July 25, 2011 Letter

Dear Most Wonderful, Spiritual, Loving, Smartest, Hardest Working Mother,

I am so lucky to have you as my mom. I really am a lucky girl! I don't know why I got to be so lucky. God must love me a little bit. :)

Well it's weird....I keep saying back home when I am talking about Hewitt. I love that place and I miss it like crazy. This area is really nice and we are seeing a lot of miracles. The ward members are so kind. But I feel overwhelmed. It has been a while since I haven't known anyone or the area. I feel like there is so much I need to learn. I feel like it will never happen. But I just keep telling myself that that is how I felt when I first got to Hewitt and by the end I knew that place like the back of my hand. I have hope I guess. Everyone seems so friendly. That's a perk huh?

I am in a Singles ward. It is weird...I dont know how I feel about it. Singles are weird. I found out our ward covers a lot of areas! Including part of Fort Worth, so I wondered if Cam was in the ward. How funny would it have been if I left the Denhams in Waco and had another home ward member up here in Colleyville. I didn't see him on Sunday so he must be in a different ward.

The Bedford ward has A LOT of less actives. There is a lot of work to be done there. Cool story for the week: Last night we stopped by the less active who we thought was single, but when we got there we found out he had just gotten married in December. He said he had been going to his parent's ward and his wife said she had gone with him a couple of times and that she had been given some books to read. Then she whipped out Our Search for Happiness. I was like, "You read that?" And she said, "Yeah, it only took me two days. It was really good." We were way excited and asked her if she wanted to learn more. She said yes! We set up an appointment for this Thursday. It was a miracle! We were so excited! Part-member families are really good. I have a lot of faith. She seems super solid...who knows, maybe I might actually see a baptism in my mission! :)

Sister Brewer and Sister Watts are my new companions. Sister Watts is a tender mercy from the Lord. She is so cute! We have a lot of fun together. She makes me laugh.

I love being a missionary. It is the only time I get to do this and just focus on me and the Lord...and all those other people who need to be taught the gospel. I am trying to just be happy as Elder Wirthlin said, "Come what may and love it."

Oh, I got to see S. Terry and S. Quiroz on Wednesday. It was so fun to see them! Man I miss them! S. Terry is home now too. She was freaking out! She is so funny! I love her! I am hoping Arlington and Colleyville combine for Zone Conference so I can see S. Quiroz again! She is so funny.

Well thats all my news I guess.

I am so glad to hear everyone is doing so well! Keep Suz away from the boys and McKay away from marriage...until next year..:) And Tyson--keep him away from the girls...I know how much they love him! He is just too cute.

Loves, hugs, and kisses,

love. Sister Bailey

July 18, 2011 Letter

Dear Most wonderful and amazing, best example in the world Mother,

I am leaving Hewitt. It is bittersweet. I love this area and I love the people so much! But I am excited to see what else is in the mission. I am going to be in another trio-companionship! My new compnaions are Sister Watts and Sister Brewer...yep my mtc companion. Isn't that crazy! I will be going to Colleyville my new address is:

2100 Grayson Dr #1224

Grapevine TX 76051

Crazy thing...I will be in a singles ward. Isn't that crazy! I am not too excited about that. I don't want to be around single people. I like family wards!

I am so glad the family is doing well! I love your emails mom they make me so happy! I love you so very much and I think you are the most amazing mother in the world.

You are the best mother! I love you more than I could ever say!! I hope you have another amazing week!!

LOVE YOU FOREVER AND ALWAYS!

loves, hugs, and kisses,

love. Sister Bailey

July 11, 2011 Pictures

Some Pictures!! So first Sister Crossan and I had a "girls night." We did pore strips and watched The District...Elder Moreno....haha just kidding, but we did really do pore strips, watch Elder Moreno, and eat pop corn and milk duds. We did all this at 9:45 after we finished planning for the night. It was fun.

Then we have Alitas wedding. That is Sister Alita OWENS and Brother Owens. She looked pretty huh? We were happy.

Third, we have Sister Crossan and I...we may have joined with Brother Owens daughters in decorating their car....we made it look really cute! It was pretty fun...rebel for life over here, rebel for life!

I love y'all!!!

July 11, 2011 Letter

Dear Most Fantastic, Splendiferous, Wonderful, Caring, Best Mom in the Whole Wide Universe!!

(yeah its universe now because I am pretty sure you are better then the moms on all the worlds--not just this one!)

I don't know why, but for some reason missionaries here really like deep doctrine...I hate it...it makes me think, and I don't understand any of it. Yuck. But that's where the moms on other worlds comes from--missionaries talk about it a lot. I have heard many things I don't like. Haha, sorry this was all really random.

I am so excited for Lauren!! Oh my gosh, that is the best news ever! She is going to love it. And true, it's no Texas...and Fort Worth Texas is the best place in the world! But she will still like New Jersey. I am so excited! When does she leave?

I am sorry that everyone left. That is no fun. I hate it when everyone leaves...well actually I don't hate it too much right now because I like knowing y'all arent having lots of fun without me! It's no fun knowing everyone is partying it up without you. That is so cute and sad about Anna. She sure does love her Grandma. She is so cute. I really do miss her! I love that little thing. That is fun you get to go visit them in the fall. She is so dang smart! I can't believe she remembers that. Man she is a little genius. I fear for Tosha sometimes!

I am glad that everything went good with Dave. I have been praying for him. It is good that they were able to get it taken care of. He sent me a picture last week..I almost vomitted in the library! It was so gross! He is nasty sometimes.

How is McKay doing in school? Is he still loving it there? How is his photo business going? He is so cute and so talented its disgusting! I really want to see some of his pictures. I am really jealous that y'all had a Harry Potter Marathon....I don't want to hear one thing about the new one coming out this week! I am so jealous! I want to see it so bad. It looked amazing! Well...someday I guess....expect another Harry Potter marathon someday in the future...about a year away...I love Harry Potter.

I am glad Sus had a good time at girls camp. She is so dang cute. I got her letter this week. I love her letters! They are so funny. She is the cutest, funniest girl in the world! They make me miss youth...oh man...I am an old-fogie now! I can't believe she is going into high school. Man that is crazy and scary! She is so pretty--dad better have mutliple bats ready! Especially since she already has so many boys! Goodness, I don't think I have liked and had so many boys like me back in my whole life! This girl has a new one everyweek!

How is my Tyson doing? Man he is the cutest. I bet he looked so cute in his new church clothes! You should take a picture and send it to me. I like pictures too you know!

That is so awesome about the Picketts mom! You are truly amazing! Doing the Lord's work is so wonderful. We watched a talk by Elder Holland--it was the most amazing thing I have ever watched and at the end he said missionary work is forever. Its not just for 2 years or 18 months, but it's forever! You are an example of that. Every member really is a missionary. It takes everyone to do this work. Not just missionaries. We need the ward so bad. You are amazing mom! Keep it up! We are missionaries together! The two Sister Linda K Baileys! I should just send a tag home to you! :) You are the best example ever mom. I really am so grateful to have you as my mother! I am a lucky lucky girl!

Well, here is some news for y'all....good news or bad news first? I guess we can do the bad news....Sadly, Troy and Sarah dropped us this week...I wanted to cry. They said they loved the missionaries and the people, but it's just not for them right now. I think they aren't ready to make the changes yet. It was such a surprise--we had no idea what to say to them. It was a bummer. But you can't force anything on people. Sometimes people use their agency wrongly! I hate that....I wish I could just take agency away sometimes. I wonder how I ended up picking the agency plan. I must not have been very intelligent then!

But the good news is Alita is married!! YAY!!! I am pretty happy about it. I think that she will get baptized pretty soon after this. She just needed to get out of her parent's house. Her dad didn't seem very happy that she was married. But Alita was glowing she looked so happy. It was so fun! So that's my good news.

Well, other than that nothing too crazy has been going on....oh wait I have more good news...I can now die in peace! I am a happy girl. The other day we were out walking and we saw this hispanic guy (this is important--remember that he is hispanic!) Sister Crossan started talking to him. Well, he wasn't interested, but she gave him a card and he looked at it and said, "Oh your mormon," and she said, "Yes." He said, "Thats interesting, I didn't know there were many hispanic people that were mormon." He looked at me when he said that. Sister crossan said, "Yeah, there are lots." and we walked away. As we were walking I asked her if she gave him a card with a hispanic person on it and she said no it was an old couple.....He was talking about me!!!!!! He thought I was hispanic!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, it was the highlight of my life! I smiled the whole rest of the night...well until Troy and Sarah dropped us....but up until then I was the happiest girl. I still feel pretty happy about it! So much for Mexi-can't. I am a straight up Mexican now! I can't wait to tell Sister Quiroz! Thats Right McKay I can tan too!

So well, thats my good news for the week. Other than that, not very eventful...oh we saw someone get arrested. We almost knocked on his door too. Sister Summers and I (we were on exchanges) are 100% certain if we had, it would have been a hostage situation. We were a little sad that we didn't knock on that door first. It would have been a sweet journal entry! It just wasn't meant to be I guess. Sisters never get cool things like that happening to them.

Well today we are going to the Maybourn museum; we are really excited! It's going to be fun! We are going with the Elders and with Catolyn Dine. We have some funny elders here! They are funny! I love our zone. One of the Elders goes home with me...we have forever left and we are surrounded by missionaries who go home in at least 3 months. They all vary but they are all trunky...well not crazy trunky, but they know they are going home. Sister Crossan goes home in a week and a half. It's weird. Kinda hard. I don't like killing--its awful!

Well anyway, life is good in the BMW. I haven't melted yet, but I am getting close. Someone told us that last summer they had 7 days in July that were over 100 this year we have had 26 since June!! It's only the 2nd week of July. Its record breaking down here...how awful for me...happy first summer to me! Plus we have received no rain. It's so dry--everything is dead. I hope we get some rain soon.

Well Momma, I miss you and love you too much!! I think you are amazing!! I love love love you!

Loves, hugs, and kisses,

Love. Sister Bailey

New Pictures!!!

She is so beautiful. :) Below is Kiley's own commentary on the pictures--she described them better than I could have :)

"Yay for Pictures!! Here is a cookie in the shape of Texas..its a cookie (amazing!) and its in the shape of Texas!!! If you could combine the two best things in the world that would be it! Texas is amazing. Nothing like it in the whole world."

"And the other Picture is Elder Nelson he is an AP right now wearing my Jacket....That just speaks for itself."

July 5, 2011

July 5, 2011

Dear most wonderful, fantastic, super, amazing, astonishing, and miraculous most beautiful mother in the whole world!!!

Wow, your week sounds so dang good. I am so jealous. I hate knowing that everyone is together and I am not there. I wish I was so bad! Although I don't miss butchering the trees with dad. I hate cleaning up those branches! By the end there is more being thrown away than there are on the trees! Did he get to the totem pole again? I dont know who lets dad opperate the chain saw...or anything with a blade. He always gets a little crazy with them! There is just no telling what he will do.

Thanks for boosting my self-esteem about my age. It's ok though, everyone says I look young. I get it more and more. I guess I should just be grateful for that. Yes, Sister Crossan is feeling better. It was awful sitting inside. Man that is the worst. It just wasn't worth it. Then did I tell you that I wasn't tired that night because I felt like I had been resting all day long, so I took a benadryl...or two...oh man, I slept like a rock that night! Waking up in the morning was soooo hard! Sister Crossan had taken some too and we were both just lying on our beds. We must have looked like zombies or something! It took a little while to wear off, but we made it through. We were glad it was P-day!

I am so grateful for the temple. It is so amazing! We are so lucky. I am so glad that baby Wes is ours now too! I was so sad I couldn't be there though. I wanted to see it. But it's ok, I guess being a missionary right now is important. Knowing that our family is forever brings me so much peace. I love that knowledge. I feel so lucky to have it! Your right, it does make being seperated bareable. There is a lady in the first ward who has been fighting breast cancer. This past week she was ready to be done. She is supposed to pass away sometime this week. She asked for 3 Books of Mormon to hand out. I was so amazed. So we were able to take them to her and to meet her. She is pretty amazing. She has a son who is currently serving his mission in Chile and another one preparing to go. I can't even imagine how hard this must be on their son who is out. I don't think I would stay I'm sorry to say. It takes a lot of faith. I am sure the knowledge that he will be with his mom forever is the only thing that is keeping him going. That knowledge is so amazing. We are lucky people.

We went on exchange this week and it was a nice break. Sister Hawkes came up from Killeen and spent the day with me. It was really fun! She is a cute girl. And I was happy to have a small break from all the craziness.

We also had interviews this week with President Sagers. I don't know why, but interviews scare me so bad. President Sagers is such a great President but he is a little intimidating. All of us missionaries agree. But he has a way of making me feel better as well. He asked how long I had been down here. I said at the end of the transfer it will be 6 months. He asked if I had bought a house and I said, "Yes, but it's not really furnished yet. I am trying to save up the money on my blue card." He started laughing and said. "Yeah, the funds are a little tight huh?" He asked me if I wanted to stay or go. I told him I don't care! I love it here! But I am excited to find out what else is out there in the mission field. I do love Hewitt though. The people are amazing here. I am lucky! I love the ward. It feels like home. I was looking around yesterday and realized that I could name everyone and their kids except the 2 new families.

Some cool news...we got DVD players!! Yes we now have mini portable DVD players in every missionary apartment. They are to be used during study to watch the Preach My Gospel DVDs and the other DVDs that we pass out. It is crazy. We watched PMG today and it was so fun! I love those DVDs and you really do learn a lot from them. I hope everyone uses them right.

Other than that life here is great! Nothing too crazy is going on! My investigators are crazy, sometimes they are frustrating, sometimes they are amazing. That's just the life of a missionary though. You just have to get used to it. Kinda like the heat...good heavens the heat! I never thought I would miss the cold snow of Utah, but I sure do right now!

Well Mom, I love you soo much!! You are amazing and I think you are the best mom in the whole wide world! I cannot wait to hear where Lauren Hedin is going!! Oh man, I am dying to find out! I am so excited for her. Oh and also I need Fergy Fergs address. Thanks a million billion! I am the luckiest the girl in the world!!

I love you millions!!

Loves hugs and kisses,

Love. Sister Bailey