A Full Heart

Dear family! 

So this week just flew by. My companion Hermana Bitton does not have a blog. Sorry, that is too bad. She is from Ogden, Utah. The first couple of days I was just so sad about leaving Hermana Miller I couldn't let myself love her, but through prayer I have learned to and I am learning to love her more and more. She is super obedient which is so good for me and she is willing to work at the speedy pace I like. I have a little bit of a hard time with learning to be humble. She only has one more transfer than me and I hate it when she corrects me! hahha Isn't that awful? 

Yep so I just love my area more and more. The Spanish is a challenge at times but I am learning I can still be an instrument in the Lord's hands even if I can't speak or understand everything perfectly. 

The first couple of days here were great. I got a guy to accept a baptismal date for 28 March! So great. He came to church yesterday and he bore his testimony and he like remembered my name - no one ever remembers my name.  Then he thanked me for helping him in Sacrament Meeting - so great!! hahaha kinda selfish but it made me feel like I was making a difference. 

We saw an awesome miracle yesterday. We had 2 menos activos who said they we were going to come to church. We found a ride to bring them to church and everything. We were so 100 percent sure they were going to come to church. Then they didn't come! Ugh so dumb. So we went by their house Sunday night to see why they didn't come. These 2 are kinda old and have a bad memory so I don't like spending a lot of time with them because they don't remember things we tell them. But when we were there I remembered seeing their granddaughter and she is a menos activo too. I had a feeling to see if she was home and ask if we could talk to her and just see how she was doing. We asked and they were like yeah she is in the back yard. So it turns out her whole family lives back there and they are all menos activo!! What the? We started talking to them and they said that just the other day they were thinking about the church and how they should start going to church and then we came by! The Dad told us he wants to go. The Spirit was so strong and they want us to come back and do family home evening with them and they are going to come to church Sunday!!! SO amazing how God is totally preparing people right now. I am always reminded I am not the one preparing people.  I am simply here to show them the way! 

My new district is kinda small and they are all kinda reserved which is kinda hard for me because my last district was all way good friends. But I am determined to change it so we are all way good friends.  My comp can play the piano really good so I got out of that - thank goodness. The ward is about 50 people. We work with the young women. There are like 3 girls and the leader has been a member for 2 years so she is just learning. They don't have activities or anything so I hope I can help fix the program here and get all the menos activos involved. Because here people get baptized and then just stop coming to church so then we have a ton of menos activos to visit. But the ward is good. 
Yesterday we had 2 menos activos come to church and 2 investigators. So after I was done conducting in sacrament meeting I went to go sit down by the menos activos.  I started to talk to her quietly like how are you and all of a sudden the whole ward was looking at me and all of a sudden a missionary sitting behind me said I needed to go bare my testimony. So I just stood up having no idea what the bishop just said. As I am walking up I look at my comp and I'm like "I just need to share my testimony?" hahaha my comp is like yeah. So I went up there and I just started talking. Man the gift of tongues is real. I get complemented on my Spanish all the time! I think it is a little hard for my comp because people say my Spanish is better than hers. But that doesn't happen very often. 

Nope we don't walk less here. If anything we walk more because I am done with the 12 week program so I walk 1 hour more everyday!! But I love it. Yeah the weather is cooling down but still super hot. It just gets cold at nights and mornings. Here it is higher than my last area so it is warmer and it is pretty humid. 

 That is all I have time for. Hope, have a happy birthday.  I love you and miss your cute little laugh. I hope you have a good day this Saturday at your baptism. You are doing the best thing you could be doing and I know God is so happy about your decision!

Love Hermana Bailey

Oh yeah, Mom thanks for telling me about how God puts you where he wants you because I have been struggling with that this week. So inspired you are! Tell Marissa to write me, because I can still understand even though she is millions of miles away! 

Pictures from Hermana Miller's blog

Here are some pictures and quotes from Bethany's last companion's blog.

From Feb 23:
Ok so transferssssssssssss =( Hermana Bailey se fui! =((((((((((((((  I was seriously just the saddest little girl! We both just bawled when people heard about it! It was so hard. Idk why, because man I've said goodbye to how many people? But with Bailey it just hit me. Maybe because she's my hija, no se. But man I'm just really really gonna miss her. =(

From Feb 18:

Also this Sunday we had 3 inactives in church! We were feeling really down Sunday morning because we had worked so hard to get the investigadores to come to church, but once we got to church we just saw all these inactives coming in and it was seriously so overwhelming. Hermana Bailey said something I really liked, something like "when I was in the church and saw them come in, this may sound silly, but it was like the happiest I've ever been. Maybe not the happiest, but just to see all the work we did come together." I loved that because it's true! It's like the happiest you really can feel throughout the week. Just to see those people you love so much act on the little particle of faith they have and come to church.

Wow, I love the work. Cultral Co really is growing and making little changes. I love it. 

Hermana Bailey is so great! Honestly, I've loved the opportunity I have to train her and watch her grow. I keep telling her she's training me because she is such an amazing missionary and has so much potential!!! I always forget she's new because she just goes out and does everything without fear. She teaches, invites, talks, shares, laughs, everything that took me like 5 months to do, she's just doing it like her first 3 months. I get jealous sometimes because I'm like why couldn't I have been like you when I was new. Haha, she's amazing and I'm so grateful we've been together these 6 weeks! Such a blessing!!

From Jan 19th:

My companion, Hermana Bailey seriously is so awesome and such a huge example. I'm so tired, I've never worked this hard before hahaha no but she's just so obedient and such an example and reminding me how important it is to give the mission your everything. It's awesome, I feel like I've started the mission over again, because I was kinda dying and getting tired. Every day was the same and I was so tired of doing the same thing but I got here and I'm like alright, "let's get to work". It's awesome, I love it. It's like I'm making my mission what I wanted from it.  I felt like my last transfer was super hard and I felt like I was doing nothing. So this is really good. It's seriously awesome. I love her.

Seriously, you know when I laugh really hard like cry laugh. I've done that twice a day, every day, this week with Hermana Bailey. Seriously she kills me.

Transfers!

Well! So I am in the new area!  My new companion is named Hermana Bitton. She is from Ogden Utah! She is a tall blonde.

When I left Cultral Co I was so sad. I was so scared and I felt like I was in a dream and now I am here and I just miss my other comp a ton. Hermana Miller was so fun and we just laughed all the time. She was my best friend and I could be my fun self with her. The first 6 weeks in the mission I missed home but now I just miss my old comp. I obviously miss you guys too but my heart just hurts when I think about my old comp. Like right now as I am writing this I am like trying not to cry hahaha. SOOO dumb I hate transfers!!!!! Whatever. My new companion is super nice and I don't have anything bad to say about her. It just might take a little time before I have that same friendship with her.

Sooooo ummm yeah she has 6 more weeks than me in the mission., UMMM Yep she knows just about as much in the mission as I do. I don't know exactly what President was thinking putting 2 newbies from the states together!  If God wants me to learn to be a good missionary with another newbie, so be it because I know God knows best. I probably would not have picked this for myself but oh well I guess this is going to help me the most. 

So my new area is soooooooo pretty. It has rivers and tons and tons of trees. You will see pine trees and palm trees right next to each other. I have only had one lesson today so I don't know the people yet but I have a way good feeling about this area. IT IS SO PRETTY! I am so happy to be here. And it is a smaller town. Not super small because we serve in the central part because that is the safest area for the sisters. hahaha But people say you will see people ride around on their horse carriages! Hhahahah And because there are so many orchards here, the fruit is wayyyyyy cheap!! Yeah so everyone says that I will eat a tonnnnnn of fruit here.  How perfect because I wanted to eat healthy. Oh and our pension is soooooooooo nice.  It is 2 stories and ummmm huge! It is like new! I love love love love it! hahahah I feel so spoiled but whatever-just blessed. hahahah But our washing machine doesn't work putcha! Hahahah I have to keep washing my clothes in a sink ugh! Hahaha oh well. 

So,  before I left Cultral Co, the Bishop in Sacrament Meeting asked me to come bear my testimony! It was AWESOME!!!! I was able to say what I wanted and people in the ward were crying because they were going to miss me - soooo cute!  I cried of course!  And all day Sunday we spent all day running around taking pictures with all the people I knew in Cultral Co... And yeah I forgot my camera today. Sorry- I will send more pictures later. 

I am out of time. Ugh. There is so much I still want to tell you but my comp is really picky with rules I think hahaha. I got just what I wanted- someone who was a hard worker. But now I'm wondering if that is what I really wanted. hahahah No it is!!!  Anyways, love you all. Pray for our Spanish and the ability so we can teach because we both kinda feel like what the heck are we doing!!!! So crazy. Keep being the cute family you are.

Love Hermana Bailey

Oh yeah,  after I bore my testimony so many people asked me if I finished my mission and if I was going home and others said that my Spanish was perfect and they laughed and said, "remember the first time you bore your testimony your Spanish was so bad?" They were like"your Spanish was a gift from Cultral Co."   So many people keep telling me my Spanish is perfect. I know it isn't even close but I like to think it is God's way of telling me that I can do this!!!!!!! Yeah gift of tongues :) 

Transfer

Yeah sooo I got transferred! I am leaving in 2 hours !! I think I heard my new companion is another gringa!!! And I heard she only has 6 months in the mission. That means that we are both kinda new! Oh gosh pray for our Spanish hahaha! But maybe she can speak really good. Anyway I will write more a little later this week. But pray for me hahaha super nervous. I am going to an area new. It all seems so foreign soooo I know I can do it!! Hahaha Dad remember you said you had to find your trainer all by yourself the first time hahaha and the mission president put a paper on your suit that said where you were going so you could remember? hahaha yeah now its my turn to go all by myself but it is really scary because everything is in Spanish. Hopefully I know enough Spanish to figure this out. Haahaha Love you all.  I will write you later this week when I get to my new area.  Oh by the way, I was super sad to leave Hermana Miller. Uhh Anyway I can write you more details later. I only have 2 hours left and I still have a ton of stuff to do.

Hermana Bailey

Holidays

Wow so crazy!! Argentina has so many holidays. That is why I couldn't write you guys on Monday. Sorry about that.  I kind of wish it was always like this  because it kinda helps breaks up the week if we get to write on Wednesdays.  When there is a holiday here in Argentina, the whole town shuts down. Nothing, I mean nothing is open! The whole town is sleeping and then around 9 people wake up and then they have fireworks and then they go to the Plaza which is a big park and they dance and hang out. Honestly, their ways of life are sooooo different. Their holidays last for 2 days.  So for 2 days no one was in the streets and nothing was open. But now today the Ciber was open so I could write home. 

So this Saturday we have traslados!  Ugh I think I am going to leave because my companion only has 3 transfers left and she thinks she is going to have one more area after Cultral co. So I will probably be leaving in 3 days! Ugh I'm sooo scared.  I hear you have to leave all by yourself sometimes and I don't know if I feel good enough with my language yet to have to travel to an area I don't even know all by myself. Yeah I am way worried, but maybe I won't leave and I will get to be with Hermana Miller one more transfer- which would be AWESOME!!! She is so fun.

Valentines day we had a heart shape pizza that night that we made and then we bought candles and had a candlelight dinner- sooooo funny. We are always doing fun random things. But yes of course we still work a ton. 

Ugh- super sad- the guy who was supposed to get baptized is not coming to church!  We have a good relationship with the family but the parents just don't want to progress. We had a lesson about the importancia of marriage because the parents are not married and we explained that the family can live together forever. Then we asked them if they wanted to make a goal to attend the temple. We told the parents that they should get marrried.... yeah super awkward. They like did not want to hear that. They said they will talk about it.  Argentina... the culture is like, get pregnant around 18 or younger, then you can have like two other kids with another guy, and then you like settle down with a guy you want to spend a long time with but they don't want to get married even though they live just like a married couple. So frustrating!

This week we have seen so many miracles with finding new investigators. We had a ton of investigators that weren't progressing, but after we stopped visiting them we have been praying a ton to find those people who are ready for the gospel. God has made us find so many new investigators. But not just that- whenever we are walking we like run into them all the time! It is so crazy. It is like God is saying "teach them, teach them."

Last Saturday, we were walking to our pension and we saw one of our investigators who lives in Filli Dei, the really small town that takes forever to walk to.... (When we went to Filli Dei, they weren't there, so we were super bummed) but then that night we were walking to our pension and we saw them in the city and their car broke down right in front of us and we helped them push it to get started and we invited them to come to church... They didn't end up coming- sooo dumb- but kinda cool how we found them really close to our pension and their car broke down right in front of us!!!

So this week I have been a little sad and feeling like I am not the missionary that our investigators need to help in their conversion. But I am learning that all I can do is my best and then God can use me when I do my best. 

Sooo you guys want to know more about Argentina.  Okay soooo they have paved roads in my area but they are way cracked and not very well taken care of. The food that is really good is the facturas! Google facturas from Argentina and hopefully you can see the really good food that I am eating. I am gaining weight!!!! Ugh I am like stressing about it! I am gettting a double chin. I thought it was just in my head but then a stupid elder said, "Hermana Bailey, you have gained weight." and I said noooo and he was like, "yeah in your neck!!!!" Ughhh yeah so now I am all paranoid to eat!!!  SO stupid!!!!  But whatever. If I come home a fatty at least I liked the food. hahaha  In Argentina the people live in the most different circumstances. For example, we have an investigator who lives in a house that kinda reminds me of those little beach houses in California and then we have investigators whose houses are made out of tin and the 28 year old girl is dating a 73 year old man.... yeah soooo gross! 

Anyways,  I am out of time. But I don't really know what to tell you more about Argentina beside they drink mate allll the time. So if you have questions ask and I will try to answer. OH yeah hahaha my comp and I were watching a video of some other missionaries and they were sitting on a couch teaching.  I looked at my companion and asked, "when would you ever see a couch like that here?"  She laughed and said, "never!!!"  We get to sit on bent rusty old buckets when we teach!! 

Hope, I am so excited for your bautismo. Send me lots of pictures.  Girls, don't be sad when I am not home because you can make things fun tooo! I miss you tons. Thanks for writing me. I got your picture in the mail that you sent a while ago of my companion and I. We loved it and hung it in our apt!!! So cute. 

Mom, don't worry about calling the doctor.  I got a blessing and yeah it is going away!!!!! A MIRACLE!!!  The Priesthood is real!!  Kinda crazy, the doctor in the mission never called me back either!! Um yeah weird. But it is okay cause it doesn't bother me at all!! One of the many many miracles.

Les Amo!!!

Hermana Bailey

Feliz Dia de San Valentin

The valentine photos are for the missionaries in our district haha We are going to print them and and hand them out as valentines hahaha so great. My companion is full of fun ideas we are always doing fun different things, like we made a cake for an investigator's b-day - Thanks for the idea mom!! Hahaha

Dear family,

This week was good. It started out as last P day some guy gave me a note with his facebook name and he like called me beautiful hahaha and he gave me a chocolate. So funny- my companion and I laughed sooooo hard. It was super funny because that day I didn't have any makeup on and I seriously looked super bad.

But Monday night was awesome!!! We went to do a family night with an inactive family only the dad is not a member. We played a board game that explains the plan of salvation. It was sooo fun. We were laughing and we created a really good relationship with the family. Then after the game I turned to my companion and said we need to invite him to be baptized. We were both scared and didn't want to but we started talking about what we have to do on the earth so that we can live in the celestial kingdom with our families. Then it lead into baptism.  And I invited him.  I was sooooo scared. hahaha But then he had a little concern because he prepared to be baptized before but it didn't feel right.  So then my companion remembered this scripture in D&C that explains that he probably wasn't ready then but he is ready now. He agreed and accepted the date to be baptized 7 de March!!! Woot woot! We were so happy. The Spirit was so strong and he even said the closing prayer which is super hard to get your investigators to say the closing prayer! Hahaha After the lesson my companion and I were like running and laughing and screaming and freaking out. We were so happy.  I don't know if I have ever been so happy in my whole life. Maybe I have but I was just soooooo happy. Words can't even explain what I was feeling.

Then Saturday for our other baptism it was so crazy. That morning we were supposed to leave to clean the font for the bautismo.  Then our toilet clogged again and poop, straight poo flooded all over the floor. It was so gross. We seriously were living in this gross barn for like 3 days. It stunk so bad. We couldn't even shower because this nasty water. My companion and I, we were so mad.  We were like, "I hate Argentina." hahaha When in the heck would you have poop and maggots coming up from your floor? So we were dealing with that Saturday morning. Then we ran to the church and the cute elders were cleaning the font for us. Then we had a conference with the district and then the baptism. It started at 7 and none of the members were there and I was so stressed. But 15 min later all the people started to come. That is how Argentina is- always so relaxed, never on time. It is so annoying haha. Church will like start late too. Then my companion and I sang 'I Like to Look for Rainbows' in Spanish at the baptism and we had 2 members give a talk. And the font was like freezing because there was no hot water. When the little girl Nicole went in the water she like took a deep breath. It was so cute.  She got out of the water and we like gave her her towel. She was so cute!!! I love her so much. Then her mom came and helped her change into her clothes. hahaha the baptisms here are so different. So much more relaxed. She like came in shorts and tank top. hahaha No fancy white dress haha. My comp and I gave her a BofM with pictures and she told us she wants to be a missionary when she grows up! It was so great. 

So the poop problem--so Saturday night after the baptism a ton of poop came out of the drain. It stunk soooo bad. So we go outside to get help from the neighbors who live really close to us. He was trying to fix his drain and he came into our apt and he was like wooow That is bad. And he like fixed it. He said that the roots from the trees get in the pipes and clog the toilets every 3 months!!!  So he like fixed it and my companion and I are just sitting outside at like 12 at night while he fixed our bathroom and he even disinfected it and everything. So nice! 

But yeah that is about all I have time for! But this week we had to drop a ton of investigators because they are not progressing so pray that we can find new investigators. 

Love you all. Hahaha and Mom your lesson, you will be great. Saturday night we got a phone call from the zone leader and he said we have to teach Sunday School the next morning. We didn't have any time to prepare and we just got up there and taught the class. So crazy. As a missionary you just teach on the spot all the time. The language is coming.  I am not stressed about it at all.  I am able to get the idea of what is going on.  I can talk- it is so great. I just hope that I am not too relaxed about the language that when I get a companion that only speaks Spanish I will realize I really don't know the language. hhaha No, the language is coming. I am just amazed how it is just coming!!! It is so great. Anyways, love you. Have a great week.  I am way over my time limit right now!

What the heck Hannnah wrote me!!! I am like dying!!! 

Engaged. I am happy for her.  This is so weird!  Life is just going on without me!!!!

First Conference

Well shoot this week was good. Went by super fast. The time is just flying by. I had my first conference with the zone this Friday. It was good. Kinda long at times because for me to understand things I have to focus really hard, so it was really easy for me to zone out. That is because we would just sit there for 5 hours listening in straight Spanish. So if we are going to be honest, I totally might have let my mind wander a few times... ooops :)

So when President was talking, for some reason my mind started to wander about what I would say if I had to share my testimony right now.... Then, OF COURSE guess what happened! Yeah President said, "Hermana Bailey will you come and share you testimony about being a consecrated missionary! I felt like my heart fell into my stomach! I started to sweat a ton and I almost started to cry right then! I was like, "OH gosh!!!! Here we go."  President then asked a few other missionaries and then it was time for me to go up there. I stood there for probably 10 seconds (which felt like eternity).  I was holding back my tears and trying to know what to say and then trying to say it in Spanish. I was so scared. It is one thing to testify in a lesson with 5 people, but in front of all these experienced missionaries just seemed like the death of me. Oh and to have President listening just seemed that much worse.  I just started to talk and then I would pause and think about what I was going to say next. Mom, you remember how you said missionaries always stop and pause before they say something?  Yep That is me now!!! So Awesome! You really rely on the Spirit so much here.  After I was done,  the cute Hermana Leader came up to me and said, "You're so cute, I felt the Spirit!" ( hahaha I don't know if that means they had no idea what I was saying or what but I did my best).

But Hermana Parris was there. She is so great.  (my comp from MTC) She said my Spanish is so good. She said "You're like fluente." hahaha Yay! That is great even though I am not even close to fluent. It is the weirdest thing. There are times I feel like I've got this language down to a T and then there are other times and I have no idea what is going on.... Then in the conference we did a practice teaching. President came and listened to my companion and me.  It was so scary.  hahah He would stop and say "okay what can you do here?" and then he would say "Pull up the scripture from King Benjamin and..." Oh gosh I was like, in my head, "where the heck is that scripture?"... so embarrassing. And my companion like froze and she left me there hanging.  So then I had to ask "where is that scripture?" I felt so dumb. So now I have a new goal: memorize more scriptures. Dad, that is what you can teach in your mission prep class: scripture stories and how to apply it to the investigators and have them memorize scriptures or scripture references. One other thing is teach them how to forget themselves in the work. That is really hard for me. In the middle of the day I get so tired and I just want to take a nap.  But YOU CAN'T.   It is only 15 more months but I just want to take a nap sometimes hahah!

So the other day we were walking to Filli Dei, a town about 1 hour away and my companion and I saw this huge bug!!!! It was as big as a mouse or bigger.  I am not even lying and then there were like 15 little ones just like it and they were the size of a beetle. They were black with red stripes. I think the name is monte cabillo! Then they started to chase my companion. It was so scary. Then we ran away and then we told our investigators about it and they're like "your lucky. If you would have gotten bit you would have to go to the hospital."  

Then we were teaching this lesson to this new investigator and her house had tons of mosquitoes ugh. So now I have like 15 bites all over and they itch sooo bad! 

Then the other day I was walking and I saw parrots! They are so pretty! And they are everywhere.  I have no idea why I didn't notice them before. I am just starting to notice all this stuff about Argentina. It is so crazy. One of our investigators lives on a farm and they have this weird looking bird. It is like as big as a crane but it is white and black with pink eyes! But it is not a flamingo. So Crazy. 

I have my first baptism on Saturday!!!! Hazah!! Super pumped! All is well here. Love you! I made a voice recording and I will try to send it. 

We went shopping today and I bought a cute skirt and pants that are straight Argentine. Super great!! 

Love you all.

Hermana Bailey