7/21/14

Hola Familiaaa,

What a wonderful week we've had. There is this cool thing that happens
in missionary work, it's a cycle. You work your hardest and sometimes
you have rough transfers, your numbers are low and no one wants to
listen to you, but you keep working your hardest and anchoring back on
times that brought you great joy when you need to and finding joy in
the tiny things like people not slamming doors in your face and
picking mulberries in a tractor, then bam, next transfer rolls in with
miracles flowing out of the windows of heaven!!! ahhhhh! Reading is a
wonderful place. The zone leaders finally drew the boundary line
between us and the elders here in Exeter and turns out we get more of
Readding!!!!! The elders are a little irked but that's not how christ
would feel about it so I can't feel too bad for them right?.
Basically our days have been chuck full of tracting/finding. There are
so many less actives (400 just in our ward), potentials and formers in
our area we've been booked every minuet of every day! On wednesday we
spent the entire day on one street.!! We didn't have anything planned
but knocking and by the end of the day we had 1 member present lesson,
2 new investigators, a less active lesson, and a return appointment
with a potential! We were on fire with the spirit!
We also met YahYah the Ice cream man that day, get this: He sits on
his porch and all the little neighborhood children swarm to him with
their quarters. he takes their money one by one and walks into his
house, the children wait patiently ready to explode with anticipation!
Right when they think they can't wait any longer, out comes YahYah
with some homemade Ice cream or Water Ice over flowing the plastic cup
he so carefully placed it in. They jump to get their ice cold treat,
thank him with their over joyed smiles and scurry along down Cotton
Street.
Obviously we joined in the joy! YahYah lives right next door to Sister
Ballard (LA) and she insisted we try some ice cream! So we took a
dollar and got some cookies and cream ice cream and strawberry
lemonade water ice. OH MY GOODNESS, it was so tasty I thought I might
collapse and  die! Really, I'm taking all yous to meet Yahyah when I
take you to Reading.
Thursday Sister Suckow was sick so we were in for most of the day,
around lunch time she perked up a bit and wanted me to teach her how
to play tennis (we have a tennis court here at the Maddison! I've been
trying to convince her we need to go play tennis for excersize but she
wont buy it) anyways, she grabbed the racket and fuzzy green tennis
ball, I warned her not to hit it too hard, "it dosn't take much to
make it go far" maybe she didn't believe me or maybe she dosn't know
her own strength because when she swung that racket while standing a
little too close to the kitchen table--the ball flung into the sky
with mighty power and came in perfect contact with the the only
ceiling light fixture in the entire apartment. Down came just one of
the light bulbs, crashing into a million pieces onto our new area
map-in-progress and the floor. I suppressed a chuckle and went to go
help her clean it up. Apparently I'm just as absent minded as she--I
gracefully swept the tiny shards of glass into my bare hand. all was
well until I tried to rid them into the trash can...As I gently
brushed off my hands, the glass got a mind of its own and refused to
fall into the can, instead it found a home right under my skin. It
only bled a little bit and it didn't hurt after gardening that night.
:)
On Saturday we planned more time in the city. Then the Reading Second
sisters (Shaia and Pike) called and insisted our assistance in a
painting project! Off we went, grabbed our painting clothes and onto
west reading! You know, it's funny how people think missionaries can
literally just do anything...like paint their entire house. I mean, we
CAN do it...we'll do it with a smile and to the best of our ability
but just know that it won't be professional--most people are ok with
that though. We primed and primed and got a free Big Mac. Then the
Spanish elders joined the ranks and we ended up getting a lot done!
We're going back on tuesday to hopefully finish the project. That
night we went to play soccer with the Reading 3rd (spanish) ward.
One of the funnest things about reading is the unity all of the wards
have! They all set up weekly activities and invite all of the other
wards! it's an awesome finding tool and it's a great opp to invite
your investigators and LA's to a casual church function. So...I'm
really quite bad a soccer...but I guess I look like I'm good enough
that people think they need to tackle me when I have the ball?? I
didn't know that was a thing in soccer but I seriously got taken out
hard multiple times Saturday night.
Battle wounds:
bruised ankles
bruised knees (dont worry I can still kneel to pray)
a calf that refuses to work properly/without a little sting of pain
a pretty purple cleat mark on the base of my middle toe.
How cool is that?!
On Sunday we got to got to Anthony's (the spanish elders investigator)
Baptism! It was so wonderful! Even though he is Dominican, he reminded
me a lot of Kollie (do you remember him?????) They have the same sweet
spirit about them with immensely big hearts.
We ended the night at Carina Sanchez's for a late dinner. Carina is my
favorite person. Look her up on facebook.
Here's a miracle: We reached the standard of excellent for member
presents this week!!!!!!! HALLELUJAAA!
Fun facts:
-Singing hymns in spanish is wayyy better than english
-My new ZL (Elder Park) played basketball with Brody Berry in
Hawaii...he also carries a spoon with him at all times "just in case"
-we planted lima beans at the welfare garden
-I believe that there IS a right way to make ramen...and it includes
following the   directions on  the package. :)

We had an experience the other day, we were looking for a LA and
ended up in this house with 2 apartments. the doors weren't labeled so
we knocked the first one. no answer, it didn't really look like anyone
lived there. So we started walking up the stairs to knock the second
door. Before we made it to the landing the spirit very abruptly said
"get. out. now." I turned and looked at sister suckow, "Let's go." I
said very calmly as she had a look in her eyes that looked much like a
deer in the headlights. We scurried down the stairs and back onto the
sidewalk before either of us took a breath. I'm so grateful for the
companionship of the spirit--Without the spirit with us, we can't do a
whole lot if anything at all.

I love you all! Sounds like you are having a real fun time with the
tiny pants! :) make sure you show her my picture at least once a day
so she loves me when I get home. we can't have stranger danger bailey
welcoming me home!

Love Sister Bailey!