12/29/14 | HNY

Helloooooooooo!

I'm emailing you from my couch. :) cause I can. We moved into our new apartment on Friday and let me tell you, it's the nicest thing since our new car. I'll send some pics...maybe. Anyways we love it here even though we don't live in our area anymore and we had to leave all of our Russian neighbors which is ok because we traded them for the best Peruvians in America. 

Ah, it was so good to talk to yous on Christmas! Seriously fun and guess what (mom) I didn't even cry after either! I was on cloud 9! Happiest missionary in the united states! So that was fun, I would say lets do it again but I guess we can upgrade in a few months instead. 

Lets see, lets seee....what has happened this week...We finally got our new area book since the switch up and in turn gave all of our investigators to the Elders. We spent christmas at the Menezes, our favorite Brazilians! They are so wonderful. Sister Menezes made the yummiest dinner! Don't worry I'm stealing all of her recipes so yous can get fat too. 

Speaking of the Menezes, let me tell you about their daughter, Bruna's, boyfriend: Tyrese. Tyrese is the greatest and is always at their house, he comes to church with them every week and he works at 5 Guys. He's a manager there so he always tells us to come in and get a free burger. Anyways, we assumed he was a member because everything pointed at that. Wrong. On friday in coordination we found out that he is not a member! What?! So on Saturday we interrupted our weekly planning session for some free 5 guys. We get there and Tyrese comes to the register, we exchange hellos and then point blank ask him, "Tyrese! you're not a member of the church?!" he laughed and said yeah. We told him we had no idea...bla bla bla how crazy is that..."Do you want to get baptized?!" yes! he said. So we are starting to teach him next sunday at the menezes. yay! And yes, 5 guys is better when it's free :). 

Sister Cost told me she had the best christmas of her life. and I am so so happy :) that was my goal for the day :) 

At church on Sunday, a less active member introduced us to his friend Kevin and told us that Kevin wanted to be taught and baptized. AH! ok :) so we set up an appointment with him on Tuesday (plot twist, i looked up his address and he lives in the elder area soo we had to turn him over Unfortunatly but it's still a cool thing. 

Last night we spent some time at Sister Mirochnick's. She is the sweetest lady! She has had cancer a few times but it went into remission over the summer, she just found out it came back again and is now all over her body so she is starting chemo again in a couple weeks. It's super heart breaking. While we were there the Mauer's showed up and we all ended up eating (the best russian food everrrrr) together. It was really great! The Mauer's have been one of those families that we have been trying to win over for a while (a little bit of the judgy type I think) and I think we did it!!!! Because they invited us over for NYE! YEY. They are super cool and he has the STRONGEST Philly accent I've ever heard. I wish I could bottle it up and send it to you. I'm not super good at the Philly accent but I'll keep working on it so I can show you later :). Unless I've already picked it up and haven't realized it!?!?!? Did I talk funny the other day?!!??. ha. 

We have to teach in Zone Training again this week. Apparently we did too good of a job last time and so they want us to teach again for longer....I'm not super excited about it but I know it will work out. 

GGuys! this is really random but I found something really cool today, It's called Plum Vida (you know the squishy baby food stack we like) and it's Pineapple, Carrot and Mint. Yum. I'm reallllll excited. I'll let you know if it's good. ok as I wrote that I thought that maybe the thing I found should have been a spiritual thought so here's a good one.. by elder holland “You can’t separate Bethlehem from Gethsemane or the hasty flight into Egypt from the slow journey to the summit of Calvary. It’s of one piece. It is a single plan. It considers ‘the fall and rising again of many in Israel’ [Luke 2:34], but always in that order. Christmas is joyful not because it is a season or decade or lifetime without pain and privation, but precisely because life does hold those moments for us." 

II liked that because people out here seem to have an easy time remembering christ at christmas time but then he is gone only to brisk their thoughts again at easter. The Christmas spirit is something we need all year round. Maybe keep that in mind as you set some goals and plans for the new year. Remember the "wise men still seek him" mormon message?? that's a good one too. 

Now for some follow up: What page of the Book of Mormon are all of you on??????? it's not too late to start if you havent yet but remember you only have till March 17 till I come and you get to be tell me face to face weather you have compleated it or not :) 

also did you watch the angels we have heard on high piano guys video??? tell me if you liked it! (ok i already know you loved it so I guess you can tell me how many times you watched it :)) 

Love you all a million hundred. Have a happy happy new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Byeee 

Sister Bailey Loves YOU!

12/22/14 | Merriest of Merries!

Christmas is coming!!!...it's practically hereeeee!!!
Whoa, this week was a good one, we were able to be a part of the most
incredible lesson! Last Sunday Bishop Ackerman invited us to come to
his house on Thursday for dinner and a lesson with a member and his
non member girlfriend named Sara. (whoot! IBM). Fast forward to
Thursday night when we arrive at Bishops house, Then Ardit (the
member) and Sara arrive! We greeted them and Sara was all like, I am
so glad it's you!!! uhhh what?? Turns out she was at church last week
and heard us speak in sacrament meeting, she had been worried which
missionaries would be the ones teaching her that night. haha. We had a
wonderful meal and got to know Sara more. She and Ardit had been
dating for a while now and she finally decided that she wants the
gospel in her life. We sat down for the lesson and said a prayer. The
spirit was so strong. Literally the strongest I have ever felt it in a
lesson. We taught the restoration and even though we are not perfect
teachers, the spirit was testifying of everything we taught. Bishop
helped us teach a lot and it was just wonderful. I invited Sara to be
baptized and she said yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR
HER! She was trying to describe what she was feeling (the spirit) and
said that it felt like she was finally home for the first time. I
thought that was cool. We explained to her that it was the spirit and
she said it was such a strong feeling you could cut it with a knife!
:) Wow it was good. Then bishop was like, Now, we need to talk about
where you live sara. And I'm all thinking "oh no! They live together
and aren't living the law of chastity and this is going to be a
problem because she can't get baptized until she moves out bla bla
bla...." Then she tells us she lives in Norristown. (wayyy out of our
area, clear next to west chester) So I'm all like "oh thank goodness"
and sister cost is basically crying in the corner because we can't
teach her. Anyways, we were so so sad that we can't teach her but i'm
so glad that she is going to get baptized and that we were able to be
apart of her first lesson. Oh how I hope all of you get an experience
like that in your life time. :)
We also got to teach my new best friend Greg this week. He's 10 and
we're pretty sure he has ADHD. Oh it was a wonderful lesson! We
brought the primary president with us because greg thinks primary is
boring so we brought her to convince him otherwise :). we're sneaky
like that. The lesson went so good, he is a super genius. We taught
him the gospel of Jesus Christ with the gospel nails object lesson. He
loved it! I'll have to show you that one sometime, it's pretty neat.
He also came to the ward christmas party on Saturday!! yay! (but was
sick on Sunday so he didn't get to come to church but guess what that
his (LA) Grandpa came! yay)
We called a girl named Nicole this week to set up an appointment with
her (we are taking over the other  sisters area since they got
transferred and she was in their notes), while we were talking with
her we invited her to come to the ward christmas party and SHE
CAME!!!!!! WHAT?! that never happens! We were so so so excited and she
has 2 of the cutest baby girls I have ever seen! She didn't make it to
church like she planned on but we are meeting with her tomorrow. I
guess her husband is in prison and is a member and when he found out
she was in contact with the missionaries he was so excited, so that's
really good.
We've been meeting with a less active family named the McCrory's and
they are fantastic, they had us over for dinner this week. It will
take a while for them to be reactivated but I'm sure some day it will
happen. Unfortuatly with the boundary changes we have to turn their
teaching over to the Elders. Oh well.
We also got to meet with the Rivera Family. He is a member but none of
the kids or his wife are. We taught them the plan of salvation using
my little cut out buddies and it went so well! I've been making Sister
Cost lead out all of the lessons this week and she's been doing good!
Even though she dosn't think so. At the end of that lessson we invited
them to be baptized, Sister Rivera said maybe but that she wanted her
kids to all be baptized. YAY, maybe isn't no! We have to give them to
the elders too but hopefully we'll see them at church.
I am oh so glad I get to talk to yous this week! Ah I can't even
believe it :). We have christmas conference tomorrow so I'll be
getting your packages then :)! yayyyy. k I don't really have anything
else to say since i'll be talking to you so soon! hootie hootie!

LOVE<3 Sister Bailey

12/15/14 | Hello from Pennypack

Happy Happy Merry Merry! 

I am SO excited for Christmas! We had a super week filled with Christmas Spirit and pass along cards. The coolest thing happened!We were leaving an appointment with a less active and were headed to the car. We saw a woman moving around her garbage cans and stopped to help her. I introduced us as missionaries, we got talking, and I asked her if she celebrated Christmas. She said she "sort of did Christmas." I chuckled a little and asked her what on earth that meant! She then went on to tell us how she really hated how Christmas has turned into such a commercial holiday that came with so much stress instead of joy and peace. We readily agreed with her and went on to tell her about the message we have been sharing with everyone this season. She was very excited to see 'He is the Gift' and invited us over the next day to show her and her eight year old granddaughter! (They had to reschedule because they got sick, but we've been in contact with her and she is still really looking forward to having us over.) 

After our conversation with that woman, we continued down the street, away from our car for some reason. Just a few houses down, a woman (Johannah) emerged and asked from her porch, "Hey did you girls say you were missionaries?!" (she had heard us talking to her neighbor down the street and had gone in her house and waited patiently for us to walk by) "Yes! we are missionaries!" we replied as we walked through her gate and up to her door. She sat down on her stairs and told us that her mother had died within the past year and she was having a really hard time with it. We were able to teach and testify of the plan of salvation right then and there! Then she told us about a friend she has who the missionaries found, taught and baptized. She has been able to witness the complete turn around he has been able to make in his life with the gospel and wants the same for herself. We will hopefully be able to meet with her this week. 

Ah, this was just the coolest experience for me because I usually don't introduce us as missionaries. I try to tell them that we are servants of the lord or messengers of god because people get freaked out by the word 'missionary.' But for some reason I said it that day. I am so grateful I did! If I hadn't, Johannah wouldn't have stopped us! And I have no idea why we even walked down the street instead of going to our car. I guess the spirit can prompt us to do thing without us even realizing it sometimes. 

We had Golden Retraining on Tuesday, It's this 5 hour meeting that trainers and golden's get to go to and it's the best! President and Sister Anderson and the AP's taught us 100 good things! We watched a talk called "It's better to Look up" by Elder Someone Cook. New favorite. Also, when we first got to the meeting, I went up and played the prelude music cause no one else was. People were bustling around getting settled and President came in. He walked right up to the stand and leaned over to me. Right up in my face he says to me, "You have been hiding that  from me your whole misssion!?!" haaaa, well most of my Zone's know I play, I told him. " Ah! just keep playing!" he instructed and walked away. Looks like I've got to watch my back at missionary meetings from here on out :). Oh then Elder Tarry was conducting and announced the song and prayer bla bla bla, then turns to me and is like, Oh and sister bailey will you play? And that is why I don't play at missionary meetings. because then they ask you to play and you've got to say, uh yeah, no I can't read music. and everyone stares at you real funny like you are a lying lie face because clearly you can play the piano. Yeah so that happened :). 

On Wednesday the YW had young women's in excellence thingy. They asked me to speak at it and it went pretty well.Thursday it snowed!!! and stuck but then melted so still no snow on the ground up here but I'm not sad. We had district meeting in Jerettown so we had to go pick up the elders (they don't have a car) and drive for an hour, which is strange considering that it was supposed to me 15 min away. We had the best meeting. Elder Millerberg taught us about Elias and how he is a person back in Noah time but that Elias is also a title meaning forerunner or  restorer. Look it up in the guide to the scriptures, there is some pretty cool stuff in there. We also learned about family history work. I got on family search and guess what, Reva Petersen isn't on my trree. mom, can you do me a favor and go in to my family serch and get that sorted out??? I dont want to break it :). After the meeting we got to have lunch with the Carrs! They are the ones overseeing the temple sight. They fed our whole Zone a Christmas feast! It was wonderful! 

I gave a talk yesterday about sharing the gift. It went rather well, sister cost spoke too. They are changing up our area this transfer, The other sisters that were in pennypack are being doubled out and our district leader is now our zone leader which leaves our district without a district leader and I highly doubt they will put more elders into our ward so we might be experiencing some zone boundary changes this week. Our area is probably going to be doubling in size so that should be a fun take over. The Pennypack ward is awesome! We seriously love it here! 

Love you all 100

Sister Bailey 

12/8/14 | Hellooo

Dear Family 

How are you all doing?! I'm good because I'm eating hi-chews as I type this. We had a really quite memorable week :). Lets start with...

MONDAY: We had the most smashing day in Center City Philadelphia! We took the subway and Sister Cost was freaking out with excitement (she had never been on the subway before) We got off at City Hall (its a super cool station, it comes up above ground in the middle of city hall...just google it, it's cool. We made our way across the street to Love Park to find the Christmas Village. That is my favorite christmas thing ever! I think I'll come every year. We went and saw all the vendors and marveled at their very costly things before we settled on buying some foreign cheese and calling it quits. From there we made our way to the temple! Oh my goodness it is coming along so nicely!!!! Its so big! Here is something fun to know about it, when the church was working with the city of Philadelphia to get the building permits and other tedious things sorted out, the Catholic church threw a fit and said that the temple couldn't be taller than their cathedral just a few blocks away. The church complied and made it the exact same height, but because of a slight incline of the land, our temple is a wee bit taller :). thats all. Anyways, as we were walking up the block to the temple, guess who we saw......Sister Bettilyon!!!! WAaaahooooo! What a coincidence right?!  Just kidding there are no such things as coincidences, especially when you invite your favorite people to meet you in the city on p day :). So we made our way back to Love Park with her and her companion (Sister Larsen from Alpine!) and then we met up with Sister Shaia! oh my goodness right?! thats way too many fun people in the same place to be allowed. We took 100 pictures and then went to grab some foods at Reading Terminal Market. YUM. There we found Sister Manson! here is a fun story about running into her: We had planned on meeting her and had called her earlier to see where they were. they were still doing chores and said they would call us when they were done. Our phone is very special and decided not to do anything when they called 100 times. :( So they gave up on trying to find us and were starving to death so they moseyed their way to the Market. Sister Manson was having a sad day and really wanted to see me badly, so she closed her eyes and said a little prayer pleading to Heavenly Father to let them find us somehow. Right when she opened her eyes, there I was waving vigorously from  across the way! Happy Happy Happy! After Lunch we made the trek to the rocky steps and marveled at what a beautiful city we were in at the top. Ah, Philadelphia truly is beautiful. (Mom and Dad, you know...NYC is just a short train ride away, haha) Oh I forgot to mention what a warm day it was too! all the way up in the 60's! I didn't even wear a coat :). Night was falling, so we made our way back to the subway station to findd that  sister cost had lost her subway token, unfortunate. We ended up having to baack ttrack to the station that sold tokens but it was all good. That night we taught a leess active  familiy.  yay. 

Wednesday: 

We had interviews with President Anderson!!! I Love President Anderson. We had a wonderful chat. When I first got in there, he looked at me and said, "Sister Bailey, Sister  Cost thinks you walk on water!" Ah I chuckled a bit and said "I know, its the worst" He smiled real big and said that he agreed with her. He went on to contemplate what he was going to do without me when I go home. I told him to just let me stay!!! but he can't, oh well it was worth a try. He has some big big plans for the pennypack area. He had me draw our the ward boundaries and the missionary area boundaries on the chalk board and we discussed possibilities of changes to be made. Our ward has too many mmissionaries so he wanted to pick my brain on how I would change stuff. It was good.

That night we taught a new less active that contacted the bishop because she wants to ccome back!!! Her name is Belinda and I think she is secretly a model, but her cover is tthat she works at a bank. She is so ready to come back to church it is incredible! and she wants to get into family history! 

Thursday: Zone Training. We were asked to teach for a portion of the training about Repentance and Companionship Unity. It went so well! We had been preparing when we had spare time through the week and I was wondering how it would all come together. Let me tell you how it came together: the Holy Ghost! We had prepared as much as we possibly could and just jumped into it with faith so the holy ghost helped us and made up the difference in our message. Me and the Holy Ghost came up with the 7 Be's to a Happy Companionship during one of my personal studies earlier in the week :). They are:

Be Meek

Be Humble

Be Honest

Be Patient

Be Sorry

Be Repentant

Be a Listener 

We taught some other stuff with it too and everyone loved it! The Zone Leaders had asked me to do the musical number too so I whipped up a little mash-up of "when I am baptized" and "let zion in her beauty rise" and roped sister cost, sister clark and sister ricks to sing. It went really well! I just love the spirit music brings! After the meeting we had trainer accountability with the Zone Leaders and gave them a double in list before we hit the pavement. 

Friday: Exchanges 

Sister Manson came to work in Pennypack with me for the day. We had the most incredible day! Sister cost and I had identified a street we wanted to knock (due to all of the christmas lights we saw on it) so I took sister Manson there and we started knocking with little success. So we switched to talking to literally every person that we saw on that street, weather they were just walking by or getting in or out of their car etc etc. It was incredible! We ended up staying on that one half block for at least 3 hours. One girl, named Becky, we knocked on her door and used the he is the gift approach. she was interested and we showed it to her right there on her doorstep #iPadblessing. She wants to meet with us again! Elder Millerberg (our district leader) came up with a facebook project for our district. With every person we talk to about he is the gift, we are to take a selfie with them and the card, post it on facebook, tag them and have them share it on their wall. cool huh, so we took a selfie with becky and are super excited to meet with her again. Then we talked to a man named Tom who was getting out of his car with his son, his son was rude and stomped into the house but tom stayed out to talk with us. We shared the he is the gift video and he wants to come to church! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so excited to read it1 (he didnt end up being able to come to church this week because of his work but he is coming next week!) Then we ran into a rude woman to told us to bug off. very rude. (I'm telling you this for a reason, remember this lady). We went about our business talking to everyone. Lots of rude Philadelphians, lots of nice-ish (nice by east coast standards, which apparently isnt nice but I can't tell anymore) people. We stopped and talked to a woman smoking on her porch. She wasn't interested but somehow found herself walking from the cover of her porch (it was raining) down her sidewalk and to her gate where we were waiting to talk to her. Turns out she is Puerto Rican and lives down there for half of the year. She recognized our tags, put two and two together and told us about the Elders that visit her in Puerto Rico. She said she sees them all the time and always invites them in for a break and drink of water. I asked her if she knew what they taught people and she said no. She still wasnt interested in hearing it from us but I asked her if she would do something for me. I pulled out a restoration pamplet and told her that we teach people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I asked her to, whenn she was in puerto rico next week and saw the elders, to pull our this pamphlet and ask them to teach her. I explained that they would be so shocked and thrilled! I wrotte our  name and phone number on the back and told her to call us and tell us their reaction to our little prank :) She laughed and delightfully agreed! Now when the elders teach her, she will feel the spirit and be baptized before the returns to the US! After that eencounter  we made our way back down the street. We ran into that mean woman again, she was clearly still angry and trying to wash her windows. We opened her gate and approached her, she assured us that she wasn't interested but that we could knockk on her door and see if her boyfriend was interested. We watched her struggle for a moment, then I told her that I would be washing her windows today. She looked att me like I was mad but agreed because of my height advantage. As I washed her winddows  we were able to talk with her and get to know her. Let me just tell you taht  sservice  seriously softens hearts because by the end of or talk with her. she was hugging us (liek  5 times each) and saying that she knew it was no coincidence that we ccame to her her that day. We had a return appointment with her on wednesday  :). That night we taught Ross (after our dinner appointment where the members made us wwalk ttheir ddog...) oh my she is a hard one to teach. She is all over the place! First we get there and she makes me heal her bleeding cat with some ointment..the cat seriously hated it and tried to kill me. Ross kept bringing up strange hebrew and jewish books and dead sea scrolls and weird stuff I dont know about. It was rough. 

Sunday! 

We got to watch the devotional! Want to know my favorite part?? The part where everryone sang together and I couldnt help but think about all you hooligans singing at tthe same time with me :) Guess what! Before the devo, there were people practicing sinnging for the mesiah sing a long in the chapel, and I knew most of them!! they were all from the morrisville ward! It was so fun to see them all!

Well family, I love you so so much. all the way to the moon and back (speaking of, did you see the moon the last night!? it was incredible!) I hope you happy week. I get to speak at young womens in excelence on wednesday and then speak again in church onn sunday so wish me luck! You all mean the world to me :) mmmmwwaaahh! 

Love, Sister B. 

Sister Bailey Loves YOU!

12/1/14

Priviet!!!

Family!! I love you all so very much do you know that?? We had a wonderful holiday week here in Philadelphia. Thanksgiving day was spent delivering thanksgiving cards to members and investigators and potentials...I know thanksgiving cards aren't really a thing...but we did it anyways :) we had lunch at the Vega's, ohhhhh boy it was so scrumptious!! We had rice and beans instead of potatoes and 100 other yummertonness. The elders were there too. We delivered more cards and visited lots of happy and some unhappy people. Ha one lady was an investigator that had been on our list since we got to the area. We had tried to call her a couple times but she hung up both times...it was awkward. So we decided to be so niiiiccceee and write her a thanksgiving card so maybe we could see what her deal was. we knocked on her door and saw her get up from her table through the glass door. She walks over to the door, stares at us and walks away. Ha, ok fine we'll just leave this really nice card for you byeeee! So that happened then we went to the Menezes for thanksgiving dinner! They are the coolest family and they live like a block away from us. They are super Brazilian...as in sister Menezes grew up in the Amazon jungle and ate orangutan because her dad was a hunter. But don't worry we didn't eat that for dinner, we just had turkey :). The most beautiful turkey I've ever seen! That dinner was soooooo gooooood but the best part was getting to know the Menezes better. They invited us to come for Christmas too! Wooohooo. When we were leaving, Gustav (their son), goes "oh! I finally figured out who you look like!!" So I'm like lemme guess Jennifer Lawrence. Yep. So they pull up pictures of her and the girl from divergent I think and they all decide that I'm a cross between the two. Lovely.  

This week we had our first snow day :). That means that the cars get grounded and we get to be cold and creative :) luckily we had a lot of work to do on the area map and organizing the Ward list in LDS tools. I had the whole Ward pinned and organized into area lists then my app deleted itself...which doesn't sound like a big deal but it took be a solid 5 hours to do. But not worries, I just started over and it's all finished now! We have our whole area map covered in color coordinating dots that represent members and other people. 

We were able to use it for our Sunday plans and because we were able to be more organized in our plans, things ran much smoother. The work we've been able to do this week has mostly been finding members. We have so many members on our Ward list that no one knows. We've ran into lots of "they moved 20 years ago" and a few "my husband is against the church" but finally Sunday night, the lord blessed us to had a glimpse of the fruit of our labors. It was 5:35 and we had a dinner appointment at 6 about 15 min away (according to the gps), we weren't sure if we would have enough time for one more stop by but decided that we may as well because we were close. We knocked on the Barton's door. I love how you can always tell if the person answering the door is the less active member you are looking for. There is something in their eyes, almost like "you found me!" Thats the look sister Barton gave us as we introduced ourselves. She was pleased to see us but didn't let on much else. Our conversation was short, but I know she felt the spirit when she agreed to have us come over tomorrow night! Yay! 

Well that's about it from my neck of the woods. Except for that I LOVE sister cost. Seriously she is the best best best. You will all love her too :) I'm on my way to center city for the day so I might be able to send pics on our way home. Byeeeeeee

Love, 

sister b 

Sister Bailey Loves YOU!