The Hardest Thing I Have Ever Loved to Do

                                       18 Months
                                        565 Days
                                         5 Areas
                                        2 States
                                  10 Companions
                            2 Missions/Presidents
                             Countless Memories
            And most importantly... A Testimony Gained

Hello from Oregon one last time.

In two days, I will be returning home to California. If I told that to any random person here.... they would say good riddens to the Californians and then they would proceed to tell me to take all of my California friends back with me lol. Even though I am really excited to go back home, Idaho and Oregon have become my second home, and these people have become my family.

I have learned a lot of things on my mission and it would be quite impossible to even attempt to share all of them with you in this email. I am going to share just a little bit though.

• The atonement of Jesus Christ is real, it is infinite, it is powerful

• The Lord places us where He needs us

• Watch closely for black cows when driving at night

• Set goals and work towards them

• We are all children of God

• Don't mistake Ether 12:27 with 3 Nephi 12:27

• You cant afford to miss a day without scripture study

• Pray mightily, He is there and He is listening

• When chasing a chicken/or goat, form a corral around it and slowly block it in, dont run around trying to catch it...you wont

• Count your blessings daily

• Continuously build your testimony

• Heavenly Father has a sense of humor

• Time flies but we are the pilot


Sorry this is short, but I'll see ya in 2 days
(😊😅😭❤😁🎉) < All my emotions in a nutshell

Love you all!

Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Lindsey's Baptism 

Lindsey's Baptism 

Goodbye Oregon

Watch for Black Cows at night on the road!!

Christmas in Baker City

This week started out great! We got to go Caroling with our mission mom, Sister McCall! We usually have a lesson every Monday evening in the McCall home, but they decided to switch it up a bit and we went caroling! It was a blast!

That brings us to Christmas eve. What even happened Christmas eve...? Um... oh yeah! We weren't allowed to go visit people, so we got to play games with other missionaries! We also finally got to watch the Christmas devotional oops. It was so good though! They even sang one of the songs from Handels Messiah! Cool stuff. After all that we got to go to one of our recent converts home and help her prepare for Christmas dinner that we would be having the next day. On Christmas we played Christmas Jeopardy/games with the missionaries and it was a blast! Then we had our dinners, yes dinners as in multiple... no matter who it is, everyone just wants to feed the missionaries, non members and members. I'm not complaining though lol. Someone gave us a whole frozen Turkey and potatoes and gravy... idk when we are gonna have time to cook it but it's there. At the end of the day we went to the Lutz's home and watched Big Hero 6 with them, a recent convert, and her non member husband as well! SHOUT OUT TO AUDREY. Literally during the whole movie I was cracking up because I was thinking about how we couldn't even breath when we watched that movie. Haha wow. Good times.

Then the day after Christmas we tried to contact literally everyone, because everyone is super happy, with family, and home. Mega score. We also had a lesson with Cheri! She is amazing. She is so prepared! We also had a lesson with Josh and went to visit Pam and Anthony. We finally are getting to his deep questions and what he really wants. Now we can help him. It has been to cool to see his demeanor change slightly through our words and questions. He is now willing to keep commitments extended to him. Pam and Anthony are so excited to start lessons and learn more. She even wants to donate money to the missionaries because of what we do! They are the nicest people ever!

We went to Halfway this week for Lindsey's baptismal interview! She is so excited! Her brother Gabriel now wants to take the lessons and be baptized as well. MIRACLES! This work is truly amazing and the Lord is truly preparing everyone to receive the gospel. We also found someone named Dalton Baker who is willing to take the lessons. He has lots of friends who are missionaries and wants to see what exactly they are doing!

As of yesterday, the countdown was at 10 days left. My companion, Sister Stevenson and I, decided to tell our third companion, Sister Bateman that we are going home. She thought is was funny so we are all good there! Now we can help prepare her for taking over the area!

Love you all!
Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone! Ok so to start out the email, we had this super awesome Christmas Missionary Conference with a few of the zones surrounding us. We played games, sang songs and had a talent show. It was a blast. I also got to share my... departing.... testimony :( OH speaking of the departing testimony. I have no clue how, but Sister Bateman still hasn't clicked together that I am going home haha we are planning on telling her after New Years lol.

After the Christmas concert we made it back just in time for the institute party review. We found and invited Josh, who is not a member but loves food lol. For the institute activity, we made homemade pizza, reviewed what we learned in institute, and watched the Christ Child. It helped Josh open up and ask lots of questions. He then decided that he wanted to meet with us and take the lessons! He also came to church, and is planning on starting institute with everyone when it starts back up in January! So cool!

The next day we had district council, which is a meeting with us and the 2 sets of missionaries in La Grande. We talk about how we can be better and do better. This time we focused on goals and goal setting. The week before this district council, our companionship counseled about our goals with the Lord. We set goals for how many new people we would find to teach, how many people would attend our church meeting, and how many people that would be on date for baptism. We prayed mightily to know how many people the Lord has prepared for us to find this last week... a normal week we find 2 people the most... after we prayed we all looked at each other in confusion and everyone thought of 6... were there actually 6 people that the Lord prepared for us to find and teach? Or was it just our high hope's? We decided all good things come from the Lord and set it as our goal, but that is not all. We did everything we could to reach our goal. We saw so many miracles and yes, we found 6 new people to teach and they are ready and prepared fully. Wow. Out of those 6 people, 20 non members came to sacrament this week and multiple told us that they feel very comfortable coming again! We had 8 lessons this week and they were all miracles in their own way!

I know that this is the Lords work and He is preparing all to receive the gospel! I know that Jesus Christ Lives and that He loves us He loves us so much that He laid down his life for us, his friends. Even though He lives us so much, our love for Him is everything. Our love for him is what changes us, it's what brings us to obedience, it's what brings us to find joy, in life. I invite you to rejoice in repentance, rejoice in the atonement, and rejoice in Jesus Christ and His gospel always. He is our Savior and redeemer. He is our mediator and our advocate. He is rest, peace, and joy. He is Jesus Christ remember Him this Christmas, let him in. He is knocking at the door just waiting to be let into your life.

I love you all!
Love,
Sister Bailey :)

It's COLD !!!!

*gets phone call from a number in a different state

Me: "literally I think we are getting another spam call..."
Sister Bateman: "Do we answer it??"
Sister Stevenson: " aw man these spam calls are the WORST"
* Everyone comes to a consensus*
Me: "ok ok I'll answer... Hi! this is the missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"
Austin: Hi, hello! Thanks for answering my call, my name is Austin.
Me: Oh Hi Austin! Thanks for calling!
*confused looks all around*
Austin: hey my friend invited me to watch general conference a few months ago and it has been on my mind lately... I guess I just have a few questions...

-continues phone call-

OK YEAH MIRACLE Austin is from Washington, moving to Baker city in a week! He has read the book of Mormon and loves the feelings he has when he reads it, he said it's the same feeling he had when he watched general conference! We are so excited to meet with him again!

We also found 3 new people because Sister Stevenson is SO inspired. We were knocking on a door for someone we had an appointment with... but there was no answer... so of course even if it didn't work out with the plans we had, there was a reason we were there at that time. Sister Stevenson looks up and says "hmmm let's go to that house" and so we went and we found Jeff.
We found out that he plays basketball at the church every Wednesday night and they have been to church before. He was heading out that night so we said we would stop by later in the week. We stopped by again and found Pam. We invited them to the special Christmas church meeting on the 22nd and she wants her son Anthony, to learn about religion and choose for himself what he wants. So we found a teaching opportunity with Anthony! He is about 11 years old (interesting age... temple???)

We also got to have lessons with April, Cheri , Riley, Damon, Karmen, Lindsey, and Jess. They are all progressing really well and we are getting everything ready for Lindsey's baptism on the 2nd. I'm going to have to make some trips back up to Baker in the next 2 months after January because all of these people are going to be baptized and I am just going to miss it!

We also had to make a trip to Boise this past week for a 3 week follow-up meeting for the new missionaries. Just to make sure they are surviving Haha. It was a super inspired meeting, since it was a ways back to our area, we got to spend the night in the mission home! Because of this, we were able to have a companionship study with the Nyggards! We focused our study's on finding. How we can effectively find those who want to hear about the gospel. It was super cool!

Yesterday we had the Messiah Choir concert and it was AWESOME! I did a solo ... just kidding lol I didn't do a solo Haha. But it was super fun! We drove with Jess and her friend and Jess is on top of everything. She invited her friend to come to our special Christmas sacrament program! We are super excited for that!

Last item of business: our heater broke Haha we are going to call the landlady and see if we can get it fixed because its cold!!! and it is only 12 degrees!!!

Love you all!
Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Yum ???

Thank you G-ma Claudette for the card making supplies

SOOOOO COLD!!!

Frozen Lake

Christmas

A day at the warm beach!

Gingerbread reality LOL

Gingerbread expectations 

Sister Brown is going home

Meet the Missionaries

Hi everyone!

This week we...
Had lessons with:
Damon and the McCalls
Cheri and the Murphys
Andrew and the Andersons
The Schaaf family
Lindsey and the Browns
Jess and the Lutz/Rushtons

We went to the Messiah choir practice
Had Interviews with president
Hosted a "Meet the Missionaries" night
Baked cookies to give
Found a service opportunity cleaning
Went to Baker Valley and Baker 2nd Christmas parties
Made Christmas crafts


We got to teach all of our lessons in member homes which was amazing! There are so many amazing fellowshippers in this area! All of our lessons went really well and Lindsey is planning to be baptized January 4th! She is super excited and so is the little branch she will be attending! Cheri and Andrew are excited for baptism also, we just gotta wait for the okay! Everyone is progressing really well!

The funniest lesson we had this week:

*says opening prayer
Mom: Ok kids sit down and listen for 5 minutes and if you can't do that then go to the other room so you don't distract from the lesson
Us: Awesome! We have a super fun video to show you! Are you ready!?
Kid #1: My favorite video is frozen! I'll go get it
Mom/us: No no no! This one is way better come watch!
Kid #2: hey hey hey hey hey ×10 tapping my shoulder watch flash jump! *proceeds to move his stuffed animal up and down
Kid #3 : I got to read in school today
Us: Reading is so good! Our favorite books are the bible and Book of Mormon do you read those?
Kid #3: yeah in class at school we read a chapter everyday
Mom: of the book of Mormon?
Kid#2: hey hey hey hey hey ×10 tapping my shoulder watch flash skip! *proceeds to move his stuffed animal up and down across the room
Mom: your teacher reads the book of Mormon to you in class?
Kid #1: hey mom where did frozen go?
Kid #3: ....
Mom: .......
Us: ..... well that's awesome! This video is super cool! *starts playing video ect...

Haha fun times lol

Speaking of kids, we had an activity with the older kids, the youth! We had an AMAZING "meet the missionaries night" that we put together with the youth! We had it at a members home and invited the ward missionaries. We didn't have any non members come but now that the youth know what will be happening they said they were excited to do another one and would bring their friends! During the activity we shared a short message about Jesus Christ, played fun "get to know you" games, and had snacks. I have learned that as long as there is food you are pretty much set lol.

I had my departing interview with president (the very last interview). I am so grateful that President Nygaard is my mission president, he has helped so many people in so many ways. He has the true Character of Christ. Shout out to mom and her inspired packages! Sister Nyggard was in need of Christmas craft ideas for zone conference during the interviews! Because of moms inspired (ness) we were able to share the ideas that were sent to us! Sister Nygaard thanks you and says you are the coolest mom ever! We also got to bake the cookie mix's that she sent, and give them out! The first batch were a little burnt.... but we got it down after that!

We also had so many Christmas parties! That was super fun and we saw lots of people we didn't recognize! Even someone who wants to meet with us now! Woohoo! That's all for this week! Remember to light the world one by one! Love you!
Love,
Sister Bailey:)

Star Clothespin hinge craft 

Snowflake Clothespin Craft

Popsicle Manger

Mega Snowstorm !!

This week we:

1. Got our new missionary
2. Had a lesson with Cheri, Lizzie, her mom, and Lindsey
3. Built a snowman
4. Watched Up
5. Met with Joni, The Cromptons, and the Millers
6. Went tracting
7. Went to Halfway
8. Decorated for Christmas!!!


Ok starting with #1. WE GOT OUR NEW COMPANION!!! Her name is Sister Bateman!! She is the cutest ever!!! Her favorite color is blue and her favorite animal is a penguin! She is from Texas... so none of us are good with snow... but it's fine Haha this is my 7th out of 9 companions that have been from the south. Crazy! We are excited for this transfer! She has no clue that I am going home after this transfer on January 8th, she thinks I have been out for 15 months haha this is gonna be a good time lol.

#2 We had a bunch of lessons! They all went really well! Lindsey is planning on getting baptized in January! Cheri is getting baptized as soon as she possibly can, and Lizzie wants to as well, we just haven't pin pointed a specific day! Lots of exciting things happening, they are all progressing really well!

#3&4 Both happened on Thanksgiving day! We got to build a snowman with our favorite members ever and it was intense. It was literally the PERFECT snow for building a snowman... I also accidentally did a snow angel backwards.... so I did it face down instead of on my back lol that's what happens when you didn't grow up in the snow I guess. We also got to watch a P or PG movie as long as we can relate it to the gospel or missionary things for President in our email to him today. We watched Up, so I'm gonna go with the Plan of Salvation and also how Russel was so bad at his door approach and to not do that when you visit people lol.

#5 We talked with Joni for a good bit as well as her neighbor who was with her at the time. We got to invite both to the upcoming Christmas party! We also got to go to the Cromptons and seriously we walked into their home and it was a winter wonderland (5 trees) with cookies and everything. We got to watch The Christ Child with them and talk about it after! And of course the Millers!!! They are seriously the best ever, I love talking with them! We got to tell them about The Christ Child movie as well... ITS SO GOOD, watch it if you haven't yet!!!

#6 We took Sister Bateman tracting for the first time and Haha not 1 person let us in lol we only talked about light the world too! (If you don'www.lighttheworld.org)

#7 So this is a crazy story but... long story short... we were very innocent (with snow) and drove up a mountain in a snow storm and the members got so mad. We can no longer visit the branch unless its through video call. Everyone had to cancel church here in Baker.... it's pretty bad.

#8 later that night we got to put up all of our Christmas decorations (thanks mom!)

I hope you all have a good week and remember to find joy in your trials! Rejoice in the gospel and rejoice in repentance at all times! Love you!

Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Snow Storm

Book of Mormon....wait for it....ROCKS!! 

Door Decoration

Christmas Decoration

Christmas Picture

Last Transfer

WE GOT THE NEWS AND IM STAYING IN BAKER FOR MY LAST TRANSFER (6 weeks) AND IM STAYING WITH SISTER STEVENSON BUT WE ARE ALSO GOING TO BE A TRIO!!!!!

We will be training a brand new missionary here in Baker for the holiday season! I AM SO STOKED RIGHT NOW!!! This is literally all I have hoped and dreamed for.

SO with our new missionary.... we made a plan... we are NOT going to tell her that we are going home and see if we can pull it off till the last day. So don't tell her Haha! We will get her on Wednesday!


This week has been amazing to say the least! We had 5 lessons through technology! That is a huge miracle right there because you never know with technology...it will be all fine and dandy one day.... then like a second later it will go crazy and you cant really accomplish anything. BUT technology was in our favor this week all of our video lessons worked PERFECTLY! It's so nice because when we get deeper into winter it's going to be harder to get to all of the little surrounding towns to teach!

We also had exchanges in Fruitland ID! It was so fun! Then the following day we had zone conference with Elder Carpenter and McCune! Man oh man did they stretch us! As they both spoke they continuously challenged us to do specific things and promised blessings to us. I have a lot to work on! So far I have definitely seen the many miracles and blessings promised to us! They are truly inspired men of God.

I know Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet.... but its snowing constantly so its Christmas lol. We got to help our favorite person put up her Christmas lights! It was a party for sure! I am so excited for the Christmas season, especially for this years light the world initiative!!! If you go to lighttheworld.org you can add your phone number to get daily texts for ideas to brighten someone's day! (Don't worry mom and dad I already signed you up hehe) it's a great way to focus on the one. And instead of worrying what you are going to do to serve, you are focused on who you will serve. I would also like to encourage all to go onto the same website previously mentioned and watch the 18 minute video of The Christ Child! Not gonna lie I thought it was weird at first because it was in a different language and I thought it was dumb because no one would know what's happening... BUT I WAS SO WRONG. It is AMAZING!!! You all have to watch it and share it with everyone you know!

Your Next??

HI EVERYONE!

Birthday shout out to dad! Happy birthday! Your the best ever and because of you I know I can do anything I put my mind too! Keep up the good work!

Ok this week has been absolutely amazing, filled with miracles galore.

First: We went to halfway and got to teach almost everyone!
Second: We found new people to teach! A family of not 5...not 7... BUT 9! 9 PEOPLE!
Third: JESS' BAPTISM! Chaos
Fourth: District Council Applied ✔
5th: INTERVIEWS


Ok our Halfway visits! I wish Pine Valley was a lot closer to us! There are so many people just waiting to be baptized, it is just hard to schedule appointments over the phone. We are trying to set up video lessons every week and driving up every other week. It's going to get harder as the snow comes down. Luckily everyone has more time now that farming/ranching season is done. We got to teach everyone who wants to be baptized and they are amazing! There is 2 who are about 11 and 12 and one who is about 15. The youth are ready and prepared!

Ok speaking of youth... the family of 9! You have the 2 parents and 7 kids who's ages range from 13 years old to 0 years old Haha! We invited them to our ward activity and they loved it! So the following day they came to church! All the members swarmed and just loved them Haha. We found out from a member afterwards that the 13 year old (Tanya) and that member made eye contact and just nodded and smiled at each other because they just both knew without a doubt that this is where their family needed to be!

OK OK JESS' BAPTISM!!!! IT WAS COMPLETE CHAOS HAHA! It was a good chaos though. Ok let me start from the beginning. First of all president Nygaard was there. He never gets to come to our baptisms because we are so far away... but we had interviews afterwards which is why he was there... so naturally almost everything went wrong. It was a great beginning of the program until everyone got super quiet for the opening prayer and you could hear the font slowly draining.... whoever filled it, didn't put the plug on all the way! Throughout the whole meeting it was slowing draining. Then we got to the baptism part and the witnesses didn't show up so it was a little snafu on who got to be the witness's. After they got that all figured out Jess got in the water and it went up to just above her knee caps. AHHH WE WERE SO STRESSED luckily she laughed it off and they went for it. THEN someone said the person baptizing didn't say the prayer right so she had to be baptized twice to make sure it was right! Haha luckily she is such a happy person, nothing could put her down. The spirit was so strong and she knew this was what she needed to be doing and it was right. Side note in reference to the title of this weeks email I asked Ed (her husband)if he was next and he just laughed Haha. We will see!

We also had District Council this week and we focused on Faith, Hope, and Charity. We discussed those three principles and broke them down to what they really are. We picked an attribute to work on, but went further and picked a specific part of that attribute that we would work on. People always say oh I'm gonna work on Charity, but what is Charity? It's not being easily proved, it is to not envy others, Charity is when someone thinks no evil, and rejoices in the truth, someone who bears all things, hope's all things, and endures all things.
Charity is what I picked, specifically to not be easily proved and to rejoice in the truth! I picked those because as missionaries we work with lots of people, we know how they can find happiness and we invite them to do those things that bring them happiness. Sometimes they don't follow through with commitments and it can make us frustrated and disappointed, but as I strive to work on my attribute I can better understand their point of view and concerns.


Last of all interviews! I mentioned that we had them after Jess' baptism. We found out some details about transfers! We don't know for sure until Saturday but we are almost positive we are both staying in Baker, we might even have a trio again! We will see!

I love you all! Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Jess's Baptism 

Elder Walker is dying.....(going home)

Come & Meet the Missionaries Invitation

All Things Must Fail

Hello from Oregon!

Wow that title does not sound uplifting at all! Haha I'll explain more at the end of the email ;)

So I have a bit more time this Preparation day, so I get to put more detail into my email today! So much has happened wow!

So this week started off amazing. Sister Nygaard put on a sister's conference for all the sister missionaries! On Monday we got to drive up and help her set up/prepare and spend the night with them in the mission home! It was SO FUN!

Then the following day was the mission conference which was AMAZING. Everything went perfectly and the conference was truly inspired. We started out with breakfast and we took a picture with all of the sisters, then split off into groups for rotations with different classes. Wow I wish I could go into mega detail about all of the classes. THEN MY COMPY WROTE A SONG AND SANG IT WHILE PLAYING THE PIANO WOOT WOOT she is amazing! Just when you thought you couldn't feel the spirit any stronger BOOM there it is. Even stronger than before. Then we had another set of rotations and after those rotations we played get to know you games. Then got all together for a testimony meeting. WOW. The love in that room was real. The spirit in that room was real. The testimonies in that room are real. After testimony meeting we had dinner and played one last set of get to know you games and packed up and headed home. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone knowing that your going to banishment lol and you won't see any of them ever again... at least for a while Haha.

On Wednesday, we got to do some service! We looked on the Just Serve app and found service opportunities here in Baker. One of them being called prim and polish. We looked at the details and saw that it was painting nails at a memory care assisted living home. We headed over and they sat us right down at the table and brought all the supplies and we each had a person to work with. I worked with Stella. Let me tell ya right now she was a hoot and a half. She is so fun Haha we just cracked jokes back and forth and she kept telling me my hands were too cold so she didn't want to take her hands out of the warm water to get them painted! Haha we had a blast. Eventually I finish painting her nails all while Sister Stevenson has been sitting there with her lady not bring able to choose between all the colors! Sister Stevenson would start pulling colors back slowly without her noticing till there was only 2 options she could choose from Haha we finally got that figured out and headed out afterwards.

After that we got a call from one of our recent converts and someone that we are teaching. They told us they just lost their grandma and they were heartbroken. We went over and we all cried for a bit then we just comforted them. Once they calmed down we were able to help them and teach them. They had a youth activity that night and one of them still wanted to go because that is where she felt safe. So we went to the activity and she got a blessing.

The following day we had a lesson with one of our recent converts, Riley. BUT she was teaching us a lesson! How the tables have turned Haha. She was working on personal progress and one of her projects was to put together a lesson plan and teach it to a young women's leader. She wanted us there as well so we all got together at Sister Gross' house (the young women's leader) and we had dinner and a lesson after about tithing and service! She did such a great job!!! I hope she goes on a mission she would kill the game! It is so cool to see the progression of people throughout my mission, before they had the gospel in their life and after.

We got to meet with the Millers again! They are so nice! I love talking with them. We got to invite them to the Messiah choir practice with the community, hopefully they are able to make it! Hey @mom and dad we should visit them in the summer (and everyone in Burns)

We also had a lesson with Karmen and she wants to be baptized in December! Wow another young women! The youth are so prepared to receive the gospel at this time!
She is so excited to learn and come closer to Jesus Christ!

We also found a new family that moved into town. A family of 7! Wow! They are super nice and said they were looking for a non denominational Christian church but said they would gladly come to our ward activity on the 15th!

To round up the week. We had the messiah choir

I wanted to share a quick thought about what I learned this week! I was reading in Moroni chapter 7 and got towards the end of the chapter. I came across two verses that stood out unlike ever before.

Moroni 7:46-47 "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."

Wow ok focus on the last part of the first paragraph! "for all things must fail-"
Everything must fail, we all fail at times but it is not the end.
Because after the word fail, there is a dash not a period and that dash means everything because the next verse shows the atonement in action.

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."
I would like to invite you all to study and ponder those two verses and apply them to your life!

Love you all!
Love,
Sister Bailey :)

practice. Usually we go with and teach Jess on the way to the practice... but she was feeling sick... we were torn on if we should still go or not but we felt like we should still go. Turns out Frank came along this time! Frank is someone we just met in that very moment but he is so fun Haha we got to teach him a lesson on the way to the choir practice! He loves singing and is really good at it!

Choir Music

Flight Home Itinerary 

Carmel Apple Bar

Sister Conference

Sister Conference

I've Been Shot ... AGAIN!!

Temple Trip with Sofia

Working the cows one last time 

Watch your Head lol

SHOT AGAIN!!!!!

Wow so much happened this week! I don't even know where to begin....

Hmmm I guess we will start off with Halloween!!!! I was sad because I didn't get to see any of moms decorations but we still had a blast! Since we are so far out (missionaries call our area banishment lol) we weren't allowed to go on the mission temple trip (miles) and we had to be inside by 6 :( BUT we still made it super fun because we got permission to stay at another sisters house who couldn't attend the temple either. We all had a zone council the next morning and they were a lot closer to the place where we were meeting so we didn't have to drive 2 hours in the morning!!

At zone council we all met together and discussed our goals and how to reach them. We talked a lot about the story of Nephi when he was called to build a boat. The Lord told Him to make a boat and instead of saying ok I'll build a boat (the final goal) He went and made a plan. Well in order to build a boat I need tools, Lord how do I build the tools the build this boat. We all make goals in our life and we get super excited but we don't make a plan on how to reach our goals. That is mainly why my new years goals never work out too well lol.
After we got all excited and pumped for missionary work.... we got shot.... yep

They decided to surprise us again with the flu shot after zone council! President called me a baby because I told him it was gonna hurt HAHA I love President Nygaard so much!!!
Anyways I braved it and it actually wasn't that bad it did bleed a lot though... its fine now though.

After that president headed to Baker with us to do the baptismal interview with Jess and April! He was very impressed with their faith and they are so excited for their baptisms! They will both be baptized the 16th in the morning time :)

One of my favorite parts of the week was when we were able to join the youth on their temple trip because it was Sofia's first time! Wow it was amazing. We got to be a witness for Sofia and I got to be a witness for my compy :) It was a very powerful experience and we could all feel the love of Sofia's ancestors as we all helped with her family names!

We also got to have a video lesson with Joni. The miracles we see through technology are amazing. The lesson brought us all to talk about baptism and now she is pondering and praying to know if the things we have taught are true. We are excited to hear back from her.

We had lots of people visiting at church yesterday! Sofia shared her testimony and April said she felt the spirit so strongly. She is excited for church next week!!! After church we went to the messiah choir practice and I think I'm actually starting to get the hang of it it is so hard though lol.

I am excited for the week ahead! We are heading to Nampa to sleep over at the mission home! We have a big sisters conference in the morning tomorrow, but again we are too far to drive in the morning to get there on time Haha. Unless we left at o' dark thirty Haha. Its gonna be a busy week but we are so ready and excited for it! 

I hope you all saw my Facebook this week! I studied about faith and put what I learned each day on a post! Check it out! There are some cool videos! 

I want to share my overall testimony of my faith in Jesus Christ with you all and I would encourage you to write your testimony of faith down as well. Seek to strengthen that testimony, it WILL bless you in times of trial.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. He is the great I am, not the great He was. He is heavenly Fathers only begotten son and He was sent to earth for us. He performed many miracles and healed people according to their faith in Him. The greatest miracle He performed was the Atonement,
because of this He felt every pain and sickness and infirmity we personally feel as well as our happiness and joy we feel when we follow the commandments of God. Because of this He understands how we feel and He truly mourns with those who mourns and comforts those who stand in need of comfort. He rejoices with us when we are joyful in keeping the commandments of God. He laid down His life for us, His friends. Because of this I know that Jesus Christ loves us. I truly stand all amazed at his love for us. He is our advocate with... the father and if we give heed to the word of Christ and come unto Him as he calls out to us to do, we will be led to eternal bliss.

To learn more about how you can gain/ acknowledge your testimony of faith you can:
• Talk to the missionaries
• Visit https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng
• Study the following scriptures that helped me gain my testimony

New Testament:
John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Mark 10:21 " Then Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me."

Book of Mormon:
Moroni 27:28 "For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens."

Alma 37:44 "For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land."

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Bailey :)

Spook Alley

Hi!

Question:
What do you call a missionary in the middle of a spook alley?
Answer:
Sister Bailey....


I hope everyone had a FANTASTIC week! I for sure did!
We have had a lot of spooky things going on here with Halloween coming up so soon! (Mostly from the little kids scaring us because they figured out that I scare easily)

But to start off We have some updates!!!

April wants to be baptized and fully quit smoking which is amazing!!! 

Jess is still doing great! We are preparing for her baptism on the 16th!!!

Tori, Sofia, and Desiree are doing great with the new member discussions!!!

We also found some new people to possibly teach! One of the ward members brought some friends to the ward chili cook-off! We were all around the same age so it was super fun to get to know them! We invited them to come to church tomorrow morning but they had previous plans that they agreed to do, but they want to come some other time! We got their number and will be in touch!

Going along with big food events we also had a yummy loaded spud bar after church! It was in celebration for a missionary headed out to serve!

OH YEAH! ok so to explain the Q&A at the beginning of the email... earlier in the week one of the wards put on a huge corn/hay maze (called the spook alley) planning to scare the kids. So naturally when they were thinking about what scares people they thought of the missionaries! Who wouldn't right? Lol we got to go and help out with the set up and even scare some people Haha. Lots of people that we got to meet and invite to other ward events which was awesome though! BUT it was COLD. It's getting down to 8 degrees.... its fine. We got a lot of snow but luckily it melted away!

Haha that's about all for today! Stay tuned for this upcoming week on Facebook! I will be doing a faith week!
Also Sorry this weeks email is so short! We don't have much time!

Love y'all!

Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Hay Spook Alley

Spooky Missionary

Trip up the mountain for visits

Spooky trees 

Spooky Mountain visits

Triumphant Trio -> Dynamic Duo

Welp Sister Higginbotham is back at Temple Square 😥 ... BUT we are still having a blast here in Baker City Or. !!! Yep!!! I get to stay here with Sister Stevenson another transfer!!! At least until Thanksgiving! 

I am so excited to tell you about our week! It was jam packed with miracles/tender mercies. Our District Leader invited us during our council to look for the hand of the Lord in our lives more often... That may have been a key reason why we had so many this week... because we took the time to notice them! 

 Update on all the people we are teaching:

*there is no emoji with a big enough smile to show my emotions about these people and their progress but if there was it would go right here*

April and Sofia: WOW they have both come such a long way... seeing how they have both changed so much is incredible. April wants to be baptized by the end of the year and is determined to have all word of wisdom conflicts resolved by then. She has a tremendous amount of faith! She just told us that she got home from work and didn't even have a desire to smoke anything! And she is down from 2 pots of coffee a day to 1 cup!!!! She knows she can do anything with the help of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! And Sofia is amazing as usual! She is working towards going to the temple on the 25th! 

Zack: Zack is a referral we got from a missionary. HE IS THE NICEST EVER! He is just very strong headed sometimes. We were able to teach the restoration but he didn't want to put all of his faith in a little book just because of a feeling he might get if he prays. He wanted proof. With help from the spirit we each shared our powerful testimonies and promised blessings. The expression on his face changed completely and you could tell the spirit touched his heart. He then agreed to read it and pray about it!!!

Emma: Another new referral from a family in Halfway! She is about 15 and wanted to know why her member friends were so happy all the time. We shared with her why as well as the restoration. She was so happy! She is excited to read the book of Mormon and she knows she will be blessed by it! (She also wants to be baptized now....what!!!)

Karmen: another 15 year old girl who has been wanting to take the lessons and be baptized but never had time in summer (rodeos and such) we were able to finally teach her the restoration and she is going to read the book of Mormon as well! We have our next lesson scheduled for the first Sunday in November!

Joni: She has been reading the book of Mormon and sees the power that it has. She has been watching the videos all g with the chapters as they come out! He wanted us to explain the tree of life but she hasn't been feeling well lately. We are going to stop by this week!

Jess: I AM SO EXCITED FOR JESS OH MY GOODNESS. She has been meeting with the missionaries for a year and a half now. We have been having family home evenings every Sunday teaching principles of the gospel. This time our family home evening was in a big van on our way to La Grande for messiah choir practice. We each shared what we learned from the week and goals or miracles seen. Jess spoke up first and said she prayed about baptism and she is going to be baptized November 16th!!! WE WERE ALL BAWLING I was so happy for her!!!! Oh yeah the messiah chior is not like singing with the young women in sacrament these songs are less words and more notes... what were they called.... staccato? Wait no hold on.....mender..... wait...

Yeah!!! That's it (if you don't know what it is look it up its intense) Haha but still fun! 

I mentioned young women in sacrament and it reminded me! All of the young women are now recent converts in the past 6 months that is amazing. I am blessed to have been able to teach each of them! They spoke in sacrament on Sunday about general conference and there testimonies are powerful. They all brought their family members to listen to them speak (who are not members) and 2 of the girls parents want us to come over for dinner and a lesson!!!

So random side note we got 2 huge bags of potatoes and couldn't eat em all by ourselves so we put little bags together with a note saying "we hope you have a SPUD-tastic day" Haha it was fun, we gave them to people we have been teaching and who we know are in need.

 Anyways that's about it for this week! I hope all is well and I love all y'all! 

Love,

Sister Bailey :) 

Spook the cat

With Sister Stevenson

Potatoes !!

Hi everyone! This week has been amazing! Lots of miracles!

We started out with a trip to Sumpter Oregon! That's where Linda just moved from Baker. We got to catch her at home and have a lesson with her! She has a very strong testimony and knows the book of Mormon is true and that the prophet Joseph Smith was a true prophet called of God. She is amazing! We taught about a few different commandments, including the word of wisdom.... while she was enjoying her nice big warm cup of coffee Haha. She decided right then and there that she would stop drinking coffee and make a plan to quit smoking! We were in shock! She is so willing to follow the commandments of God and knows that this is the right thing to do.

We also went to teach Sofia a new member lesson and her mom straight up told us that she was ready to take the lessons and be baptized!!! The catch is she will only continue if I stay here in Baker and don't get transferred..... Haha but she has seen the difference it made for Sofia and she can feel it and desires to have that same difference!

OH YEAH AND ALSO WE GOT TO SORT POTATOES IN HAINES. AND WE GOT TO SIT IN THE HUGE PILE OF POTATOES. IT WAS A DREAM COME TRUE. The conveyor belt that we sorted the potatoes on started out slow with only a few and right when we got the hang of it... THEY MADE IT GO FASTER WITH PILES LIKE 3 POTATOES HIGH it was insane and everyone was just laughing at us lol.

We had Stake Conference this week as well! We had a lot of people there who we are teaching! We even found a girl named Emma who wants to take the lessons and be baptized! Wow! She lives in Halfway so we will go up this week for a lesson and figure out video call lessons for the future! After Stake Conference the Nygaards stopped by in Baker to say goodbye to Sister Higginbotham because she is leaving for temple square on Tuesday :( Funny side note to their visit: they wanted to see our apartment (yikes) and they went upstairs and looked at the window and asked us why we have cling wrap and tape all over it... Haha long story short there was a wasp in our window and we didn't want to kill it or catch it because it would sting us so we trapped it in there. This is the true character of President Nygarrd, ready... he just looked at all three of us and said in a soft voice kind of laughing a little bit, "I love you sisters" Haha I love the Nygarrds SO MUCH!!!

After their visit we had a little celebration for Johnathan's first birthday!!! (Jess' baby) and headed to the Cromptons for a bonfire. The Cromptons are the BEST they actually are identical to my parents, action wise. Wow I love the people here so much. We talked over the camp fire about different religions and how they were searching for one at the moment. They have taken lessons from missionaries in the past so they aren't quite ready to start again but we will follow up soon. After our hot dogs and s'mores we headed inside to play the one and only Mexican train!!!! Classic move, I'm telling you they are literally the exact same as my parents.

I love you all!
Love,
Sister Bailey :)

Bonfire

Name tag potatoes

Potato Name tags

Potato Sitting LOL

You Matter

Snowflake Windshield 

Taste of Baker

Wow my heart is over flowing after watching conference this past weekend. I am in awe by the truly inspired messages. I encourage all to listen, watch, or read the messages that were given.

I am excited to hear all about what others thought about general conference! Also the new book of Mormon videos!? WOW y'all should watch those too! Oh my goodness they are amazing!

One of my favorite parts from conference is when President Nelson talked about service. It was kind of cool because we have been relating Mosiah 2 to general conference and the first thing King Benjamin spoke about was service, likewise President Nelson spoke about service first. He said that the 2nd great commandment, to love others is "key to being a true disciple of Jesus Christ"
A way that we can show our love for others and Heavenly Father is through service! Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Speaking of we had a service opportunity this week! We got to help a lady pack some of her things because she was getting ready to move into an assisted living home. We found some interesting things for sure haha.

Another thing that they changed at conference was the temple recommend interview questions. Sofia just got her temple recommend right before conference! Crazy! We got to have a lesson on how to effectively study the scriptures with her before hand. She is amazing and loving life! A truly inspiring young woman. 

Also we set up a booth for the "Taste of Baker" down the Main St. strip of Baker. So for the taste of Baker, people buy tokens and you can walk down main street and every food shop has food you can trade a token for. We set a table up with cookies and a white board asking people, "What do you love about Baker?" Haha we got some interesting responses for sure but overall it was a success! Someone sent us an anonymous note saying thank you for bringing happiness to Baker. CUTE! We got to hand out some bibles and pamphlets and had lots of great gospel conversations! 

Sorry that's all I have time for this week love you all!

Live,

Sister Bailey :)

Taste of Baker "What do you love about Baker?"

Taste of Baker Table

Zone Hike