6/2/14 | Reading Rainbow

Hello from Reading!

The Happiest missionary got transferred to Reading PA! That's
pronounced reding, like the reading railroad on monopoly...yeah, we've
been saying it wrong all of these years...well at least all of us that
thought we could read have been saying it wrong. Anyways, I LOVE
READING!!!!! It's a lot different than my other areas but its just
magical! It's a lot more open...not as many trees which feels really
weird but its super beautiful. Lot's of rolling hills, farmland and
backwoodsy stuff like dead possums in the road. That's what half of
our area is like, the other half is the city of Reading--which is
literally exactly like Philly without center city. It is just
fabulous!!! Rows and rows of the most charming row homes :). Did I
mention I love it here!? My companion is Sister Suckow--that's
pronounced Sue-ko :). She is so so so so so so funny. She's from
wherever people who go to Bingham High School live but her family just
moved to Alaska! So that's where she will go home to. She's been out
for 13 months and is 20 I think. She taught a year of preschool before
she came out here. She loves kids and has had 1200 embarrassing
moments since we've been companions :). There are 4 sisters and 4
elders in our district and they are all really great missionaries!
We live in a house. Yes a house...all by ourselves. It has a big front
room with uber comfy couches, a big kitchen that 2 people can actually
stand to be in together, 1 bath, our bedroom and our study room and
then there's the upstairs that we store random things in. It is so
fun! We even get to mow our lawn!!!!!!! We have a porch and a hose so
we can wash our car right here in the driveway for free! ayayyyah!
We have 2 recent converts we are teaching--Rosalie and Octavia (mother
and daughter) They are Haitian! How cool is that?! We had dinner with
them the other night and it was crazy! We had something....I know some
of is was chicken and there were plantains (I love plantains) then
there was this gravy...well she called it gravy but I'm going to call
it fire sauce. She told me to put it all over my food so I'm like "umm
ok, whatever you say..." Then my lips caught on fire but she fed us
cheesecake for dessert so it was ok.
The rest of the work here in Reading is mostly with less active
members. Apparently  it's "really hard" to come by a baptism around
here...we will see. It's been kinda a koo koo week so I haven't been
able to meet lot's of the people we work with but I love the ones I've
met.
We had stake conference yesterday! They had it at a high school so all of
the stake could fit, that was fun. President and Sister Anderson came
and spoke and it was just fantastic! Surprisingly I've been able to
meet lot's and lot's of the members here despite the abnormal meeting
today. They are all super involved in the work (WHICH IS INCREDIBLE!)
so we've met lots through missionary work stuff but I also got to meet
lot's of members at a funeral my first day here. Sad.
I had a real life Philly pretzel this week. It was YUM! I had no idea
what I was missing.
We are having a special meeting next sunday, they are making some
boundary changes in our stake so that should be exciting.

Well...any questions??

The gospel is still true, even in Reading PA! I love it here :) I hope
I get to serve the rest of my mission here :) Have a happy happy happy
week!

Love Sister Bailey