3/9/15 | Go Big, Then Go Home

Hello People, 

I'm so glad I can call yous my people :) Also all the people out here are mine too. We sang each life that touches ours for good yesterday in sacrament meeting and I had an overwhelming feeling for how much love I have for the people here. I just love them so much I don't even know how to tell you about it! I hope yous get to meet some of them someday. soon. anyways, want to hear how my week went??

Tuesday: I lost my ipad. well, I didn't loose it but they took it away from me. very sad. I didn't realize how much I used it in my personal studies until I didn't have anymore. So I've been plotting on how I will hijack Baby Boss's iPad when I get home because I'm sure he doesn't even need it anymore. Thanks boss ;). That is what we did for all of Zone Training, watched the little missionaries set up their brand new iPads. Lame, luckily there are 4 of us leaving in our zone so we sat in the back and talked doctrine....mostly :). 

We taught Damien a lesson at Elaina's about family history and it went pretty good. Except for he didn't get any information on his family like we committed him to so the lesson was rather short. Then Elaina insisted that we stay for lunch! She ordered sushi :) mmmmm favorite. A major storm came in so we had to head home early. lame. 

Wednesday: BEST day ever. WE had interviews with our dear President and his wife. so so good. President told me some really wonderful things and also some really really hilarious things that I will share with you later. Oh man, brace yourselves for that conversation. He talked about staying close to the sacrament table and all will be well. good good stuff. Sister Anderson and I had a really great visit too. She also told me some interesting things that I will share with you later too (isn't it great that when I tell you stuff like this then say I will tell you later...later is actually really soon so you won't die before I tell you!?! pretty neat ;)) 

After interviews, we went on exchanges with the Morrisville Sisters. Well first we got some cheesesteaks at Wit or Witout. YUM. erry exchange needs a cheesesteak in it. Sister Handy and I got to spend the day in Morrisville!! it was so fun! I got to see some LA's and members that I used to work with when I served there (which was exactly a year ago! can you even believe that?!) We also saw some really cool miracles. First was that we actually caught one of their RC's home! and she was nice! (apparently she is bipolar and get's cray sometimes) After that we were driving down the street and I felt like we should stop at this house...I thought about it and we drove past while I was mulling over my memories to try and see if I had knocked that door before...dang I though...too late but then sister handy flipped a U and I was like ok spirit it must be important. so we stopped at the house. We knocked on the door and a Russian man answered (I know you are probably thinking, WHAT? a Russian in Morrisville!? and that's what I thought too till I remembered that I'm a Russian magnet). His name was Ivan but he was just working on the house (painting or something) and said that he was busy. Dang. Sister Handy had the good idea to put a pass a long card on his car with our number so we opened the trunk and guess what was in the very top of their commissary box...A RUSSIAN BOOK OF MORMON! no way. I gasped and said, do you know what that is?! she's like, uh no. That's a Russian book of Mormon!!!! So she wrapped it in a plastic bag with the card (it was raining) and put it on his car. all the while he was watching us through the window :). yay. I'm sure we will hear the end of that miracle on the other side of that vail. :). cool stuffy stuff. 

We got to eat dinner at the HEAPS! ah do you remember the heaps?! they are my favorite people in all the land and their daughter just got home from her mission so it was real fun to talk to her. Then we switched back from our exchange early because of the storm that was coming in. 

Thursday: Snow day. seriously I've had enough snow days on my mission to last me at least 3 lifetimes. goodness! We weekly planned and then sister cost had a mental breakdown. She wouldn't talk to me so I told her that she either needed to talk to me or go talk to Heavenly Father. So she packed up her iPad and disappeared into our bedroom for a few hours. Meanwhile I had to dig the car out of the snow so the landlord could snow blow the driveway. fun fun fun. 

Friday we had a great day! We were out the door at 10:04! I know that is technically late but everything is a battle with my sis so I'm counting it as a victory. A major one. We attempted to contact 3 of our MR's without success but guess what....one of them lives on CAMEL AVE. stop it right?! I love camels so this is deffinantly Gods way of telling me he loves me. a lot. especially considering that the house on that street wasn't really there. so I took some pics at the camel street sign and we went to teach sister baran a lesson. it went well. she's cray but we love her. Then we went to teach sister Frisby. I love that lady. she is doing well too. We had dinner at the Vega's, a wonderful Puerto Rican family, then went to sister macdonalds for a lesson. She has such a special place in my heart. 

Saturday we had a ward sprig cleaning activity. so many people came it was so good!!! After we cleaned the church sister Mirochnik and Vilma (the one we live with) took us to Panera for lunch. Sister Mirochnik's son Cameron came too. he is struggling so we tried to talk with him a bit, he's 13 but in with the wrong crowd at school. it's sad. Don't ever do that pika and boss! WE had dinner at the Maurer's that night and boy do they throw a good party :). So fun. and I found out the best news called they are moving to Utah! Best birthday present ever. I can't wait for you to meet them. they are real Philadelphians :). 

Sunday was crazy. Only 4 people showed up for PEC so basically it didn't happen. BIshop was in the hall the whole time taking care of a crisis. Church was wonderful though! Good lessons and everything :). We went to the Menezes after church to teach Tyreese and have lunch. Tyreese is doing ok. We taught him the Word of Wisdom. The lesson was real good but he wasn't very responsive. Probably because he is moving back his baptismal date but doesn't want to tell us which is funny because we already know because Sister menezes told us but told us not to say anything because she is making Tyreese tell us. ha. lovely. Anyways, he's waiting for his GF to come home for the summer to be baptized. which is a bad idea but he has his agency. I really hope it all works out. The Christensens had us over for another Birthday extravaganza that night :) The Johnson's came too. What wonderful people there are out here! You all need to come and meet them, you will love them too I'm sure of it! :) 

So that is how our week went. very good. We have some good plans for this coming week but I suppose I will just tell you how they go when I see you. weird and good. 

Guys, I'm so glad that I am a missionary. it is hands down the best thing in thing in the whole world. I have loved my time here so much that I want it to go on forever but it can't. and that's ok because I am starting to feel at peace with coming home. I know that I have served fully and done my best. I am so so so grateful for that prompting I received just about 2.5 years ago that got me here. I love you all so much. Thank you for all your love, support and prayers over the past year and a half. Angels have truly been sent to bare me up.  Have a good week. Finish reading that blue book before I see you (the ones that finished get the first hugs :)) 

See you in Green. 

Signing out: With all the Love in PA + Heaven.

Sister Alyssa Bailey 

PS this gospel is very very much true incase that wasn't clear 

3/2/15 | Hello!

Hello!

Gah, can you even believe that it is March?! That seems fake to me but
I'll take it. Wow, what a crazyyy week we've had here in Pennypack. I
think I already told you about last monday....so we'll start with
Tuesday.
Ah man, we had the best time! We took the subway into Center City.
When we got on, these creepy dudes came over and started talking to
us. Pretty sure they were high. Anyways, I'm all for ignoring them but
Sister Cost was not! She is the greatest. One of them wasn't that bad,
he told us that he had met with the missionaries before and wanted his
son to meet with them again. Then his creepy friend came over and I
was like, ok don't talk to that one Cost. But she did talk to him.
Luckily they got off a couple stops later. We turned to this mad who
had over heard our conversation and started talking with him. He was
great! From Georgia and had heard of the church before. We had a great
conversation with him but then had to get off at our stop before we
could give him our info. But wait: The Lord truly blesses you with
elect people when you are doing your best to find them. If you don't
find them, He will send them to you. We got off the subway and a man
stopped us on our way up the stairs. He asked about our church and we
were going to give him the Center City sisters info...but we got
talking and he is from North East Philly!!!! NOWAYYY That's where we
live toooo!!!!! So we gave him the pennypack church info and he really
wants to come to church. He is from Liberia. I'll keep you updated on
him.
From there we made our way to the Masonic Temple....very strange. It
was cool though. oh want to see the coolest part!?

why yes, that is a 4th edition of the Book of Mormon I am holding in
my hands. Ah I can't believe they let me touch it!! In my mind I was
all like "gah don't let anybody touch that without gloves on!!" but on
the outside i was like "oh yeah I would love to hold that and touch
every page."
After the 3 hour tour (just kidding it was only an hour) we went over
to Reading Terminal Market with Thayna! (Thayna Menezes from our ward
met us down there after school) I got my favorite juice (carrot,
cucumber, banannaaaa!) and they got pizza. Thayna really wanted to try
macaroons so we asked around and a lady sent us to China Town. Yeahh
buddy. To a bubble tea shop. YUM. We got her macaroons and explored a
bit. I got a red bean roll (valeria! like the one we got in cali! YUM)
and then headed back to the station. We had dinner at the bishops
house that night. He never lets us help clean up after dinner but we
sneaky did it anyways :). IT was great!

Wednesday was another adventure! Sister Cost wanted/needed a blessing
so we went to Frankford and met with the Elders. They ended up talking
with us for a while and came up with a wonderful idea on how I can get
Sister Cost out of bed in the morning! Every night, I put a spray
bottle of water in the fridge, Then in the morning, I will spray her
awake :) But also I would call the elders so they could stop her from
killing me just in case :).(The plan worked!!! I havent' have to spray
her yet but just the idea get's her out of bed before me!) They gave
her a blessing and we headed to Broomall. Elder Jones met with her one
last time before they left :( ah I'm seriously crying over that. It
was really good. Elder Jones is a miracle worker. Oh :) here is me and
them. I just LOVE tthem!
love love love. They sent us on our marry way...to PANERA! (I finally
finished that gift card...thank you 100 that is literally my favorite
favorite place in all america) Had a quick dinner and then headed into
the city. We met up with Damien and Brother Whitten at the Temple
site! Brother and Sister Carr stayed late so we could come to the
visiter center :). Oh it was so good! Damien is such a dream RC! He
loved everything about the temple! here is another miracle. We were
running right on time, which means that we would be late due to trying
to find a un metered parking spot because I forgot to bring
quarters...So we give up and find a super close parking spot that will
take dollars. We park, get out to pay, and the machine wont take out
money. ugh. So we walked over to the temple to ask brother car and
guess what! FREE PARKING ON WEDNESDAY NIGHTS!??!!? What the random
tender mercy eh?

Thursday was the worst day. So bad that I don't want to talk about it.
Just know that Sister Cost had a really bad day and I set up an
exchange with Sister manson and Sister Jolley for next week. Also with
the Morrisville sisters this week. :) I do what I can.

Friday was better. I decided that Sister Cost and I had to hug after
every prayer we said. That's a lot of hugs. and I don't like hugs. but
I knew that it would help sister cost stop it with the anger fits. It
worked.

Saturday was good. We have been working on backing up all of our iPad
stuff. Like all the stuff we have saved on LDStools app. ugh it is
taking forever but it has been good. We kinda felt sick all day. I
took a nap on lunch break instead of eatting. We had a dinner
appointment with a Haitian family. They are so sweet!!! and it was soo
good but itt took all of my power to not throw up all over....sister
cost was feeling the same way
:( We ended up coming home after and going to bed at 6pm.

Sunday we thought we would wake up feeling better. Wrong. We barely
got ourselves to church. I am really grateful we did and that I
remembered to start my fast before I went to bed the night before.
Fast and Testimony meeting was just wonderful. I was fasting for a few
things, but mostly for peace. Guess what the "theme" of the meeting
turned out to be??? Peace + Obedience + the Atonement. incredible.
Sister Stokes talked about us in her testimony. About how much of an
answer to her prayers we were last week when we came over. I got a
very strong confirmation that Sister cost is going to be OK. That is
good. We had meetings until 3. We were feeling a little bit better.
functional at the very least. We had dinner at the L'heureux's! They
are friends with the guy working on our house! They are wonderful
people and I loved every second at their house. They fed us the
yummmiest food!!!! DAD, do you remember that one time when we were in
the grocery store and I really wanted to get brussle sprouts??? You
sad no but I really wanted them. You were in the process of telling me
how nasty they were when out of the blue this old man comes up and
tells me how nasty they truly were. I was mostly freaked out and
dropped it. Anywayyysss They fed us the yummmiest brussle sprouts on
the planett!!!!!!! ah man, new favorite food. ;) It was ice raining so
we headed home from dinner. Also we weren't feeling well again. I
tired to be productive and Sister cost went to sleep.

We've had a good day so far. Weather has been pretty ok this week. I'm
used to the nasty cold and cant seem to remember what it feels like to
be warm so it's ok! As you may know, my birthday is coming....IT'S
PRACTICALLY HERE!...that's all :). I hope you have a smashing week. I
know I will. We've got some stellar plans and appointments set up. We
have zone training tomorrow....which means I won't have an iPad for
the rest of my mission. It will be strange but I already bedazzled one
of those old paper planners to use (yes I still have a stash). We will
be off facebook too. (not even sad) We have interviews this week too.
I"M super excited! and exchange with Morrisville! Sister Handy and I
will be in morrisville!!! I'm so excited. We are having dinner with
the Heaps if you remember me talking about them at all...their
daughter just got home from her mission and i'm super stoked to meet
her! Anyways, That's about all I've got to say.

Except maybe one more thing: I've been praying alot lately. and
Heavenly Father helped me come to a conclusion. I was telling him how
it would just be so much easier to make it home safely to him one day
if I could just stay here and be a missionary forever. But I was
reminded that life isn't easy. And that there are good things to come!
There are lots of good things coming my way that I wouldn't get if I
stayed here. So home I must come! Don't worry, I am excited to see all
of yous ;)
bbyeeee.

LO
VE<3

Sister Bailey!

Sister Cost, Damien, Brother Whitten and ME at the temple site trailer.

2/24/15 | Rita's opens this week :) :) :) :)

Well Hello there!!! 

What a week we have haddddddd! Goodness me, where to start...

Tuesday was goooooood :), Sister Cost did all the breaking excersizes and stuffy stuff Elder Jones told her to do and the Mebius's gave us a 'nature light' for winter blues stuff, so I turned that on for excersizes and studies..also I gave sister cost 10,000 iu of Vitamin D (Sister Mebius said that was a good high amount :)) AND IT WORKED! We had a blissful day!!! It snowed 100 (ok just 5) inches but it was warm out. We shoveled the driveway in a jiffy and had the funnest time with it. Sister Cost secretly LOVES service. Dana had us over for lunch and we ended up checking our facebook while we were there. Good thing we did because we saw that the RSP had a pipe break in her garage (service opp #2!!!) We ran to the rescue and it turns out that mostly she just needed someone to talk to about her stress...and also vacuum her house. Check and check! She is a wonderful lady. It would be very hard to be the RSP of this ward! We went to the Christensen's for dinner (favorite humans) and THE funniest thing happened. We had finished eating and were talking for a min when all of the sudden, out of the corner of my eye I see something..."UMMMM, There is a creature in your laundry room.....!" Guess what it was......The cutest, tiniest, baby MOLE! oh it was so cute but unfortunately it scurried away and we didn't catch it. Oh well. ;) 

Wednesday we went on exchanges!!! mmmmmmm I love sister Manson (Spencer, why wont you write her baaaack!?) We had the greatest time together. We ran into a woman named Dawn. She actually didn't want to hear anything that we had to say because "we believe in a different Jesus than her" So we sang her a song and she said she felt bad for us that we didn't have the truth. (uhhhh right back at cha sista) We ended up teaching her about what we actually believe and she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. Lovely. That night we taught Damien (THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE PENNYPACK WARD! holla) at the Samaniego's. It went wonderfully. We are taking him to see the Philly temple site tomorrow. Then we went to Elaina's to check on her...and also ended up cleaning her house. (100 service a dayyy!) We also ate an icicle while tracting :). 

Thursday morning we went to the church early because sister manson wanted me to play the piano for her. She wrote me a note later and told me that it was one of the most sacred spiritual experiences on her mission. Music is magic, people. That night we were going into a dinner/lesson with the Stokes family. We were finalizing our lesson plan and we actually had 2 lesson plans we couldn't decide on. We prayed and discussed it. then prayed again and talked some more. Then I just felt prompted that this would be a really good learning experience. So I told sister cost that we would go into the appointment and that I had super faith that she would be prompted by the spirit to know which lesson to go with and I would follow her lead. Bingo. it worked. We taught about forgiveness and testified to them that their efforts are enough and they are doing their best. Mid lesson, Sister stokes said that that was exactly what she needed to hear. She cried and I know the spirit touched their whole family. It was good. 

Saturday:  Snow day. Lame. 

But president gave us permission to use Facebook from our apartments for the day so we would still be able to be productive. It was so good! I was able to teach a lesson to Alex Cost, Sister cost's sister ;). Oh it was good! She needs the gospel so much. other than that we discovered that we have a SPARE BATHROOM in our apt. What the heck is that all about. Strange. also i'm not sure why it took us so long to discover that. Also We hate the nasty Philly water taste (erryone does) So we usually buy water. But we ran out so I just bucked up and have been drinking it....not sister cost though. She was so thrilled that is snowed because she could just eat that instead of drink water. GROSS. But that's what she did alllll dayyyyy. she's still alive though so it must not be poison. 

Damien got confirmed on Sunday! yayyy! I met the coolest visiting people too, the Murphy's. They are from Seattle WA and came out to pick up a BABY!!!! they are adopting a little boy from Trenton NJ. They were cool. WE had a linger longer after churcch (oh by the way NO ONE came to church because of the snow. people out here bbe cray) We taught Tyreese at the menezes and had a very good Sunday. 

MONDAY!

ok so you want to know why we didn't have P day yesterday????? Elder Evans and Elder Allen of the 70 came to roll out the newest phase of missionary work. Yeahhhh buddy, cool stuff is happening and we were the first mission to hear about it ;). Get this: We are doing a "reset" on social media/digital devices. Starting fresh. This past year has been a test run (30 missions trying it all out) and now they are implementing what we learned. We are getting new iPads next week. But we are taking it all very slow. There are three phases. 

1: getting a Mobile device + learning how to use gospel library more effectively

2: focusing on how to be more effective with the area book planner app

3: re-introducing social media

This will all take place as slow or fast as the mission president says. It all depends on how quickly the missionaries involved complete tasks and stuff.

As for me....It just means that I get a new iPad for a couple weeks. and a facebook detox. 

Elder Evans and Elder Allen taught us a lot of really cool things. The only filter that will truly work is the one you personally develop and place on your mind and heart. With this new generation of missionaries going out to the field and learning these important skills, they will come home with life long principles instated. We will be able to raise a generation of children resilient to many things that most adults falter in today. cool cool sstuff. I'm sad I'm missing out on most of it. But I feel very strongly that with the few weeks I have with this new program, if I am diligent in taking to heart it's precepts, I will learn all the things God intends me to learn and take with me home. 

Today is Pday and we are going into the city. :) yayyy. We are going to take a tour of the Masonic Temple (it's not open on monday's so today is our only chance!) I'm super excited. well. I love you all dearly and hope you have a super week and enjoy that warmness happening over there. I've just come to terms with the fact that I will simply not be warm till I am in Utah...and even still I probably wont be warm enough till I'm in teexas to see that squishy baby. :)mmmmmmm. 

LLOOOVEEE,

Sister B

mmmmmmmm My favorite place in the whole world. THE DUHLWERE...it truly
is a river of peace