April 30, 2012 Letter

Dear Wonderful loverly (holy cow I just had to erase and type 15 times to write that I am seriously challenged today) ANYWAYS intelligent, bright, happy, fun, loving Mother

 

Hi MOM! Wow I cant believe it is already Monday AGAIN. It is crazy how fast the time is going! And once again transfers are next week. Holy cow can you believe that? Do you feel like we just started this transfer because I do. Its weirding me out (Jarelle you are not allowed to email and tell me I only have two left.) Shes naughty that one. Although she is not as bad as grandma who comments on it every email. Yall are awful. But I love yall so it works out.

We had a meeting this last week, Sister Reynolds calls it the old people meeting. Shes a poop face. It was for the missionaries who will be going home within the next 6 months. It was so weird seeing all these missionaries I know. Then looking around and seeing so many that are gone. It is weird when all your mission friends start going home. I dont like it. I felt like so many people were missing. But the training was really good. They said in a nut shell "dont be trunky, keep on working, but when you do go home dont let the mission leave you." I realize that my mission isnt just meant to be 18 months. Its not just here, but it is training for the rest of my life. I know that sounds really stupid that I just now realized that but I did. I feel like all those people who are like " I dont ever want to go home I am going to extend my mission forever" Are idiots. They dont understand the mission. The mission is not meant to last forever, its meant to shape you into the kind of servant the Lord needs to build his kingdom forever. So as much as I love my mission I know its going to end, but my serving doesnt have to. President Sagers had this quote he shared he said "the end of your mission is not a graduation its an inauguration." I thought that was cool. Ultimately I was really motivated to keep working super hard because I never want to regret the end of my mission. I dont want to 

be a quiter. Thats lame.

Well anyways enough about that trunky crap. So that day Sister Reynolds was going to stay in our area and just have a ward member be her companion. The day before her companion calls and says actually I just got called into work and now can only go out til 11:30. So let the running around like a chicken with her head cut off commence. It was crazy! We called so many people trying to find someone to come out with her. Eventually it turned into shifts. Its kinda funny actually. We had someone covering the morning shift then the shift til 2:30, from there we had another person til 3:30, someone else til 4 and the last one til 5:15. Yep it was ridiculous! And awesome. I felt so strongly that Sister Reynolds needed to stay in our area that day. And satan pushed so hard to make us give up but we just kept trying and we got SUPER rewarded for it. That night its 10 and we still havent found someone to cover the last hour, so we just start praying like mad, it was enos status. And we get a text from this girl telling us she is free the exact hour we need her. It was AMAZING! So I call her we set it up I am feeling so relieved and all of a sudden she calls back, instant panic feeling in my chest. She starts asking what she is going to do and I tell her "Oh just stopping by some potentials." Shes says "So you dont have any appts?" In my head I am thinking crap crap crap but I keep my calm and say "No." Im pondering on how I can beg her to not cancel when she whips out "Oh good  I have this friend who has been asking alot of questions and I was just wondering if I could bring her along and she could ask yall the questions." I was like "well let me think...YEAH!!!!!!" I was so stoked I actually jumped on Sister Reynolds bed. It was epic. It was amazing how it all worked out. The day went super good Sister Reynolds taught a lot of lessons and actually found 2 new people for us to teach. The Lord really blessed us. It was amazing. It was funny though because on the way down our ZL was all quiet so I look at him and start talking, he just looks at me and says "Do you think its all going to be ok with Sister Reynolds?" I was like "Of course it is Sister Reynolds can totally handle it! Plus I gave her strict instructions if she is ever without a companion to just go sit in our bathroom and watch some movies. Shes allowed to be alone in the bathroom" Everyone else thought it was funny, but apparently he didnt think it was because he then texted her to tell her to be careful and if anything happens to call him. We laughed about that later because we were like "what was he going to do? He is 40 minutes away in a meeting!" It was funny to see him so worried, he was like a little mom! Oh my gosh I just made a connection!! Elder Poole was having those infamous mom feelings. You know those super lame ones that you always get and when it happens we cant leave the house? Well Elder Poole had the mom feeling and it turned out super good, as a matter of fact Sister Reynolds had the best day ever! So whenever you had those mom feelings and wouldnt let us leave you were actually robbing us of the best nights of our lives! Wow....I feel so cheated. Remember this Suz and Ty the Mom feelings are completely inaccurate!! Your welcome.

Oh man we have the cutest lady in our ward she is so funny! She is just this huge bundle of energy I think they harnassed the energizer bunnies power from her. She is adorable and I just want to be her. whenver she is around I feel so happy! Well we had dinner the other day and we told her this funny story of how this really sweet southern belle bashed on sister reynolds and then followed it up with "but your hair sure is pretty" and sister reynolds was like thank you. I feel so good about myself now I dont even care that you just told me religion isnt true. so we all giggle and sister b says "did you say well thank you its just a physical manifestation of the blessings of the gospel?" and she said it so chipper and fast that we just started laughing. This woman is precious. Man. She told us one day "oh I just really want to serve a mission....oh I know I will go with Tom on his mission!!! " (tom is her 16 year old son who is nothing like her. He is quiet, straight face, super deep voice its funny how opposite they are.) So being the missionaries we are we instantly start role playing the door scence when Tom introduces himself "Hi Im Elder B.." and all of a sudden Sister B pops up from his back and says " And Im Toms Mom!!! Isnt this so great? How can you not believe the Gospel is true Look at his cute face! Do you want a cookie?" It was so funny. We were laughing so hard. She is also in charge of our meal calendar so we called her because we didnt know who was feeding us the next night. She looks and the people had cancelled and no one else signed up and she is like "Oh I cant belive I didnt notice this oh I feel awful well guess what you are having dinner with us tomorrow." and we are like "Oh no we are fine." And she is like " no how lucky and fun for us to have you over. We are the WINNERS!!!!!" It was so cute.

Anyways I dont know why I just spent that long paragraph describing her other then the fact that she just seems to have that effect on you. You just like her and wnat to talk about her. I want to bring yall all back her just so you can meet her.

Well anyways now that this is the most random and weird email ever I am going to go and find better adventures to email yall about next week! Thanks so much for everything! You are the best mother in the world!

 

I LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

 

loves lvoes kissses hugs

 

love. sister bailey

April 23, 2012 Letter

Dear Most wonderful, funny, worry wart, beautiful, talented, best Mother in the world!

Hi mom! I know, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was emailing you and now it's another p-day. It's so weird how fast the weeks are going. It's making me a little sick actually! It's almost been a whole nother transfer. Why does time go so fast sometimes?

Ok don't worry there are no bad neighborhoods in Flower Mound. This place is ridiculous! Seriously their bad neighborhoods were the good neighborhoods in all my other areas! So no worries there. And we only tract where the spirit leads us...sometimes I wonder about that spirit. Ok, he is generally pretty good. We always see something cool from where he takes us.

It sounds like the family is still crazy. That makes me so happy. I love our craziness. I want to see everyone. It's weird hearing when everyone is together. But I would much rather be here right now....most the time. :)

Man we don't really have any crazy stories this week. I offended an Elder by asking if he had a really big mosquito bite on his head he said "no its a really big zit. Thanks Sister Bailey!" oops.......I think I am losing my tact. Haha, everytime me and my companion think about it though, we giggle. It was pretty funny. We had to judge a dessert contest at a ward party last week. It was us and the Elders. By the end of the night Sister Reynolds was holding her stomach, she was like, "I am so sick!" (we followed the dessert contest with a big dinner and more dessert.) Finally I looked at her guiltly and said, "I have a confession." She was like "What?" I smiled and said, "I didn't eat all the desserts. I had like maybe half of them." She gave me an evil look and said, "I hate you right now." I laughed so hard. I felt a little bad. But that stuff was going to make me sick! There was so much of it! I felt like a fat kid. There was a cute girl at our dinner last night she said the funniest things. We went to have peanut butter bars for dessert and she was like, "Just don't eat more than 9 of them...I puked for 2 days!" Sister Reynolds and I thought that was pretty funny. Man we have just been working, but nothing crazy has happened this week. I guess that's a good thing to have one quiet week. But I like the loud, crazy ones best. Life is more fun when you are getting bashed on and other such things. It makes me feel like a missionary.

Well, I am sorry this email is so lame. I am a little lame this week. I feel pretty good energy wise. It takes a second getting going in the morning, but I have always been that way! :) I definitely feel your prayers and I hope y'all feel mine for you! I pray for you a lot. I think Heavenly Father keeps you safe because he doesn't want to hear from me if your not! :) I love y'all so much and don't know what I would do without any of you! I am glad to hear that Grandpa is doing better. I was a little nervous! He is amazing; I love grandpa so much!

Well wonderful mother, I love you more than anything! I think you are amazing! I bet your lesson was so good; you are a great teacher! Let me know if I can do anything for 

you!!

loves loves loves you!!!

loves loves kisses hugs

love. sister bailey

April 16, 2012 Letter

Dear Wonderful, splendid, Impressive, fantastic, talented, crafty amazingly beautiful Mother,

Hi mom! Wow it sounds like you are crazy. What would life be like in our house if it wasnt crazy though? Could you even imagine! We go over to families houses and they always apologize for the craziness of their house and I am like dont I love craziness it makes me feel like home! I miss the craziness sometimes! Its weird the things you miss. So I want pictures of Lauren going to Prom! I want to see this oh wow! Seriously its annoying not seeing things. I feel super our of the loop. I am a sister too! Come on peeps. :)

Well we have had a crazy week. We got bashed on....ALOT. Gotta love the bashers. We had one that was super bad though! We knocked on this house and this guy answered. You could tell they were having a party so we contacted him he leaned in and asked if anyone was interested, they all said no. So we offered him a card and left. We knocked on the next house, he wasnt interested either....lame. Well we turn to leave and a couple from the previous house is standing right there. I am thinking in my head sweet maybe they are interested in learning more! We are so gonna dunk these people! Well they offer us this economic pamphlet his friend made...im pretty sure it has nothing to do with economics but anyway, they ask us so what do you believe? And Im like yes! We are super gonna dunk these people! Well I dont know why they asked because after we started talking they lady just dug into us! She told us that Joseph Smith was known for telling tall tells and that he was a liar. She said that she read on the Internet (dont ask me why they dont tell us but they will put it on the Internet!) that the higher ups in our church believe that when they die they get their own planets and their own virgins. But they dont tell us that. She just went on and on and was super rude. Finally we were just like look you have called a man that we believe to be a prophet of God a liar. Someone we respect as a servant of the Lord. I know these things are true. I know he didnt lie but that he did bring back Christs church. And we just continued to testify. It was crazy. At one point...i think it must be almost girlie time for me...I wanted to cry because she was being mean! She told us that she really hopes we search out the truth. It was stupid. We finally got out of there. it took some trying. Ps the whole time they had us cornered on someone elses front porch! And as we walked away Sister Reynolds said to me did you feel that? I said what? She said I swear I felt angels next to us. It was wow.

Another lady condemned you and Dad for teaching me the gospel. She said that it was wrong for our parents to teach us these things but that they should have let us figure our for ourselves. I was annoyed with that lady. Its ok for her to teach her kids about her religion but my parents are awful people because they taught me what they believe? Baptists......She was crazy too. She went off about Adam and Eve and sex....we were grossed out about that one.

The other great story! Man so many good stories this week...thank you tracting in the bible belt! We knocked on this guys door and he answered...he was super nasty...sorry thats not kind to say about a son of God, but he had his button up shirt hanging open with his big ol' beer belly covered in hair and the really gross gold chain. Yeah it was just not pretty. He looks at us and I can tell he was upset. We asked him how he was he waited for like 20 seconds and then answered fine. We started to say something else and he stopped us and said "ladies let me try to say this nicely. What your doing is gold proselytizing and in the Arab world you would be shot on sight if they didnt haul you of to jail and shoot you then. My property extends to the middle of that road right there. Get off it." We looked at each other said have a blessed day and got off his property! We were like oh my gosh we just got threatened! Elders say that stuff never happens to sisters...bam. We kept tracting that street until we ran into another man who yelled at us. Then we decided we needed to find a new street.

So we have had alot of craziness happen to us. Its been fun though. Those are the fun stories that you love. Thats what makes missionary work missionary work. And secretly I love it when people bash on us because 1 they just sound silly! and 2. It just reconfirms to me what is true. All these people telling me to seek out the truth and Im like I have found it! Its strange that they can tell me to seek for truth but they wont do it themselves.
Poor people. Someday they will find the truth! And then they will be happy because their family will be eternal like mine is.

That is crazy about Micahs dad! I hope Michah is doing ok, and that his dad keeps getting better.

Can I please tell you that I randomly just this moment craved an eclair from dicks.

Well mother I love you so much! I miss you like crazy. I think you are super amazing!! I loves loves you! Thanks for everything you do.

loves loves kisses hugs

love you always and forever!!

love. sister bailey....you favorite....missionary. :)

April 9, 2012 Letter

Dear Wonderful, crafty, smart, talented, splendid, Best Mother ever,

Yes we had quite the storm here! It was so funny we were out walking around and we stopped to talk to this lady, she was very rude and said she was tying things down because there was a storm coming in. We were like hmmm mean because storm to us means thunder storm so I didnt even know why she was so worried. Then we go and knock on a members door and they are running down the stairs. They open up the door and say "What are you doing out there?!" We looked at each other and then at them and said "Going around and meeting people!" They thought we were crazy. They were like " Dont you know there is a tornado!?" We didn't. So they let us in and talk to us for a bit..yeah we thought that was funny too. And then they kicked us out and said go home and stay there! Now at this point it is raining torrential amounts of rain, we run to our car, and flip on the windshield wipers to find out...oh perfect one of them is broken! Yeah it was awesome. So we start driving home we made it alive! We walk inside and decide well I guess we better get in the closet. Oh also our phone wasnt working. We couldnt call anyone and the last phone call we received was from President Sagers looking for the Zone leaders. (I was like hello you are talking to them!) So we knew it must be slightly bad. So we grab some chips and queso and pop corn, some phamplets to personalize, our blankets and pillows and we go into our closet. Luckily for us its HUGE! So we now lovingly refer to our closet as the bunker. We finally get a call from the Zone leaders and they ask where are you? We told them our closet and they said good stay there! And hung up. So we looked at each other shrugged our shoulders and spent the next 2 hours in our closet. Its a good thing we are friends. If we werent before we would have been after the bunker. We bonded. And we survived. No tornado touch downs here I wont lie I was a little disappointed because I kinda want to be in one but Im not going to go praying for it or anything.

So I am assuming that Landon Simonsen left on his mission. I am sitting at Saturday conference and the MTC choir is singing when all of a sudden I see this kid who looks suspiciously like Landon Simonsen. So was it him or am I crazy? If so where is he going?

I am jealous that Tosha and Eric are there! I saw this little girl in one of our wards yesterday who looked like my nna. It made me miss her and then I wanted to kidnap the little girl! She was so precious! It was a close call but I didnt take her home with us.

Im glad that yall had a good easter. We had a delicious dinner...have any of you ever had Ham Jerky? Well we have! I don't think our dinner was supposed to consist of Ham Jerky but it did, we also had mashed broccoli...you know its kinda like mashed potatoes but instead they use broccoli, I dont think that was intentional either. It was probably one of the funniest dinners of my life! I was laughing so hard because the husband and kids were all mocking it as we ate. Oh man. It was good.

Mckay had better be back in Utah by the time a certain someone gets home from a certain place or else that certain someone is going to be greatly upset. End of story.

That is fun about Jarelle I will make sure to keep them in my prayers!

Thank you so much for the package! It was so stinking cute! Did you really get that stuff from Wal Mart? I am shocked!! It was adorable. I loved it all.

Well not much else is going on here. Thanks for the Pictures of Lauren. She is so pretty its disgusting! I cant wait to see her prom pictures. I bet she looks beautiful! Don't forget to send them to me! Sometimes I think I get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of ya'alls crazy lives. Ok just kidding I know I don't. How could anyone forget the favorite?!

Well I love yall so so so much! Thanks for everything mother. You are so amazing!! I love love love love you!!

loves loves hugs and kisses,

love your favorite missionary

April 2, 2012 Letter

Dear Most Wonderful, Perfect, Kind, Sweet, Loving mother

Hi Mom! Well my week has been crazy!!!! Holy cow!! So many funny stories from just 5 days. First, I loved conference as well! I will admit it was a little sad. President Monson closed the conference and the thought hit me...thats it, thats the last time I will hear the prophets voice with my tag on. I got a little teary eyed. It was weird and sad.I loved all the talks they were amazing! Family isnt it about...time? Ok sorry lame mormon joke. I feel like God was talking to me. For some reason I have become so independent thinking on my mission. I have set all these goals and things I want to do and suddenly I started thinking I can wait for a family and all that jazz. I can have that later but some things I can only do right now! Then conference happened...and I felt guilty. We will see what happenes. Im still hanging on to my goals.

Second I am glad to hear everyone is doing so well. If you would like to hear my thoughts on everyone read Fathers email!

So there are still Elders in our Zone, just not in this ward anymore. As a matter of fact, we are only sisters in the zone. We have some damage control to do seeing as the last sisters in the zone didn't leave a very good mark on the Elders. We will see what happens.

For JaRelle: Sister Reynolds is from Orangeville UTAH! Yep another Utahn its a good thing too. We Utahns are awesome. She is alot of fun. We have had some crazy times already together which leads perfectly into my funny story moments:

First: Well we got into the area and realized our car only had 40 miles on it. Yep, that left us a whopping 10 miles a day! No good. So we got to walk alot! Which isn't an issue except for the fact that we have NO IDEA where we are! So one day we start walking in this neighborhood and we are walking down this road and we get to the end and the house we are looking for is not on it. So I whip out our handy, but sometimes incorrect map (as you will see as the story unfolds) and look at it. I perceive that the road continues across the small river. We look and lo and behold there is the road! And the river has a little path with rocks that cross it. ( I will send you pictures next week) So we cross the river and it opens up into this huge neighborhood. We were like "What the?! Where did this come from?" So we start walking down the road in constant amazement at the gianormica houses on either side of us. We contact the person we are looking for, they aren't interested. So we start walking back and on our way back we see a bridge! We are like Oh Perfect! We dont need to cross the rocks because there is a bridge. So we cross the bridge and go down this path and it opens up into....not the area we were in before...its ANOTHER gianormica neighborhood! We are like what the devil? How can all these big neighborhoods exist in this small of a space..this makes no logical sense! So we then decided we had found Narnia. We then preceded to talk to each other in British accents because that was the only logical thing to do.(please start reading the email from this point on in a British accent to add to the effect) So we look at the map realize where we are and discover that a family who has been working with their neighbors lives here. Turns out to be a good thing because now Sister Reynolds has to use the potty. So we look for the house, find it, knock...no answer...knock again....no answer. Yes they are not home. So we look at the map to find the fastest way back to our car. (this is the part where the map lies) we see a road that connects and we start walking down it. Well the road doesn't actually connect, BUT there is a path so of course we follow it. It opens up into another neighborhood...not the one we need! So rather than continue to pursue that course we decide to just turn around and retrace our steps. We start heading back and we find our way by finding a lamp post. It was just like Narnia!!!! So we cross the bridge, walk over a couple steps and cross the small rocks back into the neighborhood we originally started in (you may now stop reading in a British accent as we have now left Narnia) We got to our car finally, looked at the clock it was 6....we got there at 2. Yep 4 hours. 4 hours of being lost. It was probably the funniest 4 hours of my life...except for every hour spent with dad. :)

Well then on Sunday, Sister Reynolds once again has to pee (this is a usual occurrence for her), so we look at our GPS to find a house. We see there is a part-member family that lives pretty close by and think perfect we will kill 2 birds with one stone. Find a place to use the potty and find a new investigator score!! So we head out knowing absolutely nothing about this family but determined to find the non-member! We get to the house and knock, the dad answers the door and is super friendly we are like ok perfect, he must be the member. He invites us in and his wife comes in the room and introduces herself as Sister so and so. She is also super friendly so we start thinking, ok he just must be nice and she must be the member. Well we start going back and forth on who is who. Finally one hour later, and mission stories from both the parents we decide the map lied and they are both members. It was so funny! We sat there and debated the same things in our heads the whole time trying to decide who is who! We laughed so hard when we got into the car. It was a pretty funny day.

Well that is all I have time for! More adventures to come next week I am sure! There is never a dull moment with Sister Reynolds and I! I love you so so much mom! I think you are amazing!!

thanks for everything!!

loves loves kisses hugs!!

love you forever!!!

love. Sister bailey