canceling appointment and everything kept falling through. The zone leaders came to our district meeting and elder Bloomfield told us how they had been inviting people this week; they just walk up to people ask if they have ever done something they regret (of course most people do) then they ask if they would like to erase all of it and start over (again the answer is affirmative) then they just invite them to be baptized! Simple as that. So we wanted to start doing that as we tracked and street contacted, but we either chickened out or the conversation never allowed us to guide it to baptism without being completely awkward. By Sunday morning we only had 2 out of the 5 invites we were accountable for. That is no good, so around 3 pm we pulled out the area book and phone and started calling people and inviting them to be baptized! It was so cool! Sometimes when you are cold contacting, people feel like then have the upper hand or control of the situation (basically the right and ability to be rude or just shut the door in your face) but when you just break the ice with "Hey we are planning a baptismal service for May and wanted to know if you want to be baptized." It catches people off guard, and as they let that guard down, your foot just slides right in the door and wonderful Christ centered conversations blossom. 
After calls, we hit the pavement and went to find some people that didn't answer their phones, doing the same thing on the door step. We found that people are kinder and can really see that we truly are representatives of Jesus Christ because like we have been told countless times, the spirit will always speak with you when you invite people to baptism. Now, unfortunately, no one responded with a resounding "yes!" But we were able to weed through some who really have no interest in coming to Christ and we also laid the foundation for future missionaries who they will meet. Because one of the first things we asked them was to accept the invitation from our savior and be baptized, they know our purpose and they felt the spirit of The Lord testify with us. 
We ended up inviting 11 people to be baptized this week. Not that the number matters, but I do know that that 11 directly correlates with the strength of the spirit we had with us this week, I know it coordinates with the unity we have in our companionship and it helped both of us grow as we acknowledged the fear we had (of being so bold) and conquered it with courage.

There is a mormon message we have been sharing with many of the sisters that we visit lately, its called courage and it's about esther and some random women that have been through hard things (look it up for fhe!) and one of the woman says that being brave doesn't mean that don't have fears. The only thing we should give to our fears is acknowledgement, then move on and be brave! :) YEAH! And that's my pep talk for the week :) 

Oh my goodness, family! I cannot believe that you are going on a grand adventure without me!!!!!! And without Spanky and without Mikey!! How incredibly sillly of you! That's ok because me and spencer will just go backpacking in europe when he get's home :) You in spencer?? it will be really fun and we can eat all the nutella we can find! 

Today was a realllly fun pday! We just casually went and found a castle in doylestown. It was seriously the coolest thing ever!! ok so this man built it in 1900something and its made compleatly out of cement because he wanted a fire proof house. There is all this cool tile work covering the inside because he was a tile maker man. IT was so cool! you need to come see it! I guess on special occasions, he would go up to his 70 ft high tower and build bonfires cause he could :). This guy was a serious nutter. 

OH get this! We called Sister Menloves family on thursday night (president said we could) because her little brother Thomas got his mission call! He's going to Portland Oregon!! cool huh! I love her family they are soooooooo nice! 

It's supposed to get into the 60's this week :) that will be sooooo lovely!!! I can't even wait!  I love you family!! have a really really good week and have fun in Cancun I guess--send some heat my way if you can :) 

Love, Sister Bailey 

Sis. Menlove & Sis. Bailey

The Cement Castle

Alright, I just realized I haven't really told you alot about Morrisville. Its reallly lovely!!! It is literally right across the river from Trenton NJ, which is not in the mission so we get freaked out when we are driving on the roads that lead to bridges becasue leaving them mission is a really bad idea. Anyways, we were tracting by the Delaware river and snapped some pics of trenton, i think that shiny gold building is the capitol?? maybs. And don't worry, yes I have heard that Trenton is realll sketchy but Morrisville is really nice and safe and cozy :). I live in a place called Yardly for goodness sake, how much more quaint can it get?? and please ignore how fat I look in that pic....I'm wearing 2 big sweaters, a scarf and my coat....it was reall cold give me a break. anyways, LOVE YOU!!! oh and I guess we have geese control out here??...soooo manyyyy geese! 

 also the face is half because it is freezing and half because that's my "ehehkkekkashhaah! that's trenton new jersey!" face.