February 27, 2012 Letter

Dear wonderful, splendiferous, wowtastic, fabulouso, beautimous, best mother in the whole wide world,

Hi mom! I did get your card. I was so grateful to get it. I had a feeling you thought I didnt email til tuesday so I wasnt to mad. I just had to make sure to guilt trip you real good so it doesnt happen again. :) haha I know im an awful child. Your card was great. I love hearing about the family. It makes me so happy and it always puts my mind at ease.

We had a crazy week! It was so funny. Lets see first the serious stuff we have been teaching ex. He is doing so good! He has been working so hard to live the Word of Wisdom. I am really very proud of him. They have even been having parties at his house the past couple nights and he has either avoided it or found something else to drink. I know he will get his answer it is just a matter of time. We have had some great lessons with him. And you can tell he is really sincere. I am so excited for him. Mayo is being a pain in my rear end. Sometimes I just want to slap him. I asked President Sagers if I could...he didnt respond. I guess that is a no. Lame. But on the brightside we have found some really awesome people to teach and have some great appts. set up for this week! So next week I should have some really awesome people to talk about.

Ok now the fun weird stuff that is always bound to happen......SO.....we are walking home one night and as we are walking this guy stops us, very unusual as most people are running away from us, but anyways, he stops us and gives us this card. Then he sees the name tags. He stops. "Oh" and then gets all happy inside. Yep he thinks I am about to convert a couple of mormon missionaries....and that is where it began. "Yall are from the latter day saint church huh" "Yes we are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

"Did you know that Jesus is actually God come down in human form?" I hate that. It just doesnt even make any logical sense. Especially as you read the Bible. Another thing I wonder about if Jesus is God come down in human form where was God for 34 years? I think that it would be slightly important to still have a God to keep things running smoothly, but you cant say anything like that to them because they are crazy. Well back to the story....so he continues on for a while and asks us how we believe we are saved we responded that we are saved by Grace. He didnt believe us. He continued to press the matter and we continued to answer truthfully. He was like "no I know there is something yall arent telling me about what you believe." Ok buddy believe what you want. Then he gets this hair brained idea...lets pretend like you died right now and you went to judgment. Ok.....Then he starts asking the questions. "Well" he says " What standard is God going to judge us on? Yes the 10 commandments. So what are some of the 10 commandments?" He asks. " Ummm Thou shalt have no other Gods before me!" I responded. Yes I am very proud I remember the first commandment! "ok yeah thats one...well have you ever put anything before God before?" He asks. "Well I guess at some point of my life I did." I respond truthfully. "Ok so your idolatrous" Wow he is quick to judge...but the judgments dont end there..ohhh not even close! He then whips threw a couple more commandments calling me a liar and other such names. Then he decides to get personal. " Have you ever committed adultery" He asks. How rude! "No sir I have not." I responded, politely I might say. "Well wait one second lets take a closer look. Christ said that whosoever looks upon a man and lusts after him in her heart has committed adultery with him already.So...(he looks pointedly at us) You ever lusted after anyone?" (ok originally he said a woman and I made a slight joke. I wiped my brow and said whew Im safe...he didnt think I was very funny...this is serious business here!) "Wow" I said "we are getting a little personal here." His response " Well God knows everything." "Well I think I will leave that for him to know then." I kindly replied. What kind of person asks some one if they have ever lusted after someone! What a creeper!! "Ok well then lets take a look at the facts your idolatrous, a liar, and an adulteress. Based on that do you think your going ot heaven or hell?" WOW!!! "well thank goodness for repentance." Was my response. HE didnt like that. Never in my life...no never...have I been called that! It is true there really is a first for everything! I was amazed! He then went on to insinuate that our church is led by the devil. That was kind of him. He then also told us we are going to Hell...I was like buddy join the rest of the world! He was shocked that I genuinely didnt care when he told me that! He was like "Arent you the least bit concerned that you believe in the wrong Jesus and that your eternal soul is at stake?" "Nope Im not." Ok I didnt really say it quite like that. I was trying to be tactful and not bash with this guy, not to mention it was nearing 9 o clock and I needed to be home soon. I kept trying to excuse ourselves but the crazy wouldnt let us be! Man he was crazy. I love those peoples. Well we finally did break free. It was a miracle like unto Moses parting the red sea, but we managed it. We walked quickly home laughing the whole way...while I continued to crack more jokes. Yep it was AWESOME! Thank you Texas. This is why I love the Bible Belt. He quoted a thousand misunderstood scriptures to us. It was great.

Well anyways that is my crazy story! Hopefully you enjoyed it and it all made sense. If not sorry...I will work on my writing technique later.

We also had zone conference this past week. It was so good! I learned alot. President said so many things that I needed to hear. I love the way the spirit works. We are going to work on becoming a more Zion mission. There is alot I need to do to become a zion missionary. Its going to take some work. But I am just trying to focus on one small thing at a time. I feel like its best to just pick one thing to work on and to start from there. Small and simple means right?

Well mamasita I love you so so much!! I miss you lots as well. I love looking at our family picture. I love you lots and lots!!

Tell suz that boyfriends are bad! And that she needs to tase all 27 flavors of Baskin Robbins not just the peanut butter cup!! Trust me I know...it leads to trouble! I love you!! I know I have such profound words of wisdom...love you!!

love. your favorite child! :)

February 20, 2012 Letter

Dear most fantabulous, altruistic, benevolent, delightful, superb stunning Mother

Hi Mom!! How are you doing? I am so glad to hear that you are doing better! Dang cold sores! they sounded awful! I bet you werent that scary...except maybe if you got mad! That might be a little scary...haha just kidding. Sorry bad joke.

Well we are doing great here! We set three dates this week! It was so great. The people we are teaching are awesome! lets see Mayo is still working on the word of wisdom... and boo is back...except he isnt boo because he is no longer dating the member in our ward. Yep the broke up. So we will call him Ex now. Ex is back and is finally doing it for himself. I feel like that will make a BIG difference in his finding his answer. We also met a new girl name Anxious. She is great. It was such a miracle the way we found her. We were stopping by a potential investigator, but she wasnt home and Anxious answered the door. WE started talking to her and we asked if there were any questions she had ever wanted answered. She said yes and explained to us her question. We told her we knew the answer and asked if there was a time we could come back and teach her. She said yes and we set up a time. The lesson went so great! We found out that that day she had been praying for guidance and help and then we knocked on her door. She said that she thought that was pretty cool. We thought taht was pretty cool to! So that is exciting. I think she will be great.

It is already board week. President sagers is deciding my future this week...ech...I hate that. I really want to stay here. I am kinda worried I wont though. I guess I will let you know next week. Pray for me! :)

I am glad to hear how good everyone is doing! I will have to send the SUPER CUTE birthday boy a birthday card today! I cant believe he is almost 11. Holy cow!! He is an old foagie!! I hope he has a fun Birthday. Is he getting anything exciting?

Oh question..what are the names of McKays poly friends? Because I am serving with a crazy fun elder who is Tongan and from Salt Lake...so the odds are he is related to McKays friends. All Polys are realted. Its weird. But I told him I would find out the names and let him know. He said he would let me know if we needed to be worried or not. And he says to tell tater tot to watch out for those tongans. :)

I am sad they changed the YWs presidency. When I get back from my mission can I serve in Young Womens? That would be great. Put in a good word with the Bishop for me will you? I hear he listens to you. I have heard he has a crush on you....creeper! :)

I am refilling my prescription today. I dont think I will need more money for my prescription til may or june.... and I would tell you yes I need more money now but then I would probably spend it unwisely...like buying a hat or sweatshirt from UNT. So maybe dont put anymore in my account just yet. :) I am trying to be a good girl. Sometimes I really want to go shopping and knowing I have no money squelchs that desire. I am trying to be better with money.

Well Mother let me know if you need anythign! I am so glad that everyone is doing great. I miss the family so much! But it means alot to know that they are all good. I love being a missionary and I am so grateful that I have such great support from back home. I know there are missionaries who come out and have no support. There was one missionary who came out with Sister Mortensen, his family told him that if he got on that plane he wouldnt be their son anymore. He still did it. I think that it so amazing. Some people have so much faith. I am grateful that I have you though. I dont think I could do this with out you. I feel like everything I am I owe to you.

Oh yeah! I was going to tell you what our schedule was like since you were asking questions about that so here you go:

6:30 get up and exercise!

7 get ready, eat breakfast

8 personal study ( I love this time!!)

9 Companion study

10 am- 9 pm go out and proselyte so we stop by former investigators, potentials, less actives anything and everything to build up the church of God in the area we are serving in. Its a fun time. We get an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.

9-9:30 we plan for the next day. where do we want to go who do we want to see? We schedule what buses we are going to take and what times we need to catch them. We set goals for the next day and plan what to study.

10:30 GO TO BED! That is a good time......

once a week we spend 3 hours planning for the whole week. So we set weekly goals and plan what we want to teach Less actives and investigators. Who we want to see, how to get more investigators...all that jazz. It is pretty exciting. oh the life of a missionary. We plan for 30 minute blocks. Someday I will send home some of my old planners and you can look through them and see how we plan. Its pretty good. I like being busy.

Well mom I love you so so much! I think that you are amazing! You are the best mother in the whole wide world!! Let me know if you need anything!!

love you always!! loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey

February 13, 2012 Letter

Dear most fantabulous, altruistic, benevolent, delightful, superb stunning Mother

Hi Mom!! How are you doing? I am so glad to hear that you are doing better! Dang cold sores! they sounded awful! I bet you werent that scary...except maybe if you got mad! That might be a little scary...haha just kidding. Sorry bad joke.

Well we are doing great here! We set three dates this week! It was so great. The people we are teaching are awesome! lets see Mayo is still working on the word of wisdom... and boo is back...except he isnt boo because he is no longer dating the member in our ward. Yep the broke up. So we will call him Ex now. Ex is back and is finally doing it for himself. I feel like that will make a BIG difference in his finding his answer. We also met a new girl name Anxious. She is great. It was such a miracle the way we found her. We were stopping by a potential investigator, but she wasnt home and Anxious answered the door. WE started talking to her and we asked if there were any questions she had ever wanted answered. She said yes and explained to us her question. We told her we knew the answer and asked if there was a time we could come back and teach her. She said yes and we set up a time. The lesson went so great! We found out that that day she had been praying for guidance and help and then we knocked on her door. She said that she thought that was pretty cool. We thought taht was pretty cool to! So that is exciting. I think she will be great.

It is already board week. President sagers is deciding my future this week...ech...I hate that. I really want to stay here. I am kinda worried I wont though. I guess I will let you know next week. Pray for me! :)

I am glad to hear how good everyone is doing! I will have to send the SUPER CUTE birthday boy a birthday card today! I cant believe he is almost 11. Holy cow!! He is an old foagie!! I hope he has a fun Birthday. Is he getting anything exciting?

Oh question..what are the names of McKays poly friends? Because I am serving with a crazy fun elder who is Tongan and from Salt Lake...so the odds are he is related to McKays friends. All Polys are realted. Its weird. But I told him I would find out the names and let him know. He said he would let me know if we needed to be worried or not. And he says to tell tater tot to watch out for those tongans. :)

I am sad they changed the YWs presidency. When I get back from my mission can I serve in Young Womens? That would be great. Put in a good word with the Bishop for me will you? I hear he listens to you. I have heard he has a crush on you....creeper! :)

I am refilling my prescription today. I dont think I will need more money for my prescription til may or june.... and I would tell you yes I need more money now but then I would probably spend it unwisely...like buying a hat or sweatshirt from UNT. So maybe dont put anymore in my account just yet. :) I am trying to be a good girl. Sometimes I really want to go shopping and knowing I have no money squelchs that desire. I am trying to be better with money.

Well Mother let me know if you need anythign! I am so glad that everyone is doing great. I miss the family so much! But it means alot to know that they are all good. I love being a missionary and I am so grateful that I have such great support from back home. I know there are missionaries who come out and have no support. There was one missionary who came out with Sister Mortensen, his family told him that if he got on that plane he wouldnt be their son anymore. He still did it. I think that it so amazing. Some people have so much faith. I am grateful that I have you though. I dont think I could do this with out you. I feel like everything I am I owe to you.

Oh yeah! I was going to tell you what our schedule was like since you were asking questions about that so here you go:

6:30 get up and exercise!

7 get ready, eat breakfast

8 personal study ( I love this time!!)

9 Companion study

10 am- 9 pm go out and proselyte so we stop by former investigators, potentials, less actives anything and everything to build up the church of God in the area we are serving in. Its a fun time. We get an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.

9-9:30 we plan for the next day. where do we want to go who do we want to see? We schedule what buses we are going to take and what times we need to catch them. We set goals for the next day and plan what to study.

10:30 GO TO BED! That is a good time......

once a week we spend 3 hours planning for the whole week. So we set weekly goals and plan what we want to teach Less actives and investigators. Who we want to see, how to get more investigators...all that jazz. It is pretty exciting. oh the life of a missionary. We plan for 30 minute blocks. Someday I will send home some of my old planners and you can look through them and see how we plan. Its pretty good. I like being busy.

Well mom I love you so so much! I think that you are amazing! You are the best mother in the whole wide world!! Let me know if you need anything!!

love you always!! loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey

February 6, 2012 Letter

Dear most fantabulous, altruistic, benevolent, delightful, superb stunning Mother

Hi Mom!! How are you doing? I am so glad to hear that you are doing better! Dang cold sores! they sounded awful! I bet you werent that scary...except maybe if you got mad! That might be a little scary...haha just kidding. Sorry bad joke.

Well we are doing great here! We set three dates this week! It was so great. The people we are teaching are awesome! lets see Mayo is still working on the word of wisdom... and boo is back...except he isnt boo because he is no longer dating the member in our ward. Yep the broke up. So we will call him Ex now. Ex is back and is finally doing it for himself. I feel like that will make a BIG difference in his finding his answer. We also met a new girl name Anxious. She is great. It was such a miracle the way we found her. We were stopping by a potential investigator, but she wasnt home and Anxious answered the door. WE started talking to her and we asked if there were any questions she had ever wanted answered. She said yes and explained to us her question. We told her we knew the answer and asked if there was a time we could come back and teach her. She said yes and we set up a time. The lesson went so great! We found out that that day she had been praying for guidance and help and then we knocked on her door. She said that she thought that was pretty cool. We thought taht was pretty cool to! So that is exciting. I think she will be great.

It is already board week. President sagers is deciding my future this week...ech...I hate that. I really want to stay here. I am kinda worried I wont though. I guess I will let you know next week. Pray for me! :)

I am glad to hear how good everyone is doing! I will have to send the SUPER CUTE birthday boy a birthday card today! I cant believe he is almost 11. Holy cow!! He is an old foagie!! I hope he has a fun Birthday. Is he getting anything exciting?

Oh question..what are the names of McKays poly friends? Because I am serving with a crazy fun elder who is Tongan and from Salt Lake...so the odds are he is related to McKays friends. All Polys are realted. Its weird. But I told him I would find out the names and let him know. He said he would let me know if we needed to be worried or not. And he says to tell tater tot to watch out for those tongans. :)

I am sad they changed the YWs presidency. When I get back from my mission can I serve in Young Womens? That would be great. Put in a good word with the Bishop for me will you? I hear he listens to you. I have heard he has a crush on you....creeper! :)

Well Mother let me know if you need anythign! I am so glad that everyone is doing great. I miss the family so much! But it means alot to know that they are all good. I love being a missionary and I am so grateful that I have such great support from back home. I know there are missionaries who come out and have no support. There was one missionary who came out with Sister Mortensen, his family told him that if he got on that plane he wouldnt be their son anymore. He still did it. I think that it so amazing. Some people have so much faith. I am grateful that I have you though. I dont think I could do this with out you. I feel like everything I am I owe to you.

Oh yeah! I was going to tell you what our schedule was like since you were asking questions about that so here you go:

6:30 get up and exercise!

7 get ready, eat breakfast

8 personal study ( I love this time!!)

9 Companion study

10 am- 9 pm go out and proselyte so we stop by former investigators, potentials, less actives anything and everything to build up the church of God in the area we are serving in. Its a fun time. We get an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner.

9-9:30 we plan for the next day. where do we want to go who do we want to see? We schedule what buses we are going to take and what times we need to catch them. We set goals for the next day and plan what to study.

10:30 GO TO BED! That is a good time......

once a week we spend 3 hours planning for the whole week. So we set weekly goals and plan what we want to teach Less actives and investigators. Who we want to see, how to get more investigators...all that jazz. It is pretty exciting. oh the life of a missionary. We plan for 30 minute blocks. Someday I will send home some of my old planners and you can look through them and see how we plan. Its pretty good. I like being busy.

Well mom I love you so so much! I think that you are amazing! You are the best mother in the whole wide world!! Let me know if you need anything!!

love you always!! loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey

January 30, 2012 Letter

Dear most fantastic, splendid, wonderful, superb, hard working, wonderful example, best mother in the world!

Hi mom! Yeah we had a pretty crazy one. It was a lot of fun. P-days come and go so fast. Its crazy. I am sorry you have dads nasty cold. That sounds awful! I bet you still look beautiful though. You always look pretty mom. I am sorry. I hate not sleeping. It makes me a little crouchy. It doesnt do that for you though because you are perfect! :)

I have had a pretty crazy week. Everyone here has been getting sick as well. I am grateful I havent caught it yet! Whew! I dont like being sick. The worst is when your companion is sick. I hate that. ITs awful.

Umm ok so funny story for the week. On wednesday we are running late to catch the bus, and we couldnt miss the bus because we had district meeting and if we missed the bus we would be late. So in a state of rushing I look upstairs ( our apt. is a loft adn so we have 3 stories) and I realize that the light is still on. Im like crap we cant leave that on. So I run upstairs (another side note that is important our stairs are made out of wood, very slippery wood) and I flip the light off. Then as I run back down the stairs something happens...I honestly cannot tell you what happened....and the next thing I know I am on my bum and leg and I am falling down the stairs. It was like a giant bang and then slide slide slide slide. Yep I slid down our entire set of stairs. IT was awesome! Haha it was so funny! So Sister Bickley turns around and says are you ok? I stand up and say Yes...as I hobble down our other flight of stairs. I didnt have time to be hurt. So we run out to the bus stop just in time. Except the buses are late so we were 5 minutes early (stupid buses) and as I sat there I started laughing. Sister Bickley looks at me and is like what is so funny? I told her that every time pain shot up my leg it made me laugh because I realized I had fallen down the stairs that morning. It was quite funny. Now dont worry I am not hurt or anything. Just a pretty good bruise on my hiney and my leg. It was funny. So that is my story for the week. Yep. I knew it was going to happen. The first time I looked at those stairs and noticed how slippery they were I thought to myself I am going to fall down those some days. Self fulfilling prophecy right there.

Mayo is doing good he is working towards his baptism date. We are trying to help him recognize the spirit. I think that is his biggest problem. Carefree dropped us. It was sad. But excpected.

And then unexpected got baptized! It was unexpected. We didnt really get to teach her but she is in our ward so her baptism is technically our baptism. I am excited to get to know her better. She seems so sweet. Her baptism was amazing. The spirit was so strong. She cried the whole way through. Her story made me feel so happy as a missionary. She told me that she had taken the missionary lessons with her friend who got baptized but she didnt feel it at the time. Now a couple of years later she read the Book of Mormon and knew it was true. She wanted to be baptized. And even though her family didnt want her too, she knew that she had too. It was such a comfort as a missionary. I feel like those I teach will still come to know it is true someday. I love that! Yay for the Book of Mormon!! Yay for truth!! I love it.

Teaching is so fun. I still need to improve on it alot but I am working on it. I think it will get better.
Well those are my crazy stories for the week! Nothing to exciting. It is always crazy here. I love it thoguh. I love being a missionary. It is so hard but so worth it. Especially at 6:30 in the morning.

I love you so much mom and I am so grateful for all that you do! Thanks for everything! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you! I love you mom !!!

love you always

loves hugs and kisses

love. sister bailey