Wherein Maelynn is SUPER BRIEF!

May 29, 2017

     Quieren saber un milagro que pasó este semana? Ok pues voy a compartirlo.
 (Would you like to hear of a miracle that happened this week? OK, well I will share it!)

     Me and my comp were in a sort of remote area of the mish, and we were teaching this guy in the street, and then Melchor just comes strolling by (the guy that just got baptized)...so we say hi but just briefly because we're in a lesson. Well then we finish with that lesson and go to an appointment we had with a guy who has a tienda (store)... so we teach him and yeah.

ok sort of boring story...

     ....but then 2 days later, we go to visit Melchor and he shares this with us:  He had been craving a beer, so he went for a walk, where he saw us (hahahaha) and probably felt a little awkward, but keeps walking. Then the craving comes back, so he heads to the nearest tienda (store), where he sees us AGAIN...(hahahahaha), so he just keeps walking.  Poor guy just wanted a beer, but God just wasn't gonna have it.  So he said he just kept walking, but still kind of thinking about a drink, but then somehow, he just forgot about it!  And he went home tranquilo y sin alcohol! (calm and without any alcohol)  :) Yessss! Just another testimony that the Lord is going to put us where he needs us, if we're prepared, He is gonna use us to help His children.  Also how he "just forgot" yeah, no doubt that was the Spirit that he had just received a week earlier!  And he's doing great! Actually just got the priesthood yesterday! Another win for the Lord's team!

    Another thing that I keep forgetting to tell you is that somehow someone in our branch found out that I play the piano, so the last few weeks I've been playing in sacrament meeting.  I think I am officially the 'ward pianist', or actually the 'branch key board player', haha.

 Hna shook and I steal the keyboard from the church every week so i can practice, and also I'm teaching her how to play "count your blessings"! 

     Transfers are June 12!!! 

heyyyy and guess what??? we have another baptism this Saturday!! actually 2!1 Juan and Victoria! (remember Victoria, yeah she's finally gonna get baptized!!!!) 

     Loveeeeee you fam! Keep me informed - por fa!

love, Hermana Bailey

Wherein Landen Writes his Siblings!

May 25, 2017

Hey family, 

      1st of all, Thank you dad for that workout plan, I'll definitely use it here. I've already put on more weight than I'm willing to admit.

Second of all, mom, thanks for that amazingly eloquent email you send me this week. I printed it off and am getting it framed. (Editor's note: this was to make fun of me because my email didn't get to him before his came to us.)

Life is going good here. I'm alive.  We went to the University contacting there to give students some peace and joy through the libro de mormon!

    That's basically it. me and my comp teach about 10 lessons a week here now, all in Spanish. were getting pretty good.

Let me know how school goes for you all, 

Love you!!

Emerson,

     It is so good to hear from you little buddy, I miss you too. Glad your doing so well, and that's so cool about gymnastics. We saw some guys doing gymnastics (parkour stuff) in the park the other day while we were doing service, I'm sure you are a lot better than them though. 

Sorry about the breathing treatment. I remember I had to do that when i was little too, it got better though, and I'm sure you will too. Its so crazy how big you are getting, 1st grade already!!! That's insane!!!!    And buddy, DR is so great. You would love it here. The weather is so nice and the temple grounds are beautiful. there are these little lizards that run around everywhere. There super fast, but I betcha you and miles are quick enough to catch them ;)

love ya bro,

Elder Bailey

Lane,

     The CCM is going great. and no, this place is super clean, we haven't even seen any bugs inside of our apartment let alone rats. Good luck on Famous One. Constitution connection is a pretty easy one, but its also super important. I even used stuff I memorize for constitution connection (way back in 6th grade) to help me pass tests in American Heritage at BYU last fall, so make sure you memorize them right, cause you'll still need them after you pass that test as I'm sure you will.

Good Luck,

Elder Bailey

Sadie,
Thanks Sadie, and yeah, science is super cool. Let me know if you guys go to the planetarium up there. Its not as good as the Provo one, and no that's not at all a biased opinion, its just not as good.  Feel free to brag about me up there too since your brother ran the Provo planetarium for a semester... I'm kinda a celebrity in the BYU astronomy realm. (jk, I'm really not. nobody will even know me). And if you need help building an actually good rocket (idk if you guys are making legit ones or just like bottle rockets) but if they are legit ones, let me know and I can get you on some programs that are sweet. 

-EB

Wherein Maelynn Talks about Questions!

May 22, 2017

     This week was pretty usual - well, other than the fact that all of a sudden the weather jumped up to like a billion degrees! We now carry sweat rags around with us, so that we don't leave puddles every where we go.  We had divisions in Cuernavaca this week, and basically just got planched (ironed technically, but we use it when people roast you, or you get in trouble for something) for our Spanish.  But it's true, we speak a lot of English together, and for that, our Spanish has very little progression.  So we've been trying to do better at speaking Spanish together.  It's just hard when you want to express yourself more, and you know the other person will understand you if you just speak in English.  But we're working on it, and God is helping us. This is just a tiny sacrifice that we have been asked to give while here on our missions.  We can give up English in return for who knows how many blessings God has in store for us!

     Aw, pobrecitos (little bro's)... that always happens, when one person gets sick, everyone gets sick, well maybe not everyone, but for some reason, I always did!  One of the many miracles here, is that I haven't really gotten sick at all.  I don't understand why not, but both me and my companion have had ridiculous health!   I heard about Seth getting into Bonnevaires, that's nuts!!!  But I feel super happy that he's doing it, because honestly that was basically the best part of high school -  and I got a lot of killer friends from being in Choir!  Yay Dad - I'm pumped to see the yard after another year working on it.  Not at all jealous that you guys get to move more rocks :)  Woah- Jaden's home already?!!   

     Hermana Shook and I talk about how we often have investigators that ask a lot of questions, and when they do, we like it, because it means they want to learn more, they want the answers, and they're searching for something more!  And sometimes, they ask questions that we don't exactly know the answers to, so we think about it, we study, and our knowledge and testimonies grow as well!  Asking questions is good, but there can also be a point that it's just too much.  Along with investigators with lots of questions, we have some who let those questions get in the way of their progress.  They want to know ALL the answers and they lack faith.  We should always be asking questions, searching to know more, and expand our knowledge,  but more than that, we need to HAVE FAITH that we will never know everything!  But God knows everything, so if our trust is based in Him, we don't need to know everything!

Love,
Hermana Bailey

Zone Conference

Zone Conference with Presidente

Wherein Landen Called Home on Mother's Day!

May 21, 2017

**Because Landen is in such a small group in the MTC (only 18 missionaries), he was able to call home and talk with us on Mother's Day. We spoke with him for 23 minutes and he is doing fantastically well. He is feeling really cooped up, as he spends over 10 hours a day in the same chair in a room, studying language and lessons. But he does get outside for an hour a day to play basketball outdoors which he loves. He said he is super hot and humid and takes at least 2 showers a day! We were so glad to hear the joy in his voice for what he is doing!

May 18, 2017

Madre and Dad,

     First week was fantastic! It was long, hard and the schedule takes a lot of getting used to. But it was a ton of fun. My companions name is Elder Geersten. He's from Danville, California, kinda near Oakland. He's a cool guy, and a great missionary. He just finished his first year at BYU before coming out here as well so that gives us something to talk about. Our schedule is super long. We get up at 6:30 every morning, change/shower/get ready for breakfast at 7:15.  Then personal study til 9. Then class from 9-12:30, 1:30-3:30, and 6-9. with meals and physical time in between all of that class time. So basically we spend all of out time either in our dorm (where we sleep and change), or in our classroom (where we have class and study). All day, every day.  

     That sucks about the kids getting sick, some people have been getting sick here trying to adjust to the food and its no fun at all. It hasn't hit me or my companion in full force, but we did have some uneasy stomachs for a little bit.

     Yeah, basketball is pretty great. Also, I set a goal to be able to dunk a basketball by the time I leave the CCM (I can only dunk a tennis ball right now!) Seems like a tall goal but I've already gone from not being able to touch the rim before I got here, to yesterday I dunked a wiffleball!

     We get to leave the CCM tomorrow, were going contacting and trying to place LDM (Book of Mormons) at the university about a half a mile away. Should be fun to get out.

     Oh, and btw, the bananas here are seriously so fantastic. You would prolly die of regret for not eating them your whole life if only you could try them here.

Love you,

Elder Bailey

Landen's First Companion!

The Beautiful Temple

Got this pic texted to me from a stranger. Seems like they do "Homemade Pizza Sundays" a lot! Yum!

Wherein Maelynn Tries to Stop the Drain in the Font! ;)

May 15, 2017

                  Uh... talk about dreads! I'm not kidding when I say Tepoz is FULL of hippies!

This is Victoria, who I told you about! 

Skyping ya'll :) love my fam bam!

     Melchor FINALLY got baptized!!!!  I honestly don't know how many baptism dates this guy has had, but POR FIN ya esta bautizado!  Oh what an adventure! We have to go to this pueblo of San Andres where there's a font, and we had talked to the bishop there, and someone was going to fill the font for us, but when we got there with Melchor and his family, it wasn't full, and no one could figure out how to stop the drain.  So while everyone was trying to find the switch, Hna Shook and I got a lid and put it over the drain with a huge rock and started filling it up, and it totally worked, but then everyone was upset about that and basically drained all of our water trying to figure it out!  Anyways....we ended up starting an hour late, and the font was only like half full maybe. So, after dunking him like 3 times, they got out of the water and tried filling it up some more, for like 5 minutes, so it didn't do anything. and then tried again, still no.  
     So Melchor ended up sitting on his butt with his legs out and Sinai (the kid baptizing him) was on his knees, and finally he got under! I actually couldn't see anything because they were sitting down in the water!  ;) 
      And then on Sunday when he was supposed to be confirmed he didn't show up until like 9:30!! (which isn't actually super late because we never start until like 9:20 which actually super sucks because its driven some investigators away)...But he's officially baptized and confirmed and now we're gonna work on getting him the priesthood!!!

Ah, this guyyyyyy! His name is Pajarito and he's 87 and yeah he has a baptism date!  He even remembered where and when church was!! Milagros I'm tellin' you!

All of the companions that Hna Shook has had in the mish...

Oops, I think I've been working out too much...que vergüenza!

This is Katia.  She's less active, but wants to go  on a mission, so we're reactivating her by making her come on visits with us. muahahhahha!

Mom, 
     Ah yes, that's the best when Em comes up!! GOOOOD LUCK with your final, actually good luck trying to study! I can't believe I've been gone for 4 and a half months either. How time flies!

I can't believe how TINY the ccm is in the DR! 18 missionaries!!! That's nuts!! How fun to be on temple grounds though!

I LOVE YOU MAMACITA! TE AMO CON TODO MI CORAZON! FELIZ DIA DE LAS MADRES! USTED ES LA MEJOR MADRE EN TODO EL MUNDO! QUIERO DARLE UN ABRAZO! buen suerte con su examen y sus uh clinicals...

te amo muchisimo!

con amor, Hermana Bailey

Wherein Landen Has His First Week at the CCM!

May 11, 2017

Dear Family,

        Ahhhhhhhhh I love the MTC so much!!!!! Okay, full confession, the first 2-3 days absolutely sucked. I was more exhausted then I have ever been before in my life, like absolutely tanked and they still made us all go to hours upon hours of classes that never seemed to end. But once I got use to the schedule and once I got into a routine things seemed to get a lot better. 

        So I landed in the DR last Wednesday around 2 o'clock. There were 8 or so of us on that plane coming from America that all flew in together. 

(SLC airport)

      Right when we got off the plane, you could feel the heat. The temperature and humidity seemed to hit like a wall of sweat.  It is sooooooooooooooo HOT here!!! It is crazy. We made it to the MTC safely (by some miracle because the drivers here are absolutely awful and they have next to no traffic laws). 

       The food here is also fantastic. We have rice and beans plus some kind of meat every day for lunch and it is always delicious. (I am going to try and attach a picture of one of our meals but idk if its actually going to work).  

     Best part about every meal though are the juices. I don't even know what fruits go into making these juices, but they are far better that any juice I have ever had before in my life, and I get to drink them every day.  Also the fruit here is mmmmmm. I had never had papaya or mango before in my life and they are fantastic. I know mom is thinking right about now: wait a minute, I've bought you mangoes before, but no, whatever it was that I ate in America that was labeled mango is not a real mango. American mangoes are super fake. The mangoes down here are literally the greatest thing ever, other then you know, the Gospel, that's prolly actually the greatest thing ever!

      Also, the CCM here in Dominican Republic is like super small.  In the Provo MTC , around this time I think has around 1500-2000 missionaries in it, and we have 18.  That's it -  18 missionaries!!  It's tiny, but it's nice cause we all get to know each other super well and I love all of them.  We also all get to know the CCM president super well.  Pres. Gulbrandsen and his wife are super cool and it's a blessing to get to learn from them almost every day. On top of all that, only 13 of those 18 missionaries are American.   Three of them are from Haiti, one is from DR, and the others from Honduras.  So communication can be rather slow, but you can always feel their spirit and it is amazing.  All of the Elders play basketball most days together for physical activity. It's outside so we sweat a lot, but we've grown really close through it. It has also forced us to learn how to say "Shoot it, Pass it Here, I'm Open" in both Spanish and French so we can somewhat communicate with the other Elders.

      My companion is Elder Geersten.  He is from Danville, California, but he did his first year at BYU this last year too, so we have a lot to talk about there. He's real cool. I like him. we have to teach an investigator together every night to practice. (its' a fake investigator, so if we screw up we good), but we have to teach in all Spanish.  It's pretty hard, but together we know enough to say what we want to say. Plus the GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL!!!!! I've only been here a week now and can already say prayers, bear my testimony, teach full lessons, read the Book of Mormon, and even write talks all in Spanish. There's no way I could have progressed that much without God's help!

      It's also way cool to have the temple super close.  The CCM is on the temple grounds here, we go walking around the temple a ton. For lessons, during lunch, or whenever just for fun. We got to go through the temple this morning for the first time. We did baptisms, (it was the first time ever for the Haitians) then we did a session. 

(Dominican Republic Temple)

     It truly is a blessing to live in the shadow of the house of the Lord, and even more of a blessing to get to enter it. 

     Elder Bailey

Wherein Maelynn Chops Her Hair!

May 8, 2017

  Yay! someone asked me what my brother's name was and I was like "Landen.... well actually, it's Elder Bailey...woooah"

      Mom, haha you were chaperones at prom? What an interesting adventure :) Sounds like you're SUPER busy!  In my opinion you should just not worry about cleaning the house, there's far more important things to do than clean something that the little boys are just gonna get dirty again.....lol. Well that's my philosophy at least. :) but you should be happy to know that I've made my bed every day I've been on the mission and I've never left clothes on the floor (mostly out of fear of the spiders and scorpions getting in my clothes) but when I told my comp how my room at home was usually slightly below par, she was super surprised.  So I guess you could say I'm a changed woman. haha we'll see if it follows through after the mish :)
 So we were teaching an investigator and it was her birthday and she was like come with me, I'm gonna feed you guys, and she literally insisted. And we showed up at someone else's birthday party and it just happened to be one of the richest guys in Tepoz and they gave us free food, we were super confused, and our investigator tried to get us to ride horses, and then we left.  Seriously weird!

Uh...as far as the baptism went, it didn't happen.  But it wasn't because of him.  We found out monday night that we had a "super" important meeting on Thursday at 4 (the baptism was planned for thurs at 4) yeah, apparently this meeting was more important than baptizing one of God's children, so our leaders made us postpone.  I just don't understand if it was soooo important, why didnt they tell us about it sooner?? But it is all good, it's gonna happen for sure this Thursday!   But the meeting was actually pretty important, our mission president changed the rule so that now our investigators only need 3 church attendances to be baptized, before it was 5.  Pretty nuts!

Sometimes I fall asleep on the bus to Cuernavaca, but my comp and I usually go to bed at like 9:30 or 10, so we're doing pretty good. I'm always tired, but good!  And I don't know why, but we've both been super healthy!  Take, for example, mole...all Americans and even some Latinos get diarrhea when they eat it, but we ate it 4 times in like 2 weeks, and NOTHING!  Almost a little weird. I've really only been sick once, my first week in the field. Milagros!

Culture and tradition is a huge reason why people don't want to hear our message. EVERYONE is Catolica, but hardly anyone actually goes to church or believes (or knows) what they preach.  It's just 100% tradition.  We've also had a few people who have never had religion and it's just hard for them to accept that there's more.  Also right now we're struggling with 2 different investigators who both want to be baptized but can't because one doesnt have permission from her husband, and the other doesn't have permission from his dad.  Also everyone works on Sunday, so they can't progress because they don't come to church.  Honestly more than anything it's just plain tradition. There's soo much partying in the catholic churches.  Someone told us there's like 35 big fiestas every year in Tepoz. so that's like one every week and a half or something, idk, but it's a TON!

Last night, we got home super late from appointments, and still had all of our weekly planning to do, so we sat down to do it, but then it started raining, actually pouring, actually it just full on dumped on us!  So naturally we went outside for a few minutes :) and came back in dripping, yaya I love the rainnn!! 

It was my comp's birthday on saturday!!!!! So I of course woke up at 3 am and decorated the casa haha. and guess what? when I was blowing up the balloons, one of them popped, AND SHE DIDNT WAKE UP! she slept through everything! we didn't do a whole lot to celebrate, and we're poor, but we got a tiny cake and some candles, and I smashed it in her face muahahaha :)

Our new hair.  I cut 6 inches and Hna Shook chopped off about 10 inches!! 

Also, I bought a Mexican blouse and we were nice and festive for 5 de Mayo (which other than no one has school, no one down here does anything to celebrate 5 de Mayo! Also chips and salsa is totally not a thing down here, so America's views of Mexico are a little skewed)

Love, Maelynn

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A note from Maelynn's companion:

Hello!!! I am Hermana Shook! 

      I just wanted to send you guys a little email and let you know how AMAZING your daughter is!! Oh man. Hermana Bailey has been learning the language and the life of a missionary incredibly fast! She has such a sweet heart and you can feel her love for this work and for every one of our investigators and the members here in Tepoztlan. (: 

      It has been such an honor to be her trainer. Even though most of the time I feel like she is the one training me lol! 

      BUT she has officially finished training and she is not my little baby anymore. She is all grown up now. lol

      You guys have raised one heck of a daughter. And it has been such a memorable experience to be compañeras! 

        con todo mi corazón, 

Hermana Shook 

Wherein Landen Departs our Idahome!

     May 3, 2017

On Sunday, April 30th, Landen gave his farewell speech at Church. On Monday, he was set apart as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Today (May 2nd, 2017) he left our family and home here in Idaho Falls and flew away to begin his mission. He is set to fly from I.F.  to SLC to NYC to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. He will stay in the MTC there for 6 weeks and then fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the remaining 22 1/2 months of his mission.

      We look forward to hearing that he arrives safely and to begin recieving his weekly letters home. This blog will now contain two posts a week, one for each of our missionaries. Please feel free to follow the blog, or to follow along on our family's journey with missionary work. We appreciate all of the many prayers offered for our children as they are living and serving so far away from us. We love the Church and are grateful to be members in it.

(At Freeman Park, where he ran so many cross-country races. Photo Cred: Thomas Groberg Photography)

At home, where he lived from age 10 till 17 (photo cred: Thomas Groberg Photography)

There were some serious ones with the Puerto Rican flag that looked really nice, but this one captured his goofy-ness! (Photo cred: Thomas Groberg Photography)

At the Idaho Falls airport saying goodbye to Landen on May 2nd, 2017 (with a stop at Reed's Dairy and the Greenbelt on the way):

Just got the very first email from him today, so glad to know he made it safely there. (Also, I hope this is not an indication of the length that his letters home will be!)

5/3/17

Mis Padres,

I made it. I'm safe, just melting. P-days are Thursday, but you won't hear from me until next week. 

chao,

Elder Bailey

Wherein Maelynn Calls Home!

5/2/2017

** Editor's note: On Sunday, April 30th, Maelynn was able to call home (Skype) with us on the day of her brother Landen's farewell. It was an emotional 47 minutes - filled with laughter, smiles, updates, dancing, singing, story telling, and happy tears!

Dear Family,

    The connection was so good at first, and then it just went downhill super fast - dang it! I was bummed that it was so short (Hermana Shook said most people talk to their family for an hour and a half or 2 hours), so 47 minutes was really fast, but I was just happy to get to see everyone! 

      I'm super excited for Landen to get out here and be a part of this incredible work as well!  It really is incredible. It's hard. I really struggle with the language, we see a lot of rejection. I'm tired ALL the time.  My feet hurt from walking all day long, my back hurts from carrying my bag, I  miss music and dancing, I miss Chick-FIl-A, I just really want to go swimming...but somehow I'm happy, Super Happy!  

      And I keep going, and I want to keep going.  Somehow, Tepoztlán feels like home. I miss you guys, but I don't want to come home. Not yet. So far the mission has been a great experience, but its meant to be life changing, and I'm not at that point yet, I've still got a long ways to go, and I look forward to it!

Love,

Hermana Bailey

[Last week our zone got together and made popcorn and it just turned into a huge food fight! Also, try eating popcorn with mayo and hot sauce, or another option is with ketchup. its good. and also, i eat pizza with ketchuo and hot sauce always now, weird, but delicious!]

[Me acting like a weirdo, just the ushe...uh I don't know how to abbreviate usual.]

{Our english class, soooo fun!}

{This is a members yard! It feels like you walk into a completely different world! He gave us little plants :) }