Wherein Sadie Gets a New Companion from Argentina

Jan 29, 2024

Hola hola! This week we had transfers and....Hna Thompson left and I stayed?! Shocked us all !! Anyway, I have Hna Aranda here now with me in Sarandi del yi! She's from Buenos Aires and she's awesome!! We are currently very pobre and praying we receive money today so we can make it to liderazgo jaja! The downside of living in the middle of nowhere and being Hna lider is that travel expenses are just too much!

 The other day we passed by our friend Sabina in the street and while she was telling us how she already finished reading 1nefi and watched the videos, I saw she had written on her hand how to pray! And it just hit me how beautiful it is to be helping people reconnect with their Heavenly Father. I could just feel the love for and desire He has to be with each one of His children. I think we rejoice together with Him when we see someone turning back to Him! 

Yesterday I was stressed because Santiago had been doing so well coming back to church and then yesterday didn't come to church(basically nobody did), didn't answer us, was seen buying beer, and wasn't home! I feel like God understood I was stressed about it and reminded me to just trust in Him. I prayed, and we went out and called Santiago again. He answered. He wasn't home because he had moved out because it wasn't a good environment. We met up and had a lesson. At first, it wasn't going so well but then we testified of Jesus Christ and how He can change his life if he lets Him. And, we set goals to keep the commandments jaja!! And a lil bendicion is that he moved in with someone else that we are trying to teach so now he can help us and help them go to church!! 

Put your trust in God and things will work out!

Love you all!!

Hermana Bailey

Spider count: found a huge one in the dark with my flashlight! No thanks!

Photos: hermana Tommy girl

Sabina

Muchas vacas

Hna wonnacott

Hermanas de sarandi

Others

Wherein Sadie Gets A Burnt Nose!

 January 22, 2024

Hola hola!! Some things we did this week:

The district council and rainy day

Exchanges in Carmen, missed another bus

Interviews with president

Conference with the hermanas of Durazno!

Lessons full of joy

Service project weeding

One very very burnt nose. The sun is fuerte here.

Hit 14 months as a misionera!

We are teaching a 12 yr old girl who cant talk well or read so we are learning to be crrative and focus on the sinplicity of the gospel! : ) 

We are teaching Sabina and leaving those lessons i am just so full of Joy!! Shes just golden! The way she loves the Book of Mormon and is already reading it and relating it to her life and marking it up, and the way she said the closing prayer and said thanks for sending these missionaries to bring me true knowledge just fills my whole soul with joy! Its the best feeling! <3

Heres a scripture she had marked that i also love: 1Nephi2:19

"Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart."

And heres a scripture we shared in a great lesson with federico: 3Nephi 27:19-21

"And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.

 20 Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day. 

21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do;"

Federico related this to the commandaments like the word of wisdom in the church. That we know what we can and cannot do. Its laid out clear for us. If we mess up we repent and can be forgiven. How grateful i am to have the gospel of Jesus Christ restored on the earth so that we know what we can and cannot do to be able to be clean and live with God again and how grateful i am for Jesus Christ who makes it possible to try again and again!! 

Sending lots of love to everyone from a happy exhausted sunburnt hermana in Sarandi del Yi, Uruguay!!

Hermana Bailey

Spider count: somebody told us theres scorpions here, not sure if its true but were gonna act like it isnt

Photos: heres a few to enjoy and some more in my google fotos!! Hna tommy girl is just a joy to be with too

Wherein Sadie gets Neapolitan tan lines and falls down!

 January 15, 2024

Well, I totally biffed it walking out to a far neighborhood the other day. Just walking down La Ruta (kinda like a highway) and rolled my ankle and next thing i know i was on the ground. Made for a funny bloody mess. La ruta-1, hermana bailey-0. And thats about the most exciting thing that happened this week. All is well. 

We're just out here trying to find people who are ready to let God prevail in their lives!! Seeing miracles and trying our best every day! Santiago came back to church this week!

I just finished the Book of Mormon today! Didn't end up finishing by the end of the year but two weeks late is better than nothing haha!! I love the scriptures. I'm not great at remembering stories and memorizing scriptures but I just know that when I read the Book of Mormon, I feel better. I feel peace. Im grateful for come follow me that will help us all to study and learn from the Book of Mormon this year! We can learn so much from the examples and stories and come to know Christ more!

Hope you are all doing well! Send me some cold air and I'll send some hot sun!

Con amor,

Hermana Bailey

Spider count: just still battling cockroaches and when theres a spider, i take melatonin so i can sleep

Photos: 

Some roadrash, animals, samara y federico y ollie, hna thompson, hna shigekiyo, santiago!!, neopolitan tan lines

Wherein Sadie's Bus Gets in a Crash.

 January 8, 2024

This week we went to the leadership council in Montevideo which was a cool new experience! On the way back our bus got in a crash. Woke me right up. Minor crash though nobody was hurt it just delayed our travel. We got home at like 10pm and got up at 5am the next day to go to the zone conference. We gave our training and that was out of my comfort zone. I'm learning new things. We also put Federico on date this week! He's been reading the Book of Mormon and says he doesn't have any more doubts about the church, knows it's the true church, is gonna get married now, and wants to be baptized! He and his almost wife and little girl are the most beautiful little family! So happy for them! We didn't make any of our goals this week which was a big bummer. We didn't even have any friends at church on Sunday, but we have been seeing miracles finding new people so were excited about that! We often find people who say they don't really believe in God anymore because of things that have happened. Yesterday we contacted these people outside and started showing them a video of Jesus Christ. A different guy showed up, sat down, poured some beer, and started watching. As soon as it was done he started asking about where Jesus Christ is right now. He went on to tell us that his baby girl had died when she was just a month and a half. He showed us a picture of her and asked where God is in all that? Why his baby didn't have a right to life. Wow. That's a tough question to answer. "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." 1 Nephi 11:17 

       I know God loves us. And has a plan for us and we just testified of that and of the Atonement and everything but man, just how would you answer that question? It seems to be a pretty common situation to face as a missionary. Many people don't believe because of the bad things that happen! And as much as I can testify of Christ and God's plan and share scriptures, it sometimes just doesn't seem to help and I feel sad for them. There's so much hope and joy in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We don't just have to be accustomed to living with pain, we can be healed through Jesus Christ. We can see and live with our loved ones again. And although it brings us so much hope, yes we will still miss them and it may still hurt, but that's why Christ suffered for us. But to have this hope it requires our faith! 

Something we talked about in the leadership council and zone conference is this scripture in Ether 4:15 about faith and this veil of unbelief that we sometimes have.

"Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel."

State of wickedness- contrite spirit

Hardness of heart- broken heart

Blindness of mind- call upon the Father

These 3 things are things that give us this veil of unbelief, things that block our faith. And the other part of the scripture gives us the things we do to get rid of this veil and grow our faith. Have eyes of faith. 

I love studying the Book of Mormon and hope you are too!!

It's been super hot and humid down here in UY!

Love you all!!

Hermana Bailey

Spider count: just BIG cockroaches

Photos: 

Hna Giles

Hna Heyborne

Los Fowers 

Saying bye to Hna Torres

Pretty view 

I accidentally broke the word of wisdom trying a probiotic drink

Vaquita

Sitting in the crashed bus con Tommy girl

Charlas con miembros 

Thee tres cruces terminal 

Message from 8yr old Gregorio 

Birthday call with Emerz and Talmage 

Got the best mail!!

Wherein Sadie Celebrates New Years in Uruguay!

 January 1, 2024

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Time is so crazy! 2023 is done! Ya esta. 

This week was a lil crazy but also fun! Tuesday we had district council and the APs showed up and then we went to have exchanges with the hermanas in a different town and it was great! The hermanas are so fun! But when we went to leave, we had no money but we knew that so we brought our personal cards....which they didnt accept so we went to a bank....which didnt have any cash in the ATM. We missed the bus but luckily received money on our mission cards before the next bus! When we were comps in florida, hna thompson and i had a conversation in the street one day that being hermana lideres would be horrible because of the traveling you have to do. Y bueno now here we are together again traveling in the middle of uruguay missing busses. Jokes on us. We actually love it though!! Mostly. Getting to know different parts of uruguay and different people is beautiful!! We also went and had exchanges with other hermanas on saturday which was fun and i learned a lot!! 

We had Namus miracle baptism this week!! President had invited us to really think about who could get baptized this weekend. We excercised faith and tried with some of our friends but it just wasnt working. Then out of nowhere namus mom asked us if he would still be getting baptised this weekend. We had dropped that idea a while ago because of their lack of desire but God prepared him. We had his baptism on New Years Eve!! 

We've had lessons with potential families this week which is the best! And a sweet old man oscar whos sick with cancer and has my heart!

And thats what this years been full of...bus rides, miracles, dulce de leche, alfajores, asado, prayers, scriptures, sunburns, laughs, tears, people, spiders, cockroaches, baptisms, spanish, repenting, changing, frustration, learning, growing, serving, a little sleeping, a lot of walking, lots of friends, and a whole lot of love! 

This year i wore this missionary tag every.single.day. Representing my family. Representing Christ.

2023. The year i spent with Jesus on my heart and the year thats put Him in my heart for all the years to come. 

2024 is gonna bring a lot of change and new things. But itll be good. I have lots of goals in all aspects of my life but 4 main ones to keep things simple.

Daily prayer

Daily scripture study

Daily repentance

Weekly church attendance

(and when i get home, temple attendance)

Dont be hard on yourself. Know that God loves effort. Let go of unneccessary expectations. Keep the good ones.

To know what goals and plans to set, you first need to know what your destination is. Think celestial.

I love you all very much and i hope and pray for good things to come for you! 

Sending much love and a happy new year from Uruguay!!

See you this year!

Hermana Bailey 

Spider count: i might get over my fear this year. Maybe. The cockroach spray we have anda fuerte. Seems to kill our lungs faster than it kills them.

Photos: exchanges, a chileno meal, food, 2024, others!