December 19, 2011 Letter

Dear Most Wonderful beautiful crazy fun loving talented amazing inspiring Mother,

Hi mom! Merry Christmas week to you! I can't believe it is already Christmas week! There is no snow. It makes it feel very much not like Christmas. I feel like I have been waiting so long for this week and I don't know where the time went. Can you believe it's already Christmas? Good heavens time goes so fast. It kinda scares me. I cannot believe Max is already coming home! I didn't think he would be home till January. That is a touch surprising. Didn't he just leave? How fun for his family to have him home. I bet they are all very excited. I love that you just smile. It makes me think of right before David got home. Haha we were like chickens with our heads cut off! :) fun days.

I love Mckay. He is so funny! How did he get so dang cute? Who raised that kid? Honestly, I wish I could have heard his talk. Brother Dickamore said it was great. I am so glad that he is in the single's ward. I bet he just makes all the girls want to come to church :) I am glad that Lauren is doing better. She is so cute and bubbly! I love that little girl! I guess she isn't really little...but to me she always will be. Even if she is like 2 feet taller than me. So lame! Oh well who needs to be tall right? Being short is where it is at....:) Is everyone excited to be done with school for a couple weeks? Oh odd...is that weird for them to be home and not have you home? ehh...that sounds so strange to me. I am glad that you are liking work though. You are so amazing you could do anything mother! Sorry the house is crazy. Someday I will come home and mop your floors :) but it's going to be a long time so you might want to mop them before then. :) I wish I could be more helpful to you. Sorry.

That is so cute about Anna! where does she come up with these things? She is the cutest little thing! So they all have to go to the in-laws house? So lame...it's like the in-laws like their families or something. Who does that?!

Oh some business for Brother Dickamore..1. he would like my address....hmmm you never know with him. 2. please tell him I am not nuts!! And I do not speak THAT Texan. He is spreading all sorts of rumors. Gotta watch out for him. :)

Ok so the life of a missionary.....well at least this missionary....
We met some awesome new people this week who are totally going to get baptized! It will be great. Lets see who to tell you about first. Oh, well Boo left. Yeah super lame. He just up and left for Arkansas this week after his finals. It was very sad. He even ditched out on our last lesson. We were a bit saddened by it. But he took his Book of Mormon so hopefully he is reading it!

Then we have Mayo ( it was the first thing that came to me and it's not because he has a weird obsession with mayonnaise) He is awesome! He came to church last week and had some questions so a member set up an appt. with us. He is so golden. He came to church again this week! Yay! So he is awsome. We are going to dunk him. Well not us exactly, but he is going to be baptized!

The other one is named former. I think he really wants to learn and come back. Hopefully it works out. He was taught a while ago, but he fell of the the face of the planet. I am hoping that he doesn't do that again.

So we had Zone conference this week. It was so good! President Sagers always does an amazing job. I am so grateful to have him as my mission president. I learn so much from him. We got to watch 17 Miracles! I was so excited. I have been wanting to see it forever. However, it was not a movie that should be watched in a room full of people...especially a room full of elders. I was trying so hard not to cry. In the end, I couldn't keep it in. Good thing it was dark...I don't think anyone noticed. Wow. I feel like I can never complain again. And Levi Savage was so humble. Can you imagine being called out like that that many times? How amazing. It was a great movie. I loved it. You can learn so much from the example of the early saints. They were such amazing people. Sometimes I wonder if I have that much faith. How amazing.

As for other things....well....I can't think of anything exciting. Sister Lounsbury basically lost her whole wardrobe. Some days. She is so funny. She is very honest and doesn't realize what she is saying sometimes. She has told many people they are less active. I don't know if you know but some people dont take to kindly to being told they are less active. We are working on that.

Lets see what else...oh we ate at this members house this week. It was the first time I truly feared for my stomach. Lets just say it's not the most clean environment. And she made us pizza dogs. If you want to try it, I dont know you could maybe make it for Chirstmas dinner or something, it's really easy-- all you need is a hot dog bun, hot dog weenie, pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. Then put it all on the bun, nuke it in the microwave for a couple seconds and whamo ready to eat! I would suggest some berry tums for dessert. Yep I had some serious heart burn after that one.

Other than that life's just normal. I wish I had more crazy stories for you but it was a pretty mundane week. Yep I did just use the word mundane.

Oh yeah I guess I should maybe tell you when I am calling huh? You might want to know that information...it's only slightly important. So I am pretty sure I will be calling you at 8:00 our time. So that would be 7:00 your time? That would be in the evening not the morning. I am pretty positive its the PMs. hahaha I just put it PMs all in capitals and it looked like PMS. I thought it was kinda funny. Pretty sure I already PMSd this month. So no worries about me being all moody on the phone. :)

Oh, so kinda funny story. Maybe it's just more weird then funny....So did I ever tell you about the book we found at a members house that told the love story of Alma the Senior? Yes someone actually wrote a romance novel about Alma. Yeah. There are no words for that. But anyways I told Sister Lounsbury about that and we laugh about it from time to time. But this morning during comp study I asked her what she studied and she told me how she was reading about the Anti-Nephi-Lehis. Then she stops telling me what she learns and says, "Then about part way through I started to think about this love story where two lamanites fall in love and she converts but he doesn't. She runs away to the land with the anti-nephi-lehis. Then of course the Lamanites come and kill them all and he joins the Lamanites because he is mad so he is killing everyone and then he gets to her. It's very tragic. He ends up converting but she dies." hahah yep. I laughed so hard. Oh dear....so all in all, I think personal study this morning was very effective.

Well family, I think that is about all the information I needed to get to you. Oh yeah, mother please don't think I am the lamest child on the earth. Although I really am. I am an awful daughter! I don't know how you can still love me. I didn't send you a birthday card!!!!!!! But I promise that I am sending you one today! I swear! I am so sorry!!!! I want you to know that I did think of you all day. And I sang happy Birthday to you in my heart...a couple times. And I thought if I was home I would get you a paces card...because you love the hamburgers so much ;) So I think the phrase, "its the thought that counts" is really applicable here. I still love you more than anything in this life!! I think you are amazing! And the best mother in the whole wide world!

I love love love love love love love love love lvoe love love love love love love you!!!!!

loves hugs and kisses,

your favorite missionary

December 12, 2011 Letter

Dear sweet, amazing, patient, loving, incredible, to kind, beautiful, most wonderful, perfect, and my very most favorite in the world Mother,

Hi mom! No worries mother we are always safe! We have the Lord with us and don't forget what President Harbertson said when he set me apart! We have no need to fear. :) So in light of all the stupid people we have been teaching, I reread Elder Christofferson's conference talk this past October. It was beautiful. I loved it. There is one part in particular where he says, " It would mock the Savior’s suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for us to expect that He should transform us into angelic beings with no real effort on our part. Rather, we seek His grace to complement and reward our most diligent efforts." Yeah, I wrote it down and have it in my scriptures because I love it so much. Isn't that a beautiful quote. I love it. I wish everyone could understand that. I think you are right mom, Satan is so real and so persuasive. Sometimes I can almost just see him standing there laughing at all the people he has persuaded to believe in his false teachings. I think it makes him so happy to see all these people rejecting the truth because they think what he has taught them is true. These people have been taught that you shouldn't ask God whether or not things are true. If it's in the Bible, you should just believe it. You should never stop and ask God if it's true. You just need to believe it. So they think it is wrong for us to ask if the Book of Mormon is true....thank you for that one Satan! Isn't he just a pain? But it's ok President Sagers is always saying the work of the Lord is never frustrated, only we are. And boy is that true. Sometimes I get so frustrated with people. I have to stop myself and remember that it's ok because the Lord will preprare a way and I can't control others agency...although it's tempting at times :)

Mom I want to tell you how incredible I think you are. Sometimes when I think about you it just makes me feel so overwhelmed with gratitude that you are my mother. How lucky am I to have you! I don't know what, but I must have done something pretty good for God to have given me the blessing of having you as my mother. I am sorry that life is a little stressful for you right now. I wish there was some way I could be more helpful. I will write a letter to that cute little sister of mine. The funny thing is I feel like I was like that in high school. Oh high school, I was so stupid. haha I am grateful for all the learning opportunities I had there.....But she needs to be nice to you at least! You're her mom. I think she just might not realize all the amazing things you do for her. And mother anything from you is special to me! So don't stress about me or my stuff.

I am so sad Dad had to conduct a funeral. That makes me so sad for the Hefners (I can't spell their last name) I hope they are ok. It just breaks my heart. What a hard time to lose your dad/husband. I will keep them in my prayers since that is the only thing I really can do. I wish I could do more.

I am glad that we are making it a tradition to go give lunches to the homeless. I think that is so neat. It really helps focus us on the real reason for the season. Being with our families and giving. I am with you mom I wish I could handle every situation the way the Savior would. But mother I think you are way more Christ-like then you give yourself credit for. The Savior's whole life was given in service. He gave to everyone and never stopped to think of Himself. I think you are just like that mom. You give so much and never stop to think of yourself. I can't think of a moment when you weren't concerned for others. I wish that I could be a little more like you. You are a perfect example to me of striving to be more like the Savior.

Well as for crazy stories here...of course we have some! Ok so we went on exchange this week and I was able to travel to the great metropolitan of Justin....population more cows than people! It was great. I loved it! So we went to visit one of the sisters' investigators. And on the way there Sister Reynolds, who I was with, was telling me all about how great this lady was. So I was very excited to meet her...unfortunately, I think I might be bad luck. Because when we got there she told us the more she read the more she felt like she didn't need to be a part of any denomination. So we are talking to her and Sister Reynolds is talking about the importance of the Book of Mormon (since she hadn't been reading!) So Sister Reynolds asks her, "Do you know what a keystone is?" The ladies response.... "a beer!!" hahahahahahaha! Sister Reynolds, "Wrong kind of keystone." Yep....that was great. I hope she gets baptized though.

Ummm...I feel like we had more adventures, but they aren't coming to me! Lets see, I found a popcorn popper in our apartment so I cleaned it up, bought some popcorn kernels, and last night after planning we watched Joy to the World and had homemade pop corn. It was pretty fun!

We taught our investigator Boo yesterday. Man. I had an epiphany about him today, so hopefully by next week I will be able to tell you he was baptized. We are aiming for this weekend. That was the day he picked, but yesterday he told us he still hasn't gotten his answer and if he doesn't have that or a job by Wednesday, he is packing up and leaving for Arkansas on Thursday. We are praying for a miracle. But it will come. I know it will. Him and his girlfriend are so funny. They crack me up. I love teaching them. Poor girlfriend had another member sit her down and tell her all about her experience with having her boyfriend take the lessons. She said he accepted it and got baptized and they were married in the temple. (Here girlfriend is happy. She's like "oh man it will work out!") Then member girl keeps going on and tells a dreadful story about how her boyfriend then resented her for making him join the church, cheated on her, and then left her. Wow....girlfriend was really grateful for that story.

Well, I can't think of anything else exciting to tell you. We are just working. It is pretty fun. Oh funny story, so one morning we are running out to catch the bus and it zooms right past our drive way. Yeah it was just like in the movie. So we had to regroup and shift our plans to wait for the next bus. So we go out, do some other stuff, and then head back to the bus stop. While we are walking there I start teasing Sister Lounsbury about us missing the bus for the second time. So we start teasing about how if we miss the bus, we are giving up the tags, going back inside, and going to bed! Then Sister Lounsbury comes back with, "That's it, if we miss the bus again we are calling up guiltless and telling him to meet us at Lucky Louis!!" (Lucky Louis would be one of the bars behind our house.) I started laughing so hard!! That came out of left field!! Sometimes she comes out with these things that are so unexpected! It kills me. I am like, where did that come from? Well guess what, we made the bus. So we didn't throw our tags down and meet guiltless at Lucky Louis. You still have a faithful missionary. Later on we were talking about it. I was like, even if we did do that we would walk in there and be like, "Ummmm can we have water?!"

Well mother that's it for my disturbing stories! Thanks so much for all that you do! I think you are the most amazing mother in the world. I love you more than anything!

I think you are the best. And P.S. how long are Dave and JaRelle living with you for?

Loves hugs and kisses,

love your favorite missionary Sister Bailey

December 5, 2011 Letter

Dear Most wonderful, pretty, talented, hard working Mother

Wow! It sounds a bit crazy there. I cant believe it! Someone told me today that there had been some crazy winds in Utah. But wow. It killed the neighborhood. You have had quite the week mother. I am sorry. I am glad you have three good helpers back home to help you out. Our week has been a little crazy as well!

First thank you thank you thank you! For Sending me that coat! It has been so needed. It has been very cold here. Im sad because I had my shoes all nice and broken in and then...they get a big hole in them! I wore them yesterday in the rain...they still have not dried yet. I walked around in a puddle! But I am very proud of my holy shoes!

So last week we met this kid named Intellect. He invited us to come back and teach him on wednesday. So we get an exchange and we head out there. When we got there he was sitting in his living room and he had 2 friends with him. We were like huh ok. He told us that his friends had all just "Randomly" shown up to have a jam session...yeah right! Well as the lesson progressed more of them kept magically appearing! They are all from this church who I am pretty sure teaches anti. But anyways they were just throwing out questions at us. They were nice but I know it was an ambush situation! After a little bit Intellect was talking and he said something like "thats why I made sure my friends were here so they could help me stay in the right." oops there goes that lie! He totally invited them over! Jerk! Well you cant make fools of us because we have the Lord on our side! But anyways kinda cool part of the story we are at Lunch on friday at the institute (they do this thing every friday where they have a speaker and then lunch afterwards) so we are eating and in walks one of the kids from the wed. ambush! We will call him guiltless. So guiltless just comes waltzing in! Grabs some food says hi to us and sits down. We were like what the heck! So we start talking to him and he agrees to let us teach him after the lunch because he has more questions. So we start teaching him...wow....can you say ridiculous! As we taught him he went off about works. And how we actually dont need to do ANYTHING to be saved. Christ paid it all so we dont have to. His favorite saying of mine is "we are guiltless not sinless." So we can sin all we want and not worry because Christ took away our guilt. We dont even have to be baptized! He was trying to hard to persuade us to believe that way. It was tempting...well not really..but I could see how someone who didnt already believe in the truth would want to believe in that. No work what so ever. You dont ever feel guilty or worry because you dont have to. You are already saved! I tried to explain to him using a Dr analogy. How we want our Dr. to be educated and to do their own work. I said its like if you Dr. went to this school and everyone decided that one of them Bob was going to do all the work! He would take every test quiz and home work assingment and everyone else would get and A and would graduate. Thanks Bob! As I am explaning it Guiltlss gets a big smile on his face sighs and says "doesnt that sound great?" I was like wow you just missed the point! I explained that no it wasnt great because now when I go to him he wont have any idea! He said no because Bob is in you...no guiltless bob is not in me! There is some serious brain washing going on in that place because these people are crazy!! He is the 2 person from that church who we taught that week. By the end of the first I wanted to pull my hair out! How ridiculous! By the end of Guiltless lesson I just laughed. His was funny. The other Chick named crazy was just awful! It makes me kinda upset when they talk about the Atonement that way. I think it is so cruel and ridiculous to expect one person to take on everything! To suffer unimaginable amounts of pain, to take on everything for us. And then we dont have to do anything ...commandments irrelevant, work unneeded, baptism a fun thing you can do. Its sick.

I decided the Harlot Isabel must have belonged to this church. So she cornered Corianton laid it all out for him he thought hey that sounds nice and he went off with her. Then Dad came around and taught Corianton the truth and he realized...oh...yeah...and repented.

After our lesson with Guiltless he was like how about we just hang out you can tell me about you I will tell you about me. I will invite Intellect and everyone we can just have fun. Haha umm sorry guiltless....we cant. Oh ok. I think he feels sad for us. Poor guy. But its ok because we feel sad for him.

So that was our crazy lesson. Fun to be had in the bible belt! Yay......

Umm in other news...I dont have much. Oh yeah we met a girl she is a less active member. She has cockroaches all over her house. They come out into the light and everything. So we are sitting there talking to her and all of a sudden she grabs one of the cockroaches and paints it with her nail polish. Yep. She just sat there holding it painting it checkered with the same nail polish she uses to paint her nails with. I was pretty disgusted.....yeah.....It crawled up her arm and everything. I was like and we gotta go...see ya!

So other crazy stuff...We did it...yep we found the door to heaven. Most people dont know but its in the ghetto of Denton Texas. Pretty good hiding place if you ask me. So we are walking around this Apartment complex and all the doors are red. We get to the door we want and its white. The only white door in the whole complex. We knocked but no one answered. I guess its just not our time to go yet. I made up a great story for Sister Lounsbury about us randomly disappearing and going to heaven. She laughed. I think sometimes she thinks I am crazy. Meh I guess she would be right :)

Then that same day we are walking and we get to a part in the road where we cant walk anymore. Its on this busy overpass. So we cant go over it, cant go through it, gotta go under it. That was my personal thinking anyways. Sister Lounsbury followed mostly because she has to I think. As we are treking our way down this hill under the overpass we ran into a hobo village. No one was home. But you could tell people lived there. It was a moment that made you very grateful for what you had. We really do have alot. Then we crossed the train tracks. I taught Sister Lounsbury the trick to crossing train tracks...Dont get hit! It was quite the exciting day! There are always adventures to be had. It makes life exciting.

Well I guess im fresh out of adventures for the time being. I hope that your adventures mellow out a bit! I love yall so much! I am so grateful to have such an amazing family! I hope everything keeps going well! Thanks for everything mother! You are amazing. I have the best mom in the whole wide world I am quite certain of that fact. I love you more than anything!

loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey

November 28, 2011 Letter

Dear most beautiful wonderful spiritual tasteful hard working talented splendid mother,

So this stupuid computer just deleted my whole email! Yep safe to say I am pretty upset about it. There is another choice word I could use but Elder Baxter (one of the 70s)a told us that is not celestial language so I am refraining from saying it. On the bright side it wasnt long and mostly all I did was tell you about my birthday and how Sister Mortensen, bad influence that she is, made me open my presents early. Then I promptly took accountability for myself because that is what we should do. And told you that I chose to open them (though Sister Mortensen might have prompted the thoughts) and that I loved them all!! They are so stinking cute! You did a good job! I can always trust you to pick out cute things. Thank you so much for them mother. I am going to be the most stylish missionary here!

Well Denton is good! It is cold and we are in a walking/ bus area. So I was going to ask if you wouldnt mind sending me one of my coats and maybe my cute headband things that keep my ears warm and some gloves. Yes all those people who told me Texas isn't cold either lied or never lived in Northern Texas because it is ridiculously cold! We will go with they didnt live in Northern Texas because its not nice to call people liars. Especially when you have to walk around at night and the wind blows...brrr. Ok, it's only in the 50s but I just got off a summer of strait 100 degrees so anything below 80 is a touch chilly! If you wouldn't mind sending me those things it would be very much appreciated!

The other night I looked like a total loser. I had on a black long sleeved shirt, a black sweater from down east and that little black jacket you sent me for my birthday, JaRelle's scarf and a black hat. I looked emo for certain. But it's all I had in the warm department! Oh and maybe send me some brown tights to go with my brown skirts! Sorry, let me just keep tacking things on the list. And I was going to ask if maybe for Christmas Santa could bring me a black undershirt. I would be very grateful to Santa for that! :) Man I sound so ungrateful! I just get off my birthday and I am already asking for things! Sorry mom. I am very grateful and will try not to be an ingrate any more I promise! Thanks so much for all you do. I am so glad that I have a mother who is willing to do so much and help me out in so many ways! You are amazing!

My companion is good. We get along very well. She loves to read. We both lament about going to the library and not being able to touch any of the books! She is funny. God has a tendency to put me with people I wouldn't normally put myself with and then make me like them. I think He teaches me a lot of good lessons.

The ward is fun. It is so different. In case you didn't know (because I sure didn't!), Denton is home of two universities The University of Northern Texas and Texas Women University. It is so weird being in a college town. I (very gratefully!) am only cover 1 ward down here. It is amazing. It is so hard serving in two wards. It's fun being up here. We don't have a car, so we ride buses and walk everywhere. Yes, I am learning how to use the bus system! It is going to take a second. It's weird having to plan your day around bus schedules and not being able to just be like, "Lets go here!" But it's nice walking! You meet so many people and have an oppertunity to talk to so many people. Plus with the holidays I need to walk more to not gain so much weight! I can't become more morbidly obese! That would be no bueno!

We have a couple of investigators up here. I am still learning and meeting everyone so next week I might have more information but the one I do know is named...Boo. He is a member's boyfriend (hence the name Boo. Yeah, I am pretty gangster now!) He is a cool kid. They have been dating for 3 years now. We need to get him a testimony and help him see why the church is different. It's going to be fun.

So who here is excited to have another baby in the family?!?! Becuase I sure am!!! And we all need to tell JaRelle good job on following my rules. I am so excited for her and Dave to have a cute baby. I knew she would get prego. She wrote me a while back to say they were thinking about it, but decided to wait until next July. I knew it wouldn't happen. I am super happy though. Cute babies are so fun. Now at least we will have one cute cuddly baby with all the crazy toddlers!

Umm, well I dont think I have much else to say. Life is good here. I love yall so much and I miss everyone! Christmas will be weird at your house this year, but just think about next year! It is going to be crazy full! With 4 grandbabies!! yay!! I like that our family is growing. And who knows maybe McKay will have a special someone next year too (that's a weird thought). It could be a pretty full house! How fun.

Well mother I love you so very very much! You are the best mother in the world. That is why I claimed you as mine! Thanks for everything. I love love love love love love you!!!

loves hugs and kisses,

love. sister bailey

Nomember 21, 2011 Letter

Dear Most wonderful, beautiful, happy, fun, loving perfect favorite mother,

Hi mom! I can't believe I am old too! It's a little weird. I mean the big 22..I am practically ancient now! haha. I'm excited for my birthday though. It will be fun. We all know how much I love my birthday. I really can't believe it's almost my birthday though. Time has gone so fast. I don't feel like it should be my birthday month let alone my birthday week! Weird how time does that.

I am glad that everyone is doing so good. Except Suz...stinks to be her. That's no fun being grounded... except when you get to spend all your time with mom and dad. Then it's lots of fun because you two are a PARTY!!! Aint no party like a mom and dad party! You party all the way till 9:30 woot woot!!! Can I get a holla!!! :)

McKay needs a girlfriend? No he doesn't. He needs to stay single so he doesn't get married before I get home. Tell him school is his girlfriend. That is a good girlfriend. And tell him if he is bored of doing his school work, he can register as me and do some school work for me. If he could finish up my associates that would be great! bleh school....

I am not surprised to hear Tyson is doing so good. He is such a smart kid! He is the little golden child. It's a good thing he came last or y'all would have just stopped with him. Who needs more when you already have a perfect one?! So I think we all forced him to go last. And Tosha to go first because she was pretty close to being perfect and the rest of us naughty ones came in the middle! :) Sorry Dave Mckay and Lauren but we all know it's true. :)

Well for transfers....I am going to Denton. It is pretty crazy. I am sad to be leaving. It's hard when I feel like I am finally really getting to know the area, I'm getting comfrotable and then bam I am transferred. I had a feeling I was leaving but I wanted to ignore it. I hoped I was wrong. I am sad to be leaving Sister Mortensen. We have had so much fun together. She has been a great companion and she is a great missionary. She is going to be awesome. Her new companion is Sister Byington, one of the sisters I came out with. So that's fun and I am going up to be with Sister Byingtons companion Sister Lounsberry. I don't know much about her except that she doesn't talk. So that's exciting....good thing I can talk the ear off of just about anyone and anything. I don't have my address yet, but I will send it to you in my next email. If there are any letters you want to send or anything this week just send them to the mission office.

It's crazy its actually starting to get cold here. I have forgotten what cold feels like with all the heat we have had! But it feels so good! I am loving it.

We have had a lot of miracles this week. It has been so fun. We found a new investigator named boyfriend. Boyfriend is really sincere and he is awesome. It was funny because when we first went to teach him (his girlfriend called us and asked us to come teach him because he has lots of questions), so when we got in there we started teaching and he was quiet and really not into it. Finally he stops us and is like, "I just want to know what church is like." We were like, "Oh ok." So we taught him about church and he started to open up and tell us about stuff, it was really good. We ended up having a really good lesson and at the end he told us that he was sorry about the beginning. He was pouting because he had sisters coming over and he didn't want sisters, he wanted the boy missionaries. So he was upset. But by the end, we had won him over!! We jokingly said as we left, "Sorry your stuck with us and not the boys," and he said, "Oh I don't want the boys anymore; I like having the girls." yeah!! Sisters are great; we can win over anybody! Ok thats a little cocky sounding. There are some people that no one can win over! But it was fun. He is going to do great. He is really sincere and really has a desire to learn. Sister Mortensen and Sister Byington are going to totally baptize him!

We also had a great youth lesson. Have I told you that we are teaching all the youth in our ward the missionary lessons? Well we are, and we have been teaching this family and one of the daughters has been pretty silent during our lessons. Then the last lesson she started to open up and then the lesson we just barley had, she really opened up. She was making all these great comments. It was so awesome to see. She was so different; it was neat. It really made our day.

So many other things happened this week. But thats pretty much the favorites...the grapes if you will; everything else is just cherry.

I love you so much mom! And have fun down in St. George this week. That is super fun. I would be jealous, but you know I'm doing missionary work so....it's pretty bomb. You cant beat it! I love you so so much mom! I think you are truly the best mother in the world! I love you more than you can know!! Have a fun week and be safe!

loves loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey

November 14, 2011 Letter

Dear Beautiful, amazing, talented, smart, hard working, exceptional mother,

Hi mom! Well that is exciting and crazy you are going to work! That is strange! But I am excited for you. You are amazing! They are lucky to have such a hard worker. I wish I could be more like you sometimes. I tell people all the time that if it wasn't for us holding you down, you would be translated! The other day we made cookies for someone and we gave some of them to this kid in the singles ward who is REALLY struggling. He ate all of them and didnt give a single one to his little brother! He said they were amazing and I said you can thank my mother for that! She has had me baking cookies since I was 12! He says thank you to you mother.

That is so crazy that Kenzie is already home! That went so fast! Holy cow. I feel like she just barley left. Things seem to go so much faster on the mission. Another transfer is already almost over. Transfers are next week! I am a little nervous that I might be transfered. But I know they Lord is pretty smart and he always does what's best for me. So just like Hyrum says in the Joseph Smith movie, "Whatever happens, the Lord is in it." Yes, I know it's sad I can now quote that movie. I also do a pretty decent reenactment of The Testaments. I know y'all are all jealous! But eliminate every other movie in the world and you would have them memorized too! We watched this video during lunch one time to see if we could use it, it's called "Heavenly Father's Plan" OH MY GOODNESS! I have never laughed so hard. Look it up; you will love it! That is if you havent already seen it. Its pretty awesome so you probably have. It's Sister Mortensens favorite movie. I told her it's a close second to The Rainbow one for me. Nothing will ever top that song. I really need to see the movie. But it will have to wait.

Lets see, they asked Manilla to pray in sacrament meeting yesterday. She was so cute! Afterwards she said, "My heart is beating so hard!" Picture that in a cute Phillipino accent and you will understand what I mean by she is cute. I love her.

Did you get my letter? It had my camera sim card in it, so I sure hope you did! At the end of my sim card, I left a little something for you. It's kinda lame but oh well.

So life has been a little lame this week. I don't have anything really exciting to tell you. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing so good! Lauren sounds like a teenager and it weirds me out! I met this little kid named Cody yesterday and he is 10 just like Tyson. He made me miss Tyson so much! It was ridiculous! When we asked him what he wanted for Christmas he said an i-phone. When we asked what else he wanted he said an i-pad and then a laptop! Eek I am glad I am not buying his presents! But it made me think of little Ty By. I have a feeling "little Ty by" isnt so little anymore? Is he getting taller? I hope not. He needs to stay small always.

Lets see, we are teaching a family now. It is fun! We can call them, "the whole fam...insert dads rhyming word." Ok that's a long name how about just "the fam". Well the fam is made up of a mom, dad, 2 daughters, and a son. They are great! They are super funny! They are all there when we teach and they are all so into it! When we asked them to read the Book of Mormon the mom was like, "You're going to have to give me a week to read all of this; I have 3 kids." We thought that was awesome. As we were leaving, the little girl grabbed a Book of Mormon and just started reading it. It was amazing! We loved it. But then the epidemic of the century hit. Literally everyone in Texas is sick! I almost murdered my companion because of it. So you know how dad sounds when he sleeps without his cpap? Yeah, that was my life for the last couple weeks! I almost smothered her in her sleep! I was so tired. I would wake up all the time and stay awake for hours. I finally bought ear plugs last week. They are helping significantly and my love for my companion is returning. :) It has been so hard teaching people because everyone either has a virus or strep. All of our appts. have fallen through because of it. Thank you Satan! He is cruel. But we always win.

Well, I dont have anything more exciting to say! Just that I love you and you should go check out Mormon.org. They have some awesome profiles but there is a really cute thanksgiving Mormon message called "The Spirit of Thanksgiving." We have been showing it to everyone lately. I really love it. So you should go watch it. Maybe have dad help you find it! :) I bet you are becoming so computer literate in your new job! I am going to come home and you are going to know how to work a computer better than I do!

Well mother, I love you with all my heart and I am so glad that you are mine! Thanks so much for all your support and everything you do for me. It means so much to me I can't even tell you. I feel so happy to have you. You and dad and the rest of the fam are at the very top of my thank you list to Heavenly Father.

P.S. have you ever done a grateful prayer? It is super neat. You spend the whole prayer giving thanks and not asking for a single thing. I did one for the first time the other night and it gave me such a great feeling. I realized how much our Heavenly Father has really given us! It is amazing when we stop and realize. So I want to challenge the whole family to give a thank-you prayer during the month of November. It is amazing how much we have to be thankful for!

I love you all so very very much! I hope you have the best week ever! I love you!!!!

loves hugs and kisses
love. sister bailey

November 8, 2011 Letter

Dear most forgiving, loving, amazing, talented, awe inspiring, Christlike, spiritual, perfect Mother in the whole wide world!

Hi mom.....Your busy is very exciting to me. I love hearing about things in the family. I feel so out of the loop all the time. So even if it seems boring to you its not boring to me.

Ok things in your email. I did know Tyler Bone was in my mission I have seen him a couple of times. I met his son who is awesome and his grandson is currently training as well! He is a great missionary. Every time I see Tyler Bone I think of working with him though...not fond memories. Hahaha. Also, I can't believe Lauren went on her first date! That is crazy! And I am also a bit upset they dressed up as the Red Sox, I mean really?! Hello, it's all about the Texas Rangers!! I don't think I approve of the kid who decided this. So she shouldn't date him again. Lame-o!

When did this happen to your ankle? That is no good. I am sorry. I wish I could be more help but the only good I can do you is in my prayers. It's hard to be a helper when I am so far away. I am worried about Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Edith. I don't like hearing news about them being sick or anything. I have been keeping them in my prayers always. They aren't allowed to have anything happen to them!

What's going on with Tater Tot lately? I haven't heard anything about him in a while. How is he doing? How is school? Is he still doing good in his photography business? Tell him to send me some Christmas music please! We need it. You can only listen to a CD for a whole week so many times.

I got your birthday package today. I will try my hardest to wait. It's hard though! They are very tempting. And will you whack Brother Dickamore for me? He is giving me a hard time in his emails! Saying I have 4 birthdays a year...please, we all know its more like 6! I can't help it. I'm so great the world needs to celebrate my birth multiple times! :)

So news for the week: Manilla was baptized on Saturday! It was amazing! She stood up and bore her testimony after the service. It was so good and the spirit was so strong. Everyone really enjoyed hearing it.

We went tracting yesterday and we met a very nice man who didn't think very nice things about us! It was Sister Mortensen's first time with the hard anti. I congratulated her on becoming a true southern missionary. He was not very nice at all. He said we were deceived and he felt bad for us. But he did say we Mormons were the kindest, most christian-like people he had ever met. It was just such a shame that we don't believe in Christ and that we were going to pay for it. He feels sad that we are all going to rot in...well you know where. But on the bright side, he is praying for us! Praying that the Lord will touch our hearts and open our eyes so we won't be deceived anymore. Sister Mortensen was super mad at him. We just bore our testimonies because that's all you can do. We kept trying to leave but he wouldn't let us. It's super hard to get away from those people. Goodness. I had to sing Come Come Ye Saints in my head a couple times to keep from laughing. It was ridiculous. I laughed for a little bit afterwards. I did tell him that the Book of Mormon was either true or false he had a 50/50 chance and if he read it, he could know. But he said, "Honey I can know 100 percent that its false already. There is only 2 ways Joseph Smith could have wrote that book, either he was drug induced, or demonically lead." No chance that God could have helped him I guess. It's weird how experiences like that can actually strengthen your testimony. And then going to the temple today I just know this church is true. And people can say whatever they want, but I KNOW that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God. That Christ is at the head of this church, and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today. We are so blessed to have this Church. It is true. And I'm grateful to have such amazing parents who taught me the truth and showed me how to live my life so that I can always be happy. You two are the best examples to me and I don't know what I would do if I didn't have you. Thanks so much for teaching me the truth. And for living worthy and true to the covenants you have made so I could have the blessings in my life as well.

I love you so very much mother. I love you lots and lots.

Loves hugs and kisses for always

love. sister bailey

October 31, 2011 Letter

Dear most amazing, fun, pretty, forgiving, christ like mother!

So lame email mother. That was like nothing! I guess it's your payback for me playing mean jokes on you. Sorry, I really should be a better daughter. Sometimes I am still Kiley and not Sister Bailey so I play jokes. Like the other night (I am giggling as I type this to you) Sister Mortensen went to take a shower so I pulled her sheet up and tucked it into the top of her bed then I folded it in half so it looked all normal and then made her bed. When she came out, she was like, "Did you make my bed?" I was like, "Uh no..." and she was like, "You are so nice! So she goes out to say her prayers and I pray and I am trying my hardest not to giggle! And then we have companionship prayer. And right before it, she folds down her covers (I was worried for a second because sometimes she doesn't get under her sheets, but then when she folded it down I knew she was going to get in her sheet.) So I start praying and then I bust up laughing! And she looks at me and is like, "What? What is so funny?" I told her nothing. We finish praying and I climb into bed and she stands up and climbs into bed and she can't get her legs to go down. She was like what the heck?! And then I started laughing so hard! I laughed for like 5 minutes and she gave me the nastiest look. I short sheeted her! It was so funny! She didn't think it was as funny as I did. I still laugh about it. Oh man...it was funny. I am a mean companion. And a mean daughter...sorry!

So Manilla is getting baptized this week! We are super excited about that. Sister Mortensen is slightly stressed out about it all. But it is going to be great! All that matters is the baptism and then the confirmation. And the Holy Ghost will be there and make it perfect. It has been really fun teaching Manilla though. I am so excited for her to get baptized.

We have a district meeting tonight because our district leader has to keep tabs on everyone and make sure we have a place to be for every hour of the night. So rather than do that he just decided we would have a district meeting. I'm excited, it should be fun.

Ummm lets see what else...oh, we went to this BYU football devotional they had the night before they got creamed by TCU. Don't mess with Texas! And I got to see Brian! It was so fun to see him! He didn't even know I was out on a mission. That was pretty funny. But he talked with our investigator for a little bit. It was really neat. Our investigator loved it.

We also had interviews with president this week. That was good...I almost didn't pass...just kidding! President Sagers is amazing and I always love when we get to be around him.

Some sad news this week....it really broke my heart...the Texas Rangers lost the world series in the last game...moment of silence...it was a sad day in Texas.

Other than that, nothing too crazy is going on. We are going to the temple next week, so I won't be emailing until Tuesday. We have to switch our preparation days so we can go. But I don't care I am so excited for it! I have so missed the temple.
Well Mother, I love you so so very much! You are the best mother in the whole wide world and I would hate life if I didn't have you!

loves hugs and kisses,
love. sister bailey

October 24, 2011 Letter

Dear Wonderful, incredible, lovely, smartest, funnest, best teacher, Mother,

Don't stress about saying Kiley. Sometimes it's nice to hear. Somedays you feel like you are losing your identity. It's gotten so bad that even when I tell stories from the past I say "sister bailey" in them. Sister Mortensen always gives me a hard time. She says "there is no way your dad called you sister bailey!" Oops...haha. So I'm a loser sometimes...what can you do?

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing good! I am so glad Tyson won state cup!! He is amazing! How fun! I can't believe he assisted in the only goal! Way to be Tyson. He is such a good athlete..it's disgusting! He's the little perfect child...good at sports, freaking genius. It's ridiculous! He needs to stop being so good so the rest of us kids stop looking so bad!

That is weird that Suz is driving. I don't think I like that at all. It really weirds me out. Did you get to paint her room? How did she like it? What did she think when she walked in? Did she know it was going to happen? Did you get her surprise party like she wanted? Shes so funny. What car is Suz driving? Still McKay's jeep? And if that's the case, what car is Tater-Tot driving? I feel like so much goes on back home and I am so out of the loop. Oh well, it happens. Some day I will be back inside the loop.

What is Tater Tot up to these days? Is he still interning with Brother Thomas? (Is that the right name? For some reason I am totally blanking on his name) Or was that just a one time thing? He is so talented. It's awesome. How is school going? Does he know what he wants to major in yet? Sorry I have so many questions for you.

So funny story. Last night I had this dream that this guy came up to me and put this little snake in my hand and then very rudely said to me, "Look, will you just bless my snake?!" Then the snake started like moving its head towards me...it was disgusting and awful. So I threw it onto the counter and I turned to him and I said, " Look, I dont even have the power to bless your snake, and second, I hate snakes so I hope it dies!" Unfortunately someone else did some research and cured the snake. It was awful. I hate snakes. So that's my random story for you! I guess I should stop teasing people about me having the priesthood because now my dream people are asking me to bless snakes. That's no bueno.

Fun story as well, one of our investigators, Homeboy, had planned on coming to church this week and was really excited. Well Sunday morning we get a text from the kid who was supposed to be picking him up and he said that Homeboy would not be able to make it because the storm had blown in his window (side note: here in Texas storms are crazy!!! The Thunder is so loud McKay would die! He would be very scared. He would most certainly be sleeping with you and dad mom). We were super bummed! It's the worst when they don't come to church like they say they will. Well as Sacrament meeting is starting, Tall man (the kid who was supposed to pick up Homeboy) comes up behind us and says, "Homeboy just called. He said he can come to church so I am going to get him." We were so excited! So in the end, Homeboy came to church and he had a good experience. Moral of the story..the Lord can do anything! It was awesome to see him there. The Lord was really watching out for us yesterday! I know He loves His missionaries. Yep good stuff.

Umm other good stories...oh I know!~ So Saturday night we had this family give us a big chocolate hospital...I don't know why, but people keep giving us a lot of candy! So we decided we would be nice and share half of the chocolate hospital with the elders who live right next to us. So we call them and tell them, and on their way home they stop by to grab it. While we were talking to them, we were standing inside our doorway and they of course were outside of it, and all of a sudden one of the elders goes, "Look how big that cockroach is!" So Sister Mortensen and I lean our heads out to look at it and all of a sudden it takes off and starts flying towards us! We both screamed (I might have screamed louder than Sister Mortensen) and she runs into the apartment and I run outside of it. I ran smack dab into the Elder. I was moving so fast and so hard I actually pushed him into the railing. We (sister mortensen and I) are still freaking out because she thinks it's in her hair and I think it's in our house. When all of a sudden the elder rips this bag of candy (not the hospital another bag of candy someone gave us) out of my hands and says "there it is" He then chucks the candy at the cockroach. It missed and the cockroach scuttled off the side of the ledge. It was so funny! We were all laughing so hard. Oh man! Im just glad it didnt go inside because I would not have gone in there to get it! That thing was HUGE!!! Ohh that was funny!

So also I need to do something to ugly up Sister Mortensen. She had 3 guys hit on her in one day! One of them said she smiled nice and she was like what? I smell nice? He had an accent...it was funny. Then the next one actually cussed us out before hitting on her. So we stop by this less-active's house and there is a guy outside (it is 8:15 at night) mowing the lawn with a headlamp on his head. It was an electric mower so he had the big extension cord going. But it got caught on the cars tires. He had a friend outside with him but when we walked up the friend went inside to see if the lady would talk to us. So we are standing out there when the lawn mower yells, "I need more slack." We were like umm ok...we can help. So Sister Mortensen goes to move it and I say, "I think your stuck on the tires." he yells back that he knows that and he needs more slack still! Sister Mortensen is like what do you want me to do with this? We are both confused--there was no more slack to give him. When he all of a sudden, he yells at us and starts swearing (not missionary appropriate words) and comes over and yanks the cord out of Sister Mortensens hands and starts moving it. It is at this moment that he realizes who we are. He felt so bad! He was like, "Oh I'm sorry, I thought you were my friends." We were like umm..nope! We are the missionaries. Later that night he was like I'm going to burn for that for sure! We thought that was kinda funny. But then he made up for cussing us out by telling Sister Mortensen she has soft hands. It was funny! The joys of being a missionary. You meet all kinds of people. Luckily, as sisters we don't get cussed out much. Just hit on. I think I would prefer the cuss words. Some guys are just nasty!

Oh I got my results back. He said the dose was good. Which is good because at least he didn't say it was to high and make me go down. But there was some weird note on there about one of my things being eleveated...and chronic kidney disease...I don't know. I don't think it means anything! I will send them to you though. Other than that, life's good!

Oh I wanted to give you a heads up..even though its like a month early! So my birthday is the day after transfers...so If I end up leaving here and my package comes the day before or anything I will not be getting anything for my birthday until after Christmas. No that is presuming you are even getting me anything for my birthday. So if you do decide you want to gift me for my birthday you might want to send the package earlier. Just thought I would throw that out there. Just in case you decide you want to send me something...its completely up to you. :)

I dont think I have much else to say today. I am kinda lame this week. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing so well! I keep you all in my prayers...a lot! I love you so much mother! I think you are amazing! Im so glad Heavenly Father let me have you as my mom! I love you and everyone else too!! Love love love you!!

loves hugs and kisses,

love.sister bailey

October 17, 2011 Letter

Dear Most wonderful, fantastic, lovely, splendid, amazing, perfect mother,

Hi mom! So I haven't heard from the Dr. yet...so I guess that answers the most important question.

Now to explain myself what i meant by he served me well is that he always kept my lips from being dry! Jeez mom..wheres your mind at?! I'm a missionary! That is terrafying that suz is driving...whoo good thing I'm going to be away from those roads for a while longer! SCARY!!!

That is so cute about Tyson. He is such a smart kid and such a good kid. That makes me almost want to cry. I love hearing about everyone. I love when everyone is doing good. I don't ever want anything to happen to any of my brothers or sisters.

Its lame hearing about how fun yall are all having. I can just picture you sitting in there trying to type and everyone bugging you! Tell them to leave you alone I only get one email from you a week and they get to talk to you whenever they dang well want!!! Lame team...leave mom alone when she is talking to me.

I want to see Laurens room! What does it look like? What did you do to it? I feel out of the loop here. Tell tosh to send some pictures of it. I want to know!

Umm as for life here we set a baptism date with our investigator manilla! She is awesome! She has been to church several times and she loves it. She loves the way she feels there. She is excited about her date. And we are crazy excited! I have some funny pictures to send to you about it.

We also got a new investigator named homeboy. He is neat. He seems like he has a desire to change. He came to church yesterday and he said he really liked it. He told us he felt really comfortable. It was funny he wore this bright yellow jersey and black pants...I think everyone knew who our investigator was. But who cares! I was just so glad he came! I think that's all the Lord cares about as well.

Did I tell you that Sister Loveless wrote me. She was so sad about you and Bishop Hinckley being released but she was glad when she found out the new Bishop was dad. She was really sweet and I am glad that we know her. It is nice to have such an amazing mother. You teach me so much about charity and helping everyone. You are amazing mother.
OH GOOD NEWS!!!! GUESS WHAT?!?!?! Man I was so excited when I found out I haven't stopped being excited since...well anyways guess where I am going on Nov. 8? You cant guess well ok I will tell you.....THE TEMPLE!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!! We get to go to the temple now quarterly. We have to have a member take us but who cares! I am so stoked!! I Cant even tell you how excited I am. It was the best news ever. *big sigh* I love it. So that is my exciting news. Whew it was good news.

Umm other than that...Sister Mortensen is still great. I love her. We have a lot of fun together. She is a good missionary. And super funny. today we were reciting the principals and sub principals and she couldn't remember one so I was giving her a hint and I said it starts with a b so she starts saying be good...be real...I was like no it starts with a b and rhymes with hum...she looked at me and said "bum????" We laughed so hard I was like no it starts with a b and rhymes with hum! And she laughed harder...I finally had to tell her it was become...I don't know how she didn't get that! We laughed really hard for a good little while though. We laugh a lot. That is good.

I did get your half way package. I loved it! That outfit was so dang cute! I wanted to wear some cowboy boots with it but I dot think that's approved....I had to settle for my ugly missionary shoes...sigh.....

Well I dont think I have anything else cool to tell you. Mostly my life is just missionary work. We just go out and work and there are some days I wonder how on earth I am going to keep doing it. Sometimes I am so tired. But you just have to go and do it anyway. The Lord always helps out alot. I was reading in Helaman today about how good he is to his people. I think that is true. He is really good to us. We are lucky to have the gospel. I love it so much and I know it is true. Im grateful for great parents who taught me the truth. Thanks so much mom.

Well I love you lots and lots. I miss you tons mom. I hope you have an amazing week! And guess what...Its almost my birthday!!! YAY!!!! I love my birthday...yes the great month is almost here. :)

I love you so much mom!!!
love. Sister Bailey....the favorite 3 child

October 10, 2011 Letter

Dear Most extraordinary, tremendous, remarkable, splendid, astounding, wonderful, Beautiful Mother,

Hi mom! So sorry about that this week...but if it makes you feel any better I could hear your voice too kinda and it made me happy. I cant believe it has been so long since I have seen you or even heard you! Its really weird and what is even more weird is I feel like it has been no time at all! Thanks so much for getting that information for me though. I really needed it and I was a little stressed about how to get it.

Haha I am sad I am missing the party of Laurens 16 birthday! She sounds like she has it all under the belt! Man I wish I would have thought of that on my 16 birthday week...a meal a day...she is so funny! That girl is something else. I love it. It is so her. I really dont think I know anyone else like Lauren. Man she puts a smile on my face. I really miss her. I want some pictures of how her room turns out! I want to see it! I wish I could be there to help...now I dont get to help decorate any ones room for their 16 birthday...oh man thats the pitts...maybe pres would let me come home for the week just to help? What do you think? No probably not? Yeah that would be bad I dont think I would be able to leave again...I cant for the life of me think of how I got brave enough to leave the first time.

I got tysons email. It made me so happy. I miss him. He is such a cute boy. I love him lots. He said hes playing basketball I hope it goes good.

Well this week is transfer week! I had a huge shock...Sister Mortensen and I are staying together another transfer in Bedford! I know its pretty crazy right? Yeah I wasnt surprised at all. I think she was a little hesitant. She wants so badly to be old in the mission. She just wants time to go fast and to be done which I understand but you gotta enjoy all of it. I loved being a greenie! I still call myself one. But she is a great missionary and she works hard and we get along great!

We are meeting some good people. We met a lady who is going to let us come help her on saturday with her garage sale. She has so many questions about the plan of salvation she is awesome! And another lady has been coming to church with some members. We taught her last night and it went really well. She loves the church and feels such a difference in her life because of it. She reads the Book of Mormon every night and her and her son pray together before every meal and at night and in the morning. She loves it all. She is pretty awesome! We are super excited to teach her.

Other than that nothing too crazy is going on. Oh we met a guy at a restaurant we eat at sometimes. He sat down and talked to us the whole time we were eating. He asked lots of questions about the church and we left him with a Book of Mormon and he gave us his info. It was pretty cool. He noticed our tags and thought we were nuns! Him and another lady in the back had a bet going on who we were and what we were doing. Thats pretty funny...in the end we won because he is interested! YEAH!!

Man I cant think of any crazy stories for yall this week...I swear it shouldnt be that way. I need to start writing these things down! Yesterday we had a lesson on the family can be eternal in our gospel principals class. At the end one of the women there (who is single) asked if there were any lessons in the book for single people. I leaned forward and told her that the Law of Chastity is for single people! She only mildly laughed. Its hard being in such a family centered church. She understands the scheme of it all but its still hard to be lonely now. She is amazing though. I love single lady.

Well mother sorry this letter is lame and kinda boring! I wish I had more cool stuff...I could make up some awesome stories but who really wants fake stories right? Its the real stuff that is awesome! Keep praying for us to find good people.
I love you lots and lots and lots! I miss you a ton but its for a good cause! I love you mom! Thanks so much for everything you do for me. I am so lucky to have you.
I LOVE YOU LOTS!!!!!

loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey

October 3, 2011 Letter

Dear Most marvelous, magnificent (hahah I accidentally hit the wrong letter and started to spell nagificent...but you most certainly arent that!! haha :) ) beautiful, spiritual, leader, funniest and funnest mother in the whole wide world!

Well this week has been good! We were on bikes for most of the week. There was one road that seriously was so hilly it was ridiculous! We now call it "freaking cheeks" because we don't like it so much. But amazingly enough, we really liked biking! And we actually survived! Just some minor cuts from the pedals and a couple of misquito bites for Sister Mortensen. We are going to try and bike more. We have the most amazing members here. Sister Pegram wouldn't let us bike home late at night so she would drive us there and pick us up. I honestly don't know how to thank her. They are an amazing family and they do so much for us. I am really grateful!

I loved conference. It was amazing. I think President Monson is so funny. I love when he stood up to announce the new temples and he was like, "Hello!" I thought that was so funny! Isn't that crazy that provo is going to have 2 temples! It is so awesome! We were really excited about that! And man, Star Valley, Wyoming! WOOT WOOT!!! I want to go to that dedication too! I love when he stood up to talk and speaking of Elder Hales said, "We love you Bob." It was so funny! He is so great. I loved his talk. I thought it was really needed. I am sad we didn't get to see Elder Holland speak. I love it when he talks! I guess I will just have to wait till it comes out. But I am glad that it was good for McKay. That makes me really happy. I am so proud of my little brother and everything he does. He is an amazing boy. Aren't we lucky to have him?

Wow Suz will be 16 soon...weird!!! When did she get old? Not that it really changes anything since she is already smooching on all the boys!!! For shame!! Haha. Now it's just legal I guess. Didn't you love Sister Dalton's talk about Fathers raising daughters? I thought of my Dad the whole time. I wish I was sitting by him so I could have told him how he was everything and more that she said in her talk. I feel so grateful to have such an amazing dad. I thought a lot about when I went to the temple for the first time. It meant so much to me to have my mom and my dad there. I feel so blessed!

Oh, so President had us go onto lds.org to look at the new dress standards for sisters...so in light of upcoming holidays that you might think about buying presents for me I wanted to send this link to you so you can see how freaking cute I can look!!

http://missionary.lds.org/dress-grooming

JaRelle you should look at this; it is ridiculous how cute they are! It's like the new rule is sisters look cute!!! Some of those outfits were adorable. So yeah...just a thought! :)

Anyways, nothing too exciting is going on here. We were dropped by one of our investigators...it was a bummer. She chose some non-denom. church. Lame....not that the church is lame because we respect all churches...what I don't get is how they say they are non denominational...that is a denomination! Oh well....I love all churches...and all people...even though I don't think all people should have agency because they use it wrong..but that wasn't for me to decide. I just gotta support the plan...that's me, the supporter!

I am sorry to hear about Andy. Is he doing ok? That is awful! I will make sure to keep him in my prayers. That really makes me worried. Let him know I love him and am thinking of him! He is just like a little brother. How did McKay take it?

I hope Ty does good in his state cup! He is amazing! I always brag about him!

Nunny I love you!!!

Well mom, I love you more than anything! I think you are amazing and just the best mother in the whole world! How fun that you are the laurel advisor and that Lauren is goign to be a laurel! That is super fun! I loved having you in young womens with me. It was the best. You must have a very wise Bishop ;) Is that funny having dad call you to your new calling? Does he call you into the office or did he just casually tell you one night before yall went to bed, "...oh by the way Lin your going to be a new Laurel advisor." ...haha just kidding. I know he would do it all professional like. It was just a funny thought.

Oh quick funny story...so we had to use the potty one day and we were by nothing but a Kroger..so we go in and we walk into the bathroom and there is only one stall. So being the kind person I am (really I think it was just inspiration), I let Sister Mortensen go first. Well I am standing outside the door and this lady walks into the restroom. I hear some talking and then a few minutes later the lady walks out of the bathroom. A couple minutes after that Sister Mortensen walks out of the bathroom with a look of pure hatred on her face. She confronted me and said, "Why didnt you stop that lady?" I was like, "What?" She then told me how the lady walked in on her! Like full on! And then just stood there and was like, "Oh dear! Sorry." And Sister Mortensen is just chilling on the potty like yeah...She told me, " I couldn't even go after that! I still need to go!" I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere else, but she declined...oh man, I laughed so hard!! It was crazy funny!

Well anyways that's my story for the week...moral of the story here don't use the potty at Kroger!

I love you lots and lots and I miss you! I know I am amazed it has almost been 9 months as well...it's weird. I Love my mission, but I miss my mom too...Oh well, I still have plenty of time!

I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS!!!!

Loves hugs and kisses

love. Sister Bailey

September 26, 2011 Letter

Dear Most wonderful, lovingest, charitablest, beautiful, smart, funny, splendiferous Mother,

Hi Mom!! Wow, sounds like it has been a little crazy at your house. I haven't been to the Dr. yet...I will work on it. But yes, I did get the card! Thank you so much for sending it. You are amazing mother. I don't know what I would do without you. Life would be sad! Actually, I don't think life would exist without you.

I am happy for you. You were the most amazing RS pres. ever. You really showed everyone what it meant to be magnify your calling and give your all to the Lord. Even though we all murmered sometimes...ok often...I was still grateful for your example and all that you did. I know the Lord really did bless our family because of you. I can't imagine anyone more loving and Christlike than you. I feel so grateful to have been able to watch you. It always makes me want to be a better person. I always think I wish I was more like my mom. I like me, don't worry mom, but I just think you are so amazing and in my eyes the perfect example of what every woman should be. I am just glad I got to watch you in action all those times.

So funny story, you know how much I hate old people homes especially the one Bertha was in?! That was awful all those times you tricked us into going there. Well, we actually go to an old people home like that once a week now and sing. I really love it. It's so fun and you can tell the women there enjoy it. It's something I would want to do later on as well. I have learned to love the women in there even though I don't really know them. It's one of our favorite things to do. We sing hymns and folk songs and such...We sing "This Little Light of Mine" and we get really into it and so do all of them! It's so funny one lady was actually dancing in her wheel chair...hahah it was too funny! I think we might be able to invite the lady over the activities to learn the gospel. She seems pretty good and we have been builiding up a good relationship with her. She is great.

Well this week we met an awesome lady! She is the mom of 7 kids..the youngest is 10...yeah that would be awesome if we could teach them all!! But we had been trying for a while to stop by and see her. We found her in the area book. But we have always missed her. Finally, Friday night we stopped by and she was home! YAY!! So we talked to her and she told us that she doesn't know why and she can't explain it but she knows that we didn't just show up here on earth, but that we exisisted before this.....yeah...amazing. Then she said that she knows that God is a just and kind God, so he will let everyone have a chance to learn about Him after this life...ok thats it, fill up the tub! She is going to freak about the Plan of Salvation. We are so excited to teach it to her! It's going to be amazing.

So this next week we are going to be on bikes all week because our car will be in the shop. The only stinky thing is we live 7 miles outside of our area! But that's ok I think we will see alot of miracles because of this! So we are excited about it.

I loved loved the RS broadcast. It was amazing. I thought they all did such a good job. Sister Beck's made me excited to go out and do the work. It also made me decide to never stop being a missionary. I know life will get tough but we have to make time for our brothers and sisters. How sad to get too busy to worry about the welfare of one of our sisters. I think someday when we are dead it's not going to matter how many amazing accomplishments we made in this life..how much education or money we get...if we didn't help save our sisters or brothers. Right now it's so easy to do for me because I don't have to stress about anything else, but I hope I can remember that someday. I loved Sister Allred's talk about charity...that's funny, I loved the same line you did! I like how she said it's not a single act or something we give away, but a state of being. And of course keeping our covenants! I loved it because I am a covenant-maker and keeper! YAY For the temple!! I miss it lots but its ok....

I was so excited when Pres. Uchtdorf was the one speaking. He is amazing and I am convinced that every woman in the world loves him. His talk was so amazing and just what Sister Mortensen and I needed to hear. It makes me so excited for conference. We want to write the 'forget-me-nots' and put them up on our quote wall. We have a wall devoted to good things from the scriptures and prophets that lift us up and make us feel better...and some of the really funny things we say..:)

This week Sister Mortensen and I started playing a game while we walked around where we would take random things and apply them to Gospel principals..it was really fun you should try it! So we are walking and the trick is, I got to choose hers and she got to choose mine. So I gave her a hubcap..haha yeah it was tough! She thought about it for a while and then finally said "Ok, hubcaps are like sisters on missions...not really necessary...but they make the car look a whole lot better!" We got a good kick out of that!

OH....I almost forgot!! BOYMAN GOT THE PRIESTHOOD! He is now a priest and so excited! He also got his home teaching call and he and his companion went right after church to meet them all and set up appts. Man, seeing it made me so happy. I don't care if I never see another one, just seeing boyman has made up for all the hard parts. Of course its our goal to get lots but...I have loved being a part of Boyman's experience. He is an amazing example to me.

I love you so so so so much mother and I miss you! I think you are amazing!

Well anyways...that's my email from the week...man I hope I don't sound to preachy in these things...I don't mean too....

I hope Zoey starts to like little Red soon...I hope Zoey isn't feeling left out and unloved. Give her a pet and some love for me...don't worry Zoe I still love you more!!

LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!!!

loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey your favorite missionary in the whole world...and favorite child....hahah just kidding!! LOVE YOU!

September 13, 2011 Letter

Dear Most Smartest, prettiest, funniest, happiest, most beautiful smiled Mother ever!

Hi mom. So excuse my email because for some reason I am being retarted at typing! I cant believe Sister Love is on her last transfer! i thought she had only been out 6 months when I came out. How weird. Well that is strange but fun! I am sure they are all excited to see her! Time goes by so quickly! It really is weird. I am almost to my half way mark and it really freaks me out. I dont know why but I think time goes faster when you are on a mission. I feel like I just left you! Then I look at our family picture and I realize wow it has been 8 months since I have seen my mom and dad. Or heard my mom laugh. Or heard annas sassy responses and adorable I love you too muches. Or heard Tater tot call me keke. Man its strange. I miss it all so much but I am so glad to be here. I dont understand at all how the Lord works. I feel like everything has been intensified on my mission! My testimony is alot more intense. Its like it burns inside me! I hate that people cant see how important it is. People just blow it off likes its nothing and I just want to hit them upside the head and say "cant you see this isnt nothing its everything!" Its sad. I just know so deeply that this church is true. It makes up everything of who I am. I want everyone to have this happiness and not everyone wants it. How sad for them huh? I am lucky that you taught me mom. That you lived the gospel everday of your life so that I could have it. I cant tell you how grateful I am to you and dad for that. Its the best thing in the world that you could have ever given me.

As for my glasses...I like them! Haha they are totally fake and stolen from a companion who left them when she left. But I think they make me look smarter and I get so many compliments when I wear them. Its kinda funny! Im a total poser. But they went really well with that outfit right?! That picture makes me so happy~! I have it glued and taped into my journal to always remember. That was a happy day.

I am so sad for Lauren! Is she super bummed? What is she doing about cheer? When did she find out? That is so sad. its a good thing she is tough! She is so cute and such a hard worker and just all around amazing I know that it wont set her back to long! And hey this can just give her more motivation to try out next year so she can get back the 5 months she didnt get this year! And then I can see her! Yay! I bet she is the cutest cheerleader ever.

I cant believe you yeilded to the dog! We have 2 dogs now. I never thought that would happen! Haha that is a cute name though little red. Man everything changes! Why cant it all stay the same? That is fun for McKay. He really does get whatever he wants. Its the problem when you are just that cute! Man its ridiculous how cute he is! How can you say no for long. Plus he is persisntant as the day is long! Good gravy! I am glad to hear his photo business is doing so well! I bet he is crazy busy! How does he get these all developed? Costco? Or does he just give them a Disc? How much does he charge? Is he making good money?

I miss my cute tyson. Can you tell him to stop growing for me? How tall is the kid now? He is so cute! He does everything so amazingly. It makes me jealous sometimes :) I love him lots.

Ok I laughed so hard at the Anna story! That is pretty dang funny! I can totally see her doing that! she is too smart for her own good! oh my gosh. How funny. She is too cute! I miss her! Peyton is adorable as well. Isnt she turning into a little sassy thing! Man they better w atch out! She is so cute!

I have a good family. Yall keep me laughing. I just love everyone!

Well down here it cooled off for one whole week!!! But we are 1 day from tying the record of most 100+ days in a summer. The current record is 69 and yes we are sitting at 68. Can you believe that 68 freaking days of 100+ heat! Lands it is awful! We are supposed to get some more 100 days this week so hopefully we will break it.I have to have one thing to brag about since we lost the consecutive day record by 1 day! 1 stinking day...man....that will make a girl bitter.

As for investigators....well Boyman who isnt an investigator anymore is still amazing! He even came to help clean up the church building the other day because "thats what we do" he is amazing. He is going to be translated someday I swear.

We met with JW this saturday. It went really well. He is excited to learn more and he said he would be baptized. That is always good! I think he really wants to know. I like people like that.

Gracious had us over for the first lesson and it went great. She has lots of questions and I think it might have to go slow for her. She used to be islamic...so she has to meet with President Sagers. We arent allowed to teach them with out him interviewing them first. Mostly because her family is still active and they dont take to kindly to them learning about this stuff so they could kill her..or us...no biggie right?! Haha speaking of I am glad we made it through 9-11 i was a little worried that something might happen but only because people made it sound like it might.

Anyways we got a new investigator named Irish. He is dating a member and her brother called us last night the conversation went as follows:

" Hey my sister has a friend...well I think they are dating but I dont know...and he wants to learn more about the church so could you come teach him tonight?" Us: " Tonight?!" Brother" Yeah tonight does that work?" US: "Umm heck yes it does!!! What time?" Brother:"does 7:30 work" US: " Yes yes it does!!!" Hang up phone do party dance and be happy!

So we taught him and he has such a strong desire to be better and he feels like this is really going to help him. It was pretty awesome!

Sister Mortensen and I get along pretty good still! She is alot of fun. Its crazy! oh did I tell you we are teaching all the youth the 5 missionary discussions. The stake president here asked all the full time missionaries to teach the youth and to treat them like investigators. It seems like a neat idea. So we taught some of them this week and it went really well. The family is less active and I feel like it was beneficial for them all. It was neat. I think we will see alot of really good things come from this.

Oh so in sister Baileys Creative Corner (Jarelle do not post this stuff on the internet it is only for the families entertainment!!...(JaRelle's note: I got special mommy permission to post it anyway. It's too cute NOT to share and everyone who knows Kiley will totally hear her voice in this and get a good laugh :) )

So lately I have been hearing the follow the prophet song and I thought to myself how lame is it that there isnt any for the book of mormon prophets! SOOOO....I wrote some!!! hahaha yeah I know Im a loser but here they are:

Follow the Propeht BOM Style!

*Sung to the tune of Follow the prophet*

Ok start off with Nephi of course!

Nephi was a prophet

He got beat alot

traveling with his family

the promised land they sought

Nephi Served the lord

He said he'd "Go and Do"

Faithful and Obedient

In all things was true

Ok the ending might need some work....but anyways I came up with a good one for Abinidi!

Ok here it is:

Abinidi was a prophet

he taught what was right

made the priests all angry

so they sought his life

Abinidi kept on preaching

more than they could take

So they tied him up

and burned him at the stake

Is that alittle too intense? hahaha well I kinda have one for Alma but its still in the works heres the rough draft:

Alma was a prophet

against the church he fought

til he met an angel

who told him he must stop

Alma turned around

repented every day

He served all Gods Children

taught them all His ways

haha ok so clearly I wasnt paying as much attention during sacrament meeting as I should but hey dont you think we can make alot of money of these? No not really...but hey they at least made you laugh right? I am trying to think up a good one for Captain Moroni mom. So far all I have is:

Moroni was a prophet

the wicked made him mad

so he rent his cloak

the only one he had........I dont think thats very good though...haha mostly its really lame! And moroni wasnt lame so he cant have a lame song right?

I was thinking we could even get the stipling warriors in on it

The stripling warriors were not prophets

but they were super bad!

killing all the bad guys

to protect their dads

They knew who to trust in

thanks to all their moms

Not a thing could kill them

not even atom bombs

Is the ending a little rough? Well I made it up ont he spot right now so I guess I will work on it. Anyways I hope you have the best week in the whole wide world! I think I really have something with these little songs...I dont know....I will give it some more thought

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!!!!!!!

loves loves hugs kisses

love you so so so so so so so so so much mom!

love. Sister bailey