Us Pennypackers had a pretty good week over here in Philladelphia. So goldens have to do this thing called the D.I.E.T...I think it stands for dynamic initial entry training or something. It includes 12 week and a bunch of other things like memorizing D&C 4, the standard of truth, D&C 128: something and all of the chapters in PMG (just the title and what order they are in). So for the past 8 weeks I've been checking in with her progress because she insisted on doing it by herself. She's made flash cards about 100 times but they haven't helped. On Tuesday I sat her down and said, "Listen, you need to start memorizing these things because you are running out of time and I will not be one of those trainers that sign off your diet regardless of it if is actually complete. Will you let me help you?" She sighed and said yes. She had the PMG chapters and lessons memorized within 30 min. I told her that if she could still remember them by that night I would sign them off, obviously she remembered because I have method to my madness. That was that.
On Wednesday we had an appointment with a less active, Sister Frisby. She usually has some sort of weird task for us to complete when we come and calls it service, which we're cool with but this time she sits us on the ground and says our service for her that day would be folding plastic bags..."whattttt??????!" she laughed and demonstrated and explained that they fit better in the closet when they are folded...um yeah either that or you are clearly mental! So that went well and we were able to teach her a lesson using the new years mormon message. Its really good (and funny) so go watch it. We committed her to work on her family scripture study and she ended up coming to church on sunday and bore her testimony and talked about how they've been doing it! wahooo! After that we went to Sister Macdonalds. Her husband, Jude, just died the end of november and was not a member. Her and her son are the only members. We've been slowly inceptioning going to the temple into her mind and that night, sister cost was talking (I don't know if i've told you this but this girl TALKS....a lot! ha anyways) about the blessings of the temple and that is truly is urgent that she get herself there! She has already taken temple prep so I was really listening hard (to sister macdonald and to the spirit) to see what her hold up was. The spirit was really strong and sister cost was running out of convincing words about the temple. Silence fell and all the sudden it felt as if Brother Macdonald was sitting right next to me. Nudging me and saying, "tell her I'll be there." I opened my mouth and said, "Sister Macdonald. I feel really impressed to tell you that your husband will be a the temple with you when you go." Immediately she fell into my arms and cried, "why why why why would you say that????!?" she cried some more and said that she knew my words were true. That he would be there with her and that they could be sealed. She set a goal to get to the temple by easter :). She also came to church yesterday and bore her testimony.
We spent New Years Eve with the Mauers. It was so. fun. We had to leave early (a: because missionary curfew is the same all year round b: we had a second dinner appointment [don't you hate it when that happens Elder B??]) Second dinner was with the Escudaros! We live with them :) but get this! Sister Escudaro is the only member! It was a really cool experience because their son was there too and so was his friend. We were able to tell them about missionary work and bare our testimonies. It was really cool.
Then the year ended. Just like that. As I've been reflecting on the year I've had...whoa guys...I've had an incredible and intense and crazypants year!!! I was thinking about how it was exactly one year ago on new years eve I was at the mission home, dropping off Sister Bettilyon :( That was one of the worst, saddest days of my life but I am so grateful for all of the trials I've had this year.
Anyways, Thursday came and we scrambled with all of our notes and studies to put the finishing touches on our Zone Training training. We ended up being late but we can't let little things like that ruin the beginning of a perfectly new year ;) all went well buuuutt they probably won't have us teach at ZT again. hA. After the meeting we hit thee pavement! We ended up finding a little Indian family! Shobba and Blesson, We taught them the restoration and invited them to be baptized! It was so good! Oh except for when I was teaching the part about Prophets, Blesson (he's 12) busted up laughing randomly...Sister Cost and I look at eachother realll puzzled and Blesson excuses himself, still laughing hysterically. He came back a few min later and apologized. Apparently he had thought of something that happened earlier that made him laugh...12 year olds are weird but it was rather funny. We had dinner with our favorite people, the Mebius's and went to Coorilation; which is always questionably productive. Here's a funny thing: Elder Zolman (one of the ZL's [oh wait! side story to my side story, I left my yoga kittens calendar in our old apt that the elders moved into and apparently they have been enjoying it. They saw that Elder Bailey's birthday is on January 16th and apparently that is Elder Zolmans birthday too! He's the same exact age as you Spence...which is weird to me but it's almost as if you are my ZL spencer!! haaa] anyways, elder Z was telling us about this lady in his last area that told them that if you look at the sun for 40 min a day, you won't have to eat food. yah clearly she is crazy and probably blind. So the day after he told us that, We were driving and the sun was super annoying in my eyes so it made me recall this story. I turn to sister cost and say " hhey remember that crazy lady that thinks you can stare at the sun instead of eat?? youu should try that." We have a good laugh and continue on driving. a few min later sister cost goes, "WHOOOAAAAA!!!!!!!!" She nearly sccared me to death and made me crash the car, I'm like "whatt???" then she exclaims, "ARE THOSE DOGS PURPLE?!!???!???!" apparently she had been staring at the sun and it made the golden retrievers look purple. ha it was funny and 2 lessons were learned. A: goldens will do anything their trainer's suggest and B: Just don't stare at the sun. We told the elders about it later and they got quite a kick out of it.
Friday we weekly planned and Sister Bennett and Sister Manson joined us then I left witth Sister Bennett for our exchange in Center City. It was good, we had an appointment cancel but got to teach a lady named Sister Antoine (LA). She has had some addictive behaviors get in her way in the past but is clean right now. We were trying to commit her to come to church and such. The lesson was going good but I was doing that listening hard thing again. A moment of silence fell and I told her, "Sister Antoine, don't let your physical body get in the way of promised spiritual blessings." It wwas cool because that tidbit directly from the spirit was the thing that really spoke to her. She repeated the words I just said a couple times. We recommitted her to come to church and she said yes! We ended with a prayer and went on our way. Being in the city was really great, it really made me homesick for Reading though. We also got to go volunteer at this old people place called the watermark. We got there and the lady that assigns them stuff to do was in charge of the old people exercise class for the week so she had us come to that :) oh my it was a tender mercy! I was super car sick feeling and head achey and we did all this stretching and deep breathing stuff that made it all go away! it was theeee besttt! Then she had us take down NYE decorations and we got to talk about missionary work with her. We went into the auditorium where we were ggoing to be working and i looked up and gasped! There was the temple!!! It was a better view than The Roof in SLC! it was cool. when we were leaving, all the old jewish people were setting up for their sacrament meeting...which got me thinking: why do jewish people take their version of the sacrament if they don't believe Jesus is the Christ?? riddle me that. Anyways, Sister Bennett and I had a good evening and talked a lot about how I can help sister cost thrive in the mission field. The next morning we went for a run to the temple sight! it was super cool, i wish I would have had my cameraa...or camera card. oh well. We exchanged back and went to the bishops son's baptism. Then out into the world we went! Knock knock a knockin! We met 100 rude people that day. Which I've come to be able laugh about but it still hits sister cost pretty hard. Speaking of the people in our nook of Philadelphia...Let me clear some things up: You asked if there were lots of italians in our area, like I said, they are more concentrated in South philly but we do have a lot of them. and according to Sister Cost there are more black people than white people here. She's right, I just don't notice anymore. So there's that. Speaking of ethnicities; We taught the Comegys that night. One LA, one Investigator and one potential investigator. Their house was invested with roaches and other buggy bugs so they didn't want us to come in (they are subleasing a room in the grubby house) but we weaseled our way in cause missionaries are sneaky like that. we ended up teaching a really good lesson about the atonement because Nick (PI) had an issue with a bishop he met in the past. It went well except for the part where Nick stopped me randomly and asked if I was German. I said no, "oh you look super German, where is your accent from?? is it Norwegian???" Ok yeah no, I'm just a white girl from utah. People do ask me if I'm German a lot here. Mom, dad, are yous sure wwe dont have ggermans up the blood line?? look into that. Nick and Andrea ended up coming to church yesterday too!
The Elders had a baptism yesterday, Esther Carnby. She is the coolest lady. She's from liberia and we got to help her in and out of the font. We also got to see her put on her wig. that was cool :). After that, Brother Menezes came out with us to teach a brazilian lady Sister cost and manson found on exchanges. She wasn't home though ;( Then we went and got Maria Nadeem (she's a RC from Pakistan) to come teach Blesson and Shobba with us. They ignored us though when we knocked. :( We ended up going back to Maria's and we got to teach her a lesson. She was talking about how her year has gone and it made me think of the will of god mormon message, so we shared it with her and ended up talking about her serving a mission. She hadn't ever thought about it really so we commited her to pray about it :). yay. she would be suchhhh a good missionary.
Tonight we have a dinner appointment with Dianna Felton. She is THE coolest southern black lady who insists she is the best cook in the ward! She told us we are having Black Mac. I looked at her all confused when she told me this and she explained that black people make their mac and cheese way better than white people. ha I'll let you knnow what it is they do to it. ok I love you love you love you. I hope your Book of Mormon reading is coming along!! Don't procrastinate!
Love yous to the Moon!!!
Sister Bailey
PS. RS lesson yesterday was an intro to their theme this year, they stole the youth theme :) So it's D&C 4:2. We watched the embark video and oh my goodnessssssss. you go watch it right now. it's so good and sister cost and i have been listening to the new youth music on repeat :0 it's goood stuff!
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