Sister Alyssa Bailey: 3/2/15

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!