Wherein Landen's Landlord Lands On Him!

July 31, 2017

   lololol, Please send pics of the van, and the dead (prolly) deer. Chrstian told me a little about salmon river, it sounded pretty fun, I really enjoyed it when I went.  How many times did you flip your kayak on the upper half of the river, dad? 

   Okay.  Super funny story now, listen up, pay attention, and prepare to laugh, cause I'm still laughing about this and it happened like 4 days ago:

Friday night, well actually Saturday morning, I woke up to a phone call at 1:20 am. It was coming from the other 2 elders that live in the house with us and I was super confused why they were calling us cause they were supposed to be asleep in the other room. but I answered. It was Elder Bachez on the other end and he started talking to me in Spanish. Now, Guatamalen Spanish is actually pretty easy to understand, more so than Puerto Rican Spanish... but my mind was not working at 1 in the morning so I had no idea what he told me. He gave the phone to Elder Mancilla who speaks English and Elder Mancilla just told me to wake up my comp and come out of my room.  I had no idea why, so I just went and unlocked the door to our room and opened it up. I woke up really fast when I saw what the problem was.  Right outside our door in the hallway was a full grown man asleep on the floor in a state that elder Bachez described as 'bien bien boracho' (super-duper drunk).   

       The best part about it all was that it wasn't just any random drunk from the street. It was our landlord Johnny. In case you didn't know, Puertoricanios love their beer, and love their rum even more. And Johnny had had a lot of it that night. The other two Elders went next door to wake up his wife, and she came over and told us that if we could get him out and to the bottom of the stairs (we live on the third floor) that she would bring the car around to pic him up. 

      We got him up and awake enough that he could kinda walk with his arms around mine and Bachez's neck.  But he was kinda resistant.  He thought he was in his own house and he thought we were pulling him out of his house so he tried to fight us off.  Rather pathetically, cause he was so drunk he could barely stand, let alone fight.  Unfortunately for us, his attempts to fight us off wore him out so much that right when we got to the top of the stairs he lost all strength in his body and just fell asleep. He literally fell asleep standing and his body just collapsed and he landed right on my foot!! 

     Then we had a real interesting time hauling him down two flights of stairs cause he weighed a good 220 lbs.  We eventually got him down and in the car (which was super difficult to lift him up into the car as well) and then went back to bed after changing all our clothes, cause the ones before were now covered in drool and sweat from 'un hombre bien bien boracho'.  But anyways, that's the story of how my landlord fell asleep on my foot at 2 in the morning. Moral of the story is: don't drink alcohol.  It makes you do super stupid things.

love y'all, have a good week!

Landen

P.S. Maelynn:  There is a sister in my district from Cuernavaca and she wants to know what ward you're in Maelynn. And as far as the ward council thing I have no idea, we don't get invited to ward council here at all, and they only give 5 minutes each month to our ward mission leader to update them on the status our the ward missionary work.  Also, If I haven't told you, our bishop is kind of an apostate, not to the doctrine of the church, but just to all of the basically everything's in the leadership handbooks in the church. For example, this last Sunday we had our primary program which was super cute, and after the primary program the bishop got up and gave all of the kids who talked a certificate and had us all raise our hands to the square to express support for the primary children. Like not anything bad, but just stuff that is weird and that he prolly is not suppose to do. lol

So - idk with the ward council, but I'm like 90% sure PMG says something about working with ward council, so you could check in there, that book is usually pretty cool.

Thanks, I'm handling the heat okay, my watch line is like super predominant now. It's cool.

And que lo que? you're training now? thats insane! Good luck little sis!  And at least she's latino so you don't have to teach her Spanish.  With the transfer change we got a new latino district leader so I am the only gringo in the house now.  Our WML loves to make fun of me and how gringo I am. He's super funny though, and also he's right, I am suuuupppppeeerrrrr gringo!

lol. ttyl. hags.

Elder Bailey

Wherein Maelynn Rattles Off In Spanish To Us.

July 31, 2017

        Well this week was pretty normal. Other than the fact that I had to make all the decisions, which I just really don't like doing. I'm more the type of person to help other people make decisions, but I just really don't like to be the one to say "lets go here, lets teach this, lets do that." 

      Ugh, but I'm learning. Gracias a Dios, mi compañera es muy padre! Ella es converso de 2 años, y su testimonio es increible. tambien, ella es muy divertido. no tiene casi nada de estres, y tampoco extraña mucho su casa. Y ríe mucho :) Nos lleva muy bien, y estoy muy agradecida por eso. Tambien quiere aprender Ingles, entonces yo le ayudo y ella me ayuda con Español, es perfecto!! 

      I just wish that I knew more about being a missionary, to help her learn better.  But this week I had the thought that "I'm not being asked to teach something that I don't know."  Obviously I don't know everything, but there are some things that I do know that I can help her with.  And I have a feeling that this experience is more of an opportunity for me to learn and grow than what shes going to learn from me. It's uncomfortable as change always is, but I look forward to what I can learn from this.

      Glad that the kids finally got their letters! I can't believe that the package got to you guys way faster than the letters. and uh, why have I STILL not seen pictures of you guys with your t-shirts??

The only picture I have this week is this freaky bug we found while cleaning a members' house!

Keep smiling and loving and all that good stuff :)

Hermana Bailey

Wherein Maelynn Becomes a Trainer!

July 24, 2017

Dear Bailey Family,

     I am pleased to inform you that your daughter, Sister Maelynn Joy Bailey, has recently been given the assignment as a trainer in the Mexico Cuernavaca Mission.  I consider this assignment to be one of the most important in the mission.  As a trainer, your daughter’s companion will be a newly-arrived missionary.  She will have the responsibility to show by example how to be an excellent servant of the Lord, applying the principles of Preach My Gospel and other instruction received in the Missionary Training Center. 

     I am confident that Sister Bailey will help her companion establish righteous habits and patterns of missionary excellence that will bless this new sister throughout her mission.  In doing so, together they will develop lifelong memories of sacred service together.

                                                                                                       

    Please know of my love for and confidence in your daughter.  Sister Bailey is one of our best.

Sincerely,

President Héctor Ávila Rosales

Mexico Cuernavaca Mission

"Hi, my name is Hermana Bailey. I'm 5' 4'' and I feel like a giant. LOL 

July 25, 2017

 It's actually cooler down here.  Like the 80's. Right now it's actually in the 70's and it feels gooood! So please don't think that I've turned into a disobedient missionary because I'm writing on a day that's not my P-day. It's because yesterday I had to sit through training's, and we didn't have any time to write.  

So yesterday I got my new companion, fresh out of the ccm.  Her name's Hermana Garcia.  She's 20, from Tijuana, and is a convert of 2 years.  She rocks! 

     I've been nervous all week knowing that my comp was going to leave me, and I would be left alone in this huge area that I don't even know half of, and with the responsibility to teach a new missionary not only the area, but also everything she needs to know about being a missionary.   But after meeting her, and saying a lot of prayers, I'm not so nervous.  A little stressed maybe, but that's healthy :) 

     We had a baptism on Sunday, a niño named Ivan :) He lives with his grandma who is a member, and hes adorable! 

And here's a pic of my elbow in case you didn't believe that I fell down the stairs! 

Love you fam! 

Landen: Suerte con el calor landiinii!  Umm - any tips on how to get along with our ward council? and convince them that having baptisms is a good thing??

Wherein Landen Loses 10 pounds!

July 24, 2017

Thanks guys, and it's not all that much hotter here, prolly in the 90's too, but like, 100% humidity so its a different hot.

We've been running quite a bit here.  Not to just outdo Miles, but I ran a 5:48 last week and have successfully lost the 10 lbs I put on in the mtc. I don't think I'll lose much more tho.

Good luck with all your school mom, and happy birthday. (just a little late)

Ummm, news from here: so we're not doing quite as well as Maelynn did last week, we lost both of our baptismal dates and didn't have any of our investigators come to church.  Which means that our baptism that was planned for this Saturday is not going to happen. 

Wilfredo (he's the one that was suppose to get baptized this Saturday) had a stroke last week. I guess he fell and hit his head which caused the stroke, but he's half paralyzed and in the hospital right now.  We went and visited him last Saturday and he started crying when we walked in the room. It was super tender and suuupppeerrr spiritual.  We gave him a blessing and read to him from the scriptures before heading out.  We'll go back this week to see him again with his member friend from the ward.

John, our other investigator, is still super cool, and still wants to get baptized....but he's a 14 year old boy that is slow to commit to stuff and the little [lovely child of God] won't come to church.  So since they have to come twice before they get baptized his baptism is getting delayed as well. 

Last week of the transfer this week. Eld Higgins is going home, we're getting a new district leader named Elder Batchet tomorrow.  Me and Rodriguez are still together and going strong.

That's about it. 

Ummmmmm: Spanish lesson for Seth on down: phrase of the week: 'coge un bizcocho'. Here in Puerto Rico it means: 'Take some cake'.   And for that it is my favorite thing to hear.  But be careful, cause it means different things in different countries as I'm sure Maelynn and Mom will tell you.

Love you all: have a good week.

Elder Bailey

Wherein Maelynn Takes A Tumble!

July 17, 2017

      Mom, I would just like to wish you a Happy Birthday this week, and even though I've been calling you old since you turned 35, you're still just getting older!  jaja jk. You're the most youthful mom I've ever had!! :) Loveeee youuuuu! 

okay, roses  and thorns :)

      My rose is definitely Sunday. All 5 of our investigators with baptismal dates came to church wooo hooo!!  And an antiguo investigadora. And a girl who is here studying, from Columbia. Her mom's a member, and she showed up, found the bishop, and told him she wants to join the church!  Sooooo yeah, miracles really do exist people!  We were running around like chickens with our heads chopped off, but that's the way I want all of our Domingos to be! 

     My thorn is that Saturday we woke up with a ton of water on our second story floor, and it just happened to be the one night that it didn't rain. We got it cleaned up, but the tile floors were all wet, and I was walking down the stairs with a bucket and mop, yeah you know whats coming, well yeah, I fell down the stairs, and it sort of hurt.  But miraculously, even though I hit my back, most of my weight fell on my elbows, so my backs fine, but both of my elbows are green and purple! haha... it's pretty awful looking, and super weird. I've never really bruised my elbows before. 

     I would just like to tell you guys a little bit about my companion, Hermana Atanacio. She's amazing. She took some getting used to, but really I just needed to get to know her. She's from La Paz, Bolivia.  She's 25 years old and the youngest of 9 kids. The missionaries found her family when she was younger and a couple of her siblings were baptized.  One of her brothers died from too many drugs and alcohol when she was 8, and she was baptized when she was 11. She went to school and has a degree in Agronomic Engineering (whatever that is :)). Her mom just got baptized 3 years ago, and her dad still hasn't decided its his time yet. Since she's the youngest of a big family, her parents are older (almost 70) and don't know how to use technology. She hasn't really had communication with her family for the last 14 months. And her testimony is incredible! She has such a special love for the people that we teach, and she teaches in a way that is specific to the person and their needs, and she is always thinking about other people and what she can do to help them. She's like a little angel, and I have learned a TON from her, both about being a better missionary, and also Spanish :) Gracias a Dios, he tenido la oportunidad a conocer este maravillosa hija de Dios. 

If at first you don't love someone, give it some time, and get to know them a little better :)

Hermana Bailey

Bowling on P-day. 

Hermana Atanacio y Hermana Bailey

Wherein Landen Prays for a Drunkard.

July 17, 2017

The water is pretty clean here, but I've met a lot of Elders who have gotten zika/danke fever from all the nasty mosquitoes. The best thing to eat is definitely whatever Manuela make us. She is this super sweet member that makes us lunch every Friday and it is always bomb!  Btw, mom, I met somebody who knows your friend.  We were teaching this street contact on her front porch and her nieta showed up, we introduced our selves to the nieta and when she heard I was from Idaho she said she had a friend living there named Arlis - so I figure it's the same girl that works with you. So that's cool.  Also, I have birthday presents for you, but I'm prolly gonna send them all (mom, dad, and miles) together in one package later on to save money on shipping.

Umm, so cool things that happened this week. Wilfredo, our investigator, came to church again and doesn't show any sign of not wanting to keep coming to church for the rest of eternity, so once we finish the lessons with him he should be good to go to the waters. We also had one other guy show up at church that was super funny, so let me tell you his story. 

His name is Joe. We met him when we were walking down the street at like 8 o'clock last Friday.  He was out from of a bar and he was blathered drunk and we were definitely not planning on talking to him (we're not supposed to teach borachos because they can't feel the spirit and can be dangerous especially on the street).  But as we walked by he called out to us and at first was talking to us about how he needed help in life, how he was a sinner, and how he wanted us to pray for him.  We agreed to and that made him happy.  Then since he knew that we maomeno (more or less) knew the gospel pretty well he started asking us all these doctrinal questions like, "Where did we even come from?"  And my companion responded that before this life we lived with our Heavenly Father as His spirit children.  And Joe's eyes got all big and looked up to the sky and asked "Really?!? We lived up there with the big guy? That's incredible!!"  Then he wanted to say a prayer for us, so he put a hand on each of our shoulders, turned his head to the heavens, and yelled as loud as he could "Jehovah! bless these young men for they are your servants, then he turned his head a little to the left as if taking to someone different and yelled out, this time also thrusting out one of his hands "Joushua! protect these boys, they are doing your work!" 

      Anyway, the dude was crazy drunk, and when he yelled his breathe smelt awful.  But we invited him to church after that, and he said he'd come if he could. I honestly didn't expect him to remember the next morning that we had even talked to him though.  But that night in my prayers I prayed for Joe, and it was kinda weird cause I didn't ever expect to see him again (he didn't want to have us teach him, we asked)  But I prayed for him anyways, and God answered that prayer by helping him a little bit in church yesterday. We were honestly shocked when we saw him come into the chapel yesterday, but he stayed for all of sacrament meeting.  He didn't want to do anything after that, and still didn't want to meet with us for a lesson, but I mean, he came to church! And by the way he was walking it looked like he had only had 2-3 beers by that time, so ... good on him! Anyways, the lesson I learned from all of this is that if somebody asks you to pray for them, pray for them, even if they seem like a lost cause, or if you think you'll never see them again, pray for them! It never hurts to pray.

-Elder Bailey

I just got a haircut today - btw Puerto Rican barbers are 100 x better than ones in the states! 

Wherein Maelynn Gets Peed On!

July 10, 2017

     The 4th of July just isn't the same when you're not in America.  It's just another day here.  But we had interviews with President on Tuesday, so while we were all in the church, some of the American Elders made us a good ole American breakfast: pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon :)
   It tasted so good! and then the member that was feeding us, forgot and only had time to make spaghetti and chicken nuggets, ah it was perfect!  My first day in the mission that I haven't eaten tortillas or chili. The food here is delicious, but it was good to have a little taste of home :)  But with all this chili I'm eating, I'm getting pretty accustomed. Jalapeños ain't got nothin' on me.

     Sol and Naomi, the mother and daughter that got baptized, haven't been able to come to church yet to be confirmed, so that's a little worrisome. 

     We got caught mid-camino in a rain storm with no umbrella and on a street with no trees or anything to hide under. I was loving it! But we got totally soaked (like I was squeezing puddles of water out of my dress) and as a result, my poor comp got sick...poor thing can barely talk.

     So this week I was in the street talking on the phone, and there were a bunch of dogs walking around, like always...anyways, all of the sudden I feel something on my leg, and I look down, and I'm not kidding, one of these dang dogs had peed on my leg as if I were a tree or a fire hydrant. Yeah, it was gross, but I couldn't do anything at the moment because I was on an important phone call and there was only service in that one spot that I was standing. Ugh.  Eventually I washed my leg off, but apparently not my shoe too good, because the rest of the days everyone's dogs were sniffing my foot...so yeah! 

     Yesterday we both spoke in church about the area plan for Mexico. I don't know if the US has one, but if it does, you should find it.  Basically the one for Mexico talks a lot about the Book of Mormon and the blessings that have been promised to us as members of the house of Israel.  Also the short little talk that Pres. Monson gave us in April was super fitting, about how vital it is to read and gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  There are some neat promises in his talk if we read the Book of Mormon every day.  And there are some neat promises in the Book of Mormon from ancient prophets if we keep the commandments and repent.  It was neat to study and learn more about the Book of Mormon these last couple weeks.  And I invite you, as does the prophet, to read the Book of Mormon every single day if you're not already doing it, and look for the promised blessings that are there.

   I'm completely heartbroken to hear about the passing of Braydon. My heart hurts for his family. But what a great blessing it is that they have the gospel as such a big part of their lives. Nothing brings more hope than the Savior, and the knowledge that we have of God's plan for us. I hope we can all reflect on this plan, and our purpose here on earth, and keep an eternal perspective in all things that we do.

Love, 

Hermana Bailey

(The perks of being somewhere where Zika is a threat... PANTS!)

Wherein Landen Meets His New President

July 10, 2017

  Btw guys, I'm alive. I'm good. This last week has been super fun and a lot of changes took place.

     I went on three exchanges this week. One with the district leader, his name is Elder Higgins, he's super cool and I learned a lot from working with him. 

     One with the other Elder in our district, Elder Mancilla.  He's super cool too and we got a lot done together. Both of those guys are from Utah.  They're the ones in the supes awkward selfie.  Mancilla is the Latino, and Higgins is the other Gringo.

     Then in this last week our old president, President Boucher left, and the new president came in - President Smart.  He's super cool. we had a zone conference last Thursday to meet him and his wife.  Then after the conference he wanted to go out and work with real missionaries for a few hours and he chose to work with the district leader and his companion from my district (Elder Higgins and Mancilla) because of this, his assistants went on intercambios with me and my comp. 

     So that was kinda stressful, cause I had to lead the area, but it was super fun too. I went with Elder Waidmann.  He's only got one transfer left on the mission, and he is way good at contacting people which helped me a lot cause I suck at contacting.  The other pic is of me with the new President and Elder Waidmann after our exchange.

    So this week was actually super good for me and my comp as far as progressing the investigators we have.  We placed two baptismal dates, one on an investigator named Wilfredo, he is a 50-60 +/- yo man who loves listening to our lessons. What's more - he actually enjoys reading the LDM and praying. He came to church for the first time yesterday and it was so cool. Right when he walked in, another member walked up to him and gave him a hug, I guess they're old friends.  So that's super cool. His date is the 29th of July.

    The other investigator with a date is a 14 yo boy named John. He is awesome. When we found him he told us his favorite thing to do was worship God.  We've had a couple lessons with him and he loves them. His family doesn't participate (yet - we're working on that) but they're super supportive of his desire to get baptized. He didn't come to church though.  So we'll work on that too.  His date is the 5th of August.

Love you all family, thanks for all the emails.
Have a great week.

-E Bailey

Sunset over the Ocean

Wherein Landen Learns Some Slang Phrases!

July 3, 2017

      Sadly, we don't have a lot of investigators that are progressing.  People like to invite you in or give you water and listen to your message, but they don't ever want to come to church. 

      We teach the Restoration a lot, but often times halfway through the Restoration lesson people ask us Plan of Salvation questions, which is cool, cause in answering their questions we bring comfort to them about life.  We have taught at least 2 families who have just recently lost loved ones when we came knocking on there door, which is kinda cool. 

 One of the coolest members here in the ward is named Manny.  He's the guy that followed mom on facebook last week. (btw mom, he was rather upset that you called him: "some guy from puerto rico" in your sharing of that video).  But he's a local radio host here. He's that stereotypical Spanish radio guy that talks super fast and he is super involved with the missionaries.  He is always willing to take us out to eat, give us rides, but especially come help in the lessons. He's way cool.

The language is coming. Poco-a-poco...but still coming. I learn at least 10 new words every day just from asking my comp how to say stuff while we walk.
Some Puerto Rican phrases:

q lo q = whats up?
ya tu sabes = you know it!

I'm doing pretty fine down here. Thanks for all of your prayers. Love you all!!!

Elder Bailey

Wherein Maelynn Shares A Favorite Hymn!

July 3, 2017

     This week was so much better than the last few. Not necessarily because my surroundings have changed (they haven't, same area, same comp) but because my attitude has changed. I realized that I am actually a super judgemental person...oops.  So I have been working on loving more than judging, and its working miracles :)

A couple of miracles we saw this week:

     Last week we got a referral of a guy named Evencio from some other Hermanas in a different zone. A few days later we got a referral of a girl named Maribel from our zone leaders. So we got a hold of Maribel and set up an appointment. When we went to visit her, she introduced us to her husband, Evencio.  No joke.  Turns out that she is a member, was baptized in Utah like 10 years ago, moved back here 5 years ago, and hasn't been to church since.  Her husband Evencio isn't a member and was telling her "you lied to me,  you told me you're Mormon, but you never go to church".  So she was like "you're right, let's go".  Any ways, hes super golden, basically asked to be baptized.  The whole time we were visiting him I was just thinking, 'this is tooo perfect - there's got to be something'.  Well towards the end of our visit we found out that they're not married, and he's not divorced from his previous spouse.  Ugh, this is seriously the most common problem we run into down here, and its super difficult to get divorced here in Mexico.  But with the help of the Lord, all will be well!!

     Then we were supposed to have a baptism this weekend of a lady named Sol and her daughter Naomi.  Basically everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.  Her military ex-husband came into town and she had to basically go into lock down in her house for a few days (long story).  Her and her 2 daughters got sick the day before.  Saturday morning we went to pick them up and she told us she wasn't going to get baptized any more but we could take her daughter.  Anyways, after a little while she calmed down, and we went to the church.  We don't have keys, but we had been at the church just a couple hours earlier for Ward Council, so we assumed someone would still be there.  Of course not.  The church was all locked up, nobody was answering their phones.  Half an hour after it should have started and there were about 3 other people there.  Still waiting for keys.  We ended up having to call some Elders to come help us because there were only 2 priesthood holders there.  Anyways, it ended up being a super beautiful baptism. And something super neat is that the guy that baptized them, Will, is one of Hermana Torgerson's converts.  He just got baptized in February! And even though there were a lot of struggles, all was well.  Until Sunday when they didn't show up to church, because it turns out that Naomi got super sick. 

     Something that I have seen a lot as a missionary is that the times when people are trying to come closer to Christ, align their lives more with Him, is when the adversary throws everything he's got at them. The times that we are trying to change and become better, is exactly when Satan tells us that we can't...and he does everything he can to make sure we don't. BUT the Savior knows us better than Satan does and even better than we know ourselves, and if we rely 100% on Him, we will be able to conquer the adversary.   Haha sounds easy right? 

      A hymn that I have really come to love in the mission is Lead Kindly Light. ..but it's better in Spanish :) Divina Luz. 

What a beautiful message, that we don't need to know everything, we only need to trust the He knows everything.

Sending my love from Mexico,

Hermana Bailey

(In the pic: Will, Hna Atanacio, Naomi, Sol, Mirosslava (she really wanted to be baptized, but shes only 7), and Hna Billy (as my comp says it haha! )