Sister Alyssa Bailey: 10/27/14

Good Morning Family!

We had a really miraculous end to our week! We got word that a new family of recent converts moved into our ward! The mom and one of the daughters were baptized on September 20th and the other daughter was just baptized last week before they moved! We went to meet them and they are filled with testimony and spirit. The mom, Virginia, is so good at teaching her daughters and helping them remember what they have already have learned. We are really excited to be able to work with them. They don't have a car so we scrambled to get them rides to church and it all worked out! They had a good time at church and felt welcomed :).

Yesterday we had some time in-between our sunday meetings and our dinner appointment so we set out to contact some referrals. We stopped by a man named Dominic--he was a media referral we have been having a hard time getting a hold of. He was home and was so excited to see us! He let us right in and we assumed he was excited because he referred himself online or something. Then he tells us that he had just met the spanish elders the night before and thought they had sent us! We told him they hadn't but that we did have a message that God really wanted him to hear! He got talking about himself a little bit and he read the Book of Mormon 20 years ago but didn't understand it and asked if we could help him. Yes we can! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and that it testifies of Christ as does the Bible. We told him about when Christ came to the Americas and he was so excited! "No way." he exclaimed in shock! He thought it was so marvelous that Christ visited them. We taught him about Moroni's promise and gave him a copy to read before we come back on friday. We are so excited to teach him.
We were invited to teach the young women for mutual last week along with the other sisters in the Reading wards. It went really well, we taught them all how to teach with the pamphlets and had them role play. It was incredible to see that even though they weren't the best teachers, they took it seriously and were trying. We walked around and helped them when they got stuck and it was just a really joyful experience.
Sister Casey and I also got to go to early morning seminary to teach about missionary work. I admire the kids that graduate from early morning seminary so much. What a blessing it is to have seminary during school hours! The lesson went well even though they were all pretty sleepy.

We had a family home evening lesson with the Papenhousens this week. She is recently divorced and having hard time, she has a 4 year old daughter named Lilly. We taught her the plan of salvation with our little cut outs. It was so funny! On mine I drew little houses in each of the kingdoms (castle, cottage and tent) and when we got to the part about the kingdoms we put them all out and asked Lilly which one she would like to live in. First she was really intrigued by the camping idea then she snatched up DJ and Lilly (that's the names of the little cut out friends) and yelled, "Get to the castle! Get to the castle!" We died laughing! But she's right in her urgency! We should all be that enthusiastic about "getting to the castle" :)

It was our turn to bring treats to district meeting this week (yes, we have treats every week. One of the perks of being in a Sistrict) I found a Lehi Roller Mills pumpkin cookie mix and whipped it up and now everyone thinks I'm a mad cookie genius! We brought some to correlation that night because we borrowed a can of pumpkin from our ward missionary and told her we would share. Mistake: She brought 2 more cans of pumpkin to church on sunday and insisted we make her more cookies. Before we could explain that it was quite impossible she was gone….so we'll see how that goes. Yous should send me some mix, they are quite scrumptious. (Send it with the Leitz, they are brining my suitcase to the house this week :))

Speaking of the Leitz, you will LOVE them! I love them and they will probably talk all about me! They are the best. Last time we went over for dinner there was a box of apple cinnamon tea on my plate at the table, I looked at it and sister leitz goes "oh that is for you! I was thinking about you today while I was at the store so I bought you some tea", they know I like tea because I usually drink about half of a pitcher of their peppermint iced tea every time we go over there. So niceeeee! They also met sister bettilyon at the temple sight a week or two ago!

The 2nd ward sisters had a baptism this saturday and they asked me to play a musical number, since I've been companions with both of them--they know my I can play so I couldn't say no ;). I whipped up a little rendition of "when I am baptized" it went pretty well. Sister Casey was supposed to lead the music for the baptism but literally chickened out at the last second…while the introduction was being played…awkward but I just went up and led for her. The baptism was so good! A 19 year old boy named Cody was baptized.

Guess what we ran into on our hike last week!!!! A waterfall and a wine cellar!! I'll attach pictures :) it was so beautiful and just 5 min from out place. fun fun fun.

I hope yous have a happy happy happy week! Love you 100 million geese.

Sister Bailey.