Wherein Sadie Celebrates Christmas in Uruguay!

 December 25, 2023

Feliz Navidad!! 

Had some technical difficulties today but wanted to get this out still!

This week was full of some exhausting memories. On Tuesday we had our lovely 6 am bus for district council but vale la pena because it was a great meeting. We talked about faith and did the self-examination in preach my gospel. Everyone should go do it. It is so powerful to do it honestly and see where we can grow in our faith!! Chapter 6: Christlike attributes.

Thursday we had a multizone conference in Montevideo and well, good thing it was absolutely amazing because it sure was a whole adventure. It all started Wednesday when after lots of confusion and stress because there aren't a lot of buses out here in the middle of Uruguay, the APs just said we were responsible for making it to Montevideo before 9am Thursday. Well, we had a bus that would make it right at 9, but some other hermanas in our zone did not. So they stayed with us Wednesday night. We got up at 4 am and headed to Montevideo. We tried to sleep but man everybody on that bus must've eaten something because they all had to take a dump and wow, the smell woke us up. Like holy moly. I was nauseous the rest of the day. Well, we enjoyed a super great spiritual inspiring meeting and acted out the nativity and had good food, then left with our whole zone in a bus back to Durazno where we would take a different bus back to our areas. Well our sweet bus driver took his good ole time and just by chance the late bus doesnt go on Thursday so we ended up arriving at the bus terminal at 7:17. The last bus left at 7:15. So now there we were, 6 hermanas stranded in peach, Uruguay. 2 hermanas found a taxi to take them to their area 30 min away and we were stuck an hour and a half away from home. Bueno, like 24hrs away from home home but also away from our house here! After a few hours, the branch president and his family from the other hermanas branch drove all the way to get us. Bless his soul. He even took us to get ice cream before leaving. We arrived to Carmen, a different little town in the middle of Uruguay, and well just before we finally made it after such a long day, we got pulled over. Haha, we are just bad luck i guess. We finally made it to the Hermanas house and they didn't have extra beds but todo bien cuz we were tired. The next day we got up early to take a bus back to our area. Halfway there the bus broke down and we sat there standed for a lil while. We decided we just had to laugh it off because it was just a joke how many things were happening. We finally made it back to our area, showered, and got to work!! 

As crazy and exhausting and somewhat pathetic as it was, i will never forget the zone leaders trying to distract us from the stress, the hymns the branch president was blasting in his minivan in the absolute literally middle of nowhere country Uruguay in the pitch black, the crazy fast speed at which that minivan took the turns, and the miracle that the cops just said ok have a good night, the absolute hysterical laughter we broke into with the hermanas at 12, that horrid smell in the bus in the morning, watching a bus driver run into a sheep field to get water to the broken bus, and the glorious shower when we got home. I know the Lord blesses us and watches out for us and im grateful for these memories. 

Also Saturday we realized that the closet with the baptism clothes was locked and everyone who had a key was out of town also there was no gas so Andres got baptized in cold water. But it all worked out.

having his baptism on Christmas Eve was so special. I am so grateful for a Savior, my Savior, who came to this world to save us but not just save us but to make it possible to have joy, and peace, and make covenants with our Heavenly Father.

So yes, this week and Christmas was a little chaotic and just a little of everything, but it helped us focus on the important things. Even though the mic didn't work on Sunday and everyone sang at different times during the hymns, we took the Sacrament. Thanks to a humble Child who came to save us, we could do that. Thanks to Him, Andres was baptized. I was a little nervous about Christmas here and missing out on family, but the Spirit I felt when Andres was confirmed or when we showed up to the Hermanas house singing la primera Navidad and helping her set up her arbol, singing hymns with la familia secada with the cordero cooking on the parilla and Gregorio saying that Christmas to him means Jesus, finding Santiago in the street, the peoples smiles listening to our very off-tune singing, the amount of food they expected us to eat,  and the reaction of the kids opening their one regalo at midnight, showed me a whole lot more of Gods love. It was a wonderful Christmas, one I'll never forget. I loved it. 

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you've felt the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is the biggest privilege to be a full-time representative of Him and wear his name every day! FELIZ NAVIDAD

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Bailey

Spider count: the scariest creature came crawling into our house and we found cockroaches by our bed on Christmas eve

Photos: i tried making cinammon rolls to carry on a tradition and they were ready by 6 pm instead of 6am. Good thing mama will be making them for me next year, and other photos!!

El lun, 18 de dic de 2023, 13:19, Sadie Bailey <sadie.bailey@missionary.org> escribió:

Hola hola!! 

We had transfers this week and...hermana Thompson came to Sarandi del Yi with me!! She was my companion 2 transfers ago in Florida and now we're here in Durazno together as hermana liders. Shes my bestie!!! The people here kinda dont like to understand gringas but vamo arriba, we're totally sufficiently fluent! 

This week we just worked a lot with our friends, had district council, hermana zago said bye to people : (, and we sweated a lot!

Its rainy and stormy right now! Apparently a huge storm hit argentina/part of uruguay. Where im at it hasnt been bad but we're praying for all of those affected by the storm! The hard thing here is that most people dont have great roofs so everything just gets all wet when it rains

We have a fun, busy, travel filled week this week so thatll be fun and tiring!

I loved this quote i read this week from the talk Do you want to be happy by Elder Choi

"...it is never too late to turn our hearts to Heavenly Father for help. Elder Paul V. Johnson taught us: “When we follow Satan, we give him power. When we follow God, He gives us power.”

So so true!! Its never too late! God loves us. He doesnt want us to obey Him to be giving Him power, but so that we have power! Im so grateful for the commandments and for the covenants we can make with our Heavenly Father!...speaking of covenants.....this guy, andres, that has gone to church like 30 times here but then disappeared off the face of the earth cuz he works out in the country, showed up to church yesterday asking to finally be baptised!! So we'll have his baptism on Christmas eve!! Such a cool miracle to see how God has a plan and this is His work. When we set our goals, we can trust that He will help us accomplish them even in ways we dont expect. We have the goal to have a baptism this month and had a little kid on date for the 30th. Well yesterday we ended up having to move the kids baptism to January but todo bien because God was preparing Andres' heart!!

Our friend Federico also made a lot of progress this week saying that after years of missionaries and his wife telling him to read the book of mormon if he had doubts or questions, he kept finding it around so he finally sat down and started reading. He said he also prayed to have tranquilidad in his job that day and he really felt it!! His testimony is growing and hes been coming to church with his not yet wife and cute toddler! Theyll be an eternal family one day!

I hope you all have a fun and safe week leading up to Christmas!! Light the world with your light, love, and service!!

Remember Cristo siempre. 

Love you all muchisimo!

Hermana Bailey

Spider count: we legit have a cockroach problem and theyre big