almost no post this week

September 7, 2010

I have spent most of my e-mail time e-mailing my Mission President today. I have a lot of things on my mind. The more time goes by the heavier and heavier my mind becomes and the harder and harder it becomes to lighten it. Saturday was one of the most spiritual days I have had on my mission. Ever really. I felt so close to God the entire day. I was receiving so much important revelation. We ran the grape stomp and I didn't walk once, which was my goal. I got home and got ready for the day but wasn't in any hurry. In fact, by the time I got in the shower I'm pretty sure I was late. So, when Sister Hamano said from downstairs, "Sister Bailey we've got to go NOW!" I was just happy I was ready on time. When I looked at my watch after I had said , "OK I'm ready", I realized that we were way early for service. I paused just long enough to ask, "So, why are we leaving now"? Sister Hamano then explained that she had to go to the temple and interpret a wedding of a deaf man and his wife. I grabbed my temple bag and we were off. In the car I did the math and there was no way I could have gotten ready that fast even if I had been hurrying, and at the pace I had been moving at there was NO way. I knew that angels had moved me and quite possibly stopped time for a while in order to get us out the door when we needed to be. The Sister dropped us off at the temple and we ran inside. It was wonderful. It was the first temple marriage I've witnessed. I was filled with the spirit and kept thinking to myself, don't settle for less than this, don't settle for less. I felt so humble to be there. When it ended I wanted to tell them how much it meant to me. I have promised God I would be married in the temple on a number of occasions and felt redundant to be doing it again in the recesses of my heart. I said a heart filled prayer afterwards. The rest of the day was spent half on earth and half in heaven. I could hear the spirit so clearly. I could feel it's presence. I received promptings quickly and received much personal revelation in between. Tami and Nick walked in around 5. It was wonderful to see them. They are not members of the church and are concerned about their son who has been asking a lot of questions about life that they don't know the answers to. They had so many questions. I loved them so much. They were two of the most honest hearted, humble people I have ever met. They asked simple questions and they asked hard questions, but because of their hearts, because of their spirits, all of their questions were so easy to answer. The spirit gave me exactly what I needed to say. They wanted so much to learn more. They said they needed to ponder a little before they had missionaries come to their house, but they took the restoration pamphlet (about the bringing back of the authority to act in God's name and the things Jesus taught) and the plan of salvation pamphlet (about Heavenly Father's plan for each of us to return to Him) and the gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet. I had been carrying it around while I talked with them and referenced them once or twice. At the end of the tour Tami pointed to the pamphlets and said, "I want to read those books. May I have them?" There was no question. The Spirit said "Give her the books". I did. They are going to visit mormon.org and look at temples and listen to members testimonies. I know they are headed for good things. Great things, if they let God guide them. I was so grateful to be blessed enough to meet them. They were so honest. So humble. So easy to love. I haven't met very many people like them and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had. The day just continued. No matter what happened I felt the spirit there. It never left me. Everything that happened was like a lighting bolt from heaven. It was a very good day for me. Time is flying by. Things sometimes don't feel like they happen. There is never enough time. Sister Bailey Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.

A Little Behind....

This is Anne's mom....
Below are four posts dating from August 12-August 31st. I am a little behind as I have been out of town and was unable to post while gone. Lots of reading, I know, but some good stuff.                                                                   Sister Bailey is scheduled to return home on September 22nd!  We can hardly wait!

I know

August 31, 2010

This p-day is not going exactly as planned, but it will be good. All of my companions, this summer and last, have been exactly what I needed when I had them. Sister Hamano is no different. I have learned so much from her just by her sheer example and she is EXACTLY who I needed the transfer before I leave. She is the best listener I've ever met and is going to do incredible things where ever the Lord calls her. She has been such a healing balm in for me. I love her.

At the last ice cream social we had as Sisters, Sister Johnson and I just sat on the couch and talked about missionary work and how fantastic it all is. We also talked about the love that Heavenly Father has for His children and all the care that goes into bringing us home, back to Him. I love Him! I love His purposes and His ways! I love that He lets us help Him bring His work forward, I know that He could very well do it by Himself, but He lets us be a part of it. I love this work. I am so grateful for the diligence the Lord exercises in each of our lives, for our happiness, for our well being. Sometimes I wonder if He ever gets giddy as He plans " She (or he) is going to LOVE this" and I wonder how He feels when we don't recognize those blessings. In all His perfect love for us I would imagine He just feels a greater resolve to help us feel His love for us. I love His Love. I love how we have more of it the more we share it. I love how we can struggle with the same problems over and over and over again and how patiently He waits to help us. I am grateful.

We went out into Quincy and went tracting as Sisters, at least half of us did. We're going again on Thursday. It felt so good to be out on the street again just talking to people and sharing the gospel. People are so prepared. Just through short conversations they ask questions I've been able to know the answer to my whole life. Questions that are answered by the Book of Mormon and the temple and the Prophets on the earth. We met so many wonderful people. It actually made my love for Nauvoo grow, to understand and talk with and love the people in the surrounding communities. I am so excited to go again. It feels so good. I know that there is a Prophet on the earth named Thomas S. Monson. God speaks through Him the same way He did through Moses and Abraham and Issac. The authority to act in God's name is on the earth and the work of God is going forward. Families are forever. Jesus is the Christ.

We went to the temple today. It was wonderful and I, as I usually do, received some much needed comfort and clarity not to mention revelation while in that Holy House.

You will have to forgive me. I know this letter is short, but I find myself becoming shorter and shorter in words and longer and longer in thought. If that makes any sense.

I love you all.

Helaman 5:12

Sister Bailey

Different.

August 24, 2010

It was hard for all the Sisters to say goodbye to Sister Quick, Sister Westwood, Sister Barry and Sister Picard. They left on Friday morning. It was a weird day. Every time someone leaves it changes things. Their presence is missed and we're working twice as hard to live up to what they were putting in. I love those sisters. I am so grateful for the friendships I have made. They will last for eternity. I will never be the same.

I am so different than I was 18 months ago. Completely different. I have changed so much. I don't feel like I even know that Sister Bailey of last April 2009. It feels good to be a new person and I wonder what she might think if we were to meet. I am in a different place, a different mind set, a different light, and I have a different heart. No matter our differences I know I'd thank her. I am grateful for her willing heart and I am grateful for her efforts, because no matter how non-existent she is right now and how much I would never want to go back, the present Sister Bailey owes her existence to the Sister Bailey of last April, and October and so on. I love the Atonement. I want the Sister Bailey of five years from now to be thankful for me, and happy for the distance between us. It's not that I was a bad person before the mission, I am just so different. I feel like I'm traveling lighter now. I wonder what else I have to sluff off and leave behind. I am grateful for old Sister Bailey's sacrifices and determination. As a missionary something that I've noticed is that we are blessed, but blessed for other's work. As we work hard we are led to people who have been being prepared for years. The real fruits of our labor are ones that future missionaries will see, not us. In that same respect the product of all the work we put into ourselves is never actually seen by that version of ourselves that put in that effort. Blessings and work are seen best in retrospect and cannot be predicted except by One who can see and know everything. And they seem to grow with time. At times the law of sacrifice seems much like a bank account. We pay once and are forever blessed, not with one blessing that lasts forever, but with blessings that flow down forever, to us, and to our posterity.

Well, as it is considered the above thoughts expressed were nothing close to what I had originally intended. But the principle is the same. I am different. I am grateful for it and in the coming years I plan to be even more different. I'm so grateful to be able to part of this work both now and forever, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man", as His missionary, as His daughter, and as a trusted guardian to His children.

This work truly never ends.

We've made some insane changes to the call center. So much faith and trust have been put into those changes. Miracles are happening. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Sister Bailey

Burning

August 17, 2010

Nauvoo is insanely quiet. I say insanely because insanity is a good description of what it does to Sister missionaries. Like last year the call center is where I prefer to spend most of my time. There I can be productive and bear my testimony over and over and over again. I love it in the call center. The time I do spend on the floor is time well spent. The annual exodus of Navuoo is in full swing. Seniors are dropping like flies, or rather taking off like them. A happier thought I guess as they are going 30,000 feet up instead of six feet under. The young preforming missionaries are gone, as are the band. They left this morning. Sister Barry, Sister Quick, Sister Picard and Sister Westwood are all leaving on Friday. It's weird because I went into the MTC with all of them. I will miss them so much.

Transfers were on Sunday. Sister Bitter is now in Carthage and so is Sister Johnson. They are companions now actually. Sister Parker and Sister Morgan are the new AP's and are doing a fantastic job. Sister Hamano is now my companion and we are in Nauvoo. This really funny because Sister Parker asked me what I thought was going to happen at transfers and I said, "I'm not sure but Sister Hamano and I are going to be companions and we're staying in Nauvoo". She laughed and we moved on, but that is what happened. I love Sister Hamano. She is of Japanese descent and lives in Hawaii. Well actually right now she lives in Nauvoo but she is from Hawaii. She is a signing Sister. We run together and are a more quiet companionship than most, but we get along swimmingly. She was Sister Quick's companion last and so we spent all our preparation days last transfer together. I'm excited to get to know her better.

Today has been a good one. I did the only thing I cared to do which was to go on an oxen ride. It was so fun! I loved it. Hank and Homer (the oxen's names) took us on a little wagon ride through the trees. After that it didn't really matter to me what we did. We went to the temple and did our laundry and ate food and washed the car and now we're e-mailing. Yes. It's been a good day.

Sorry this week is so short. It felt that way. I have a feeling the weeks will only get shorter from here on out. A strange and depressing thought, one not thought about on a regular basis. Not here in Nauvoo anyway.

Burning myself out

Sister Bailey

D&C 123:13

The sun is up and so is the internet.

August 12, 2010

The most exciting news I received this week is that my Sister-in-law is having a baby in February.

I'm a little at a loss of what to write this week. Not only have I just barely written on Saturday but I also just spent the past half an hour pouring my heart and soul into a computer with the intention of sending it to my mission president. The Internet crashed and it has now been deleted. This is probably the worst p-day ever for this to happen because we're suppose to be running on a schedule.

On a happier note, Nauvoo is still a spiritual powerhouse to all that come. Just yesterday Sister Bitter and I met a man named Lou. Lou grew up Catholic. He is not Catholic anymore. In fact, he seems to be stuck between not being able to deny the existence of a God and the temptation to demand tangible evidence of that existence. We took him on one of the most powerful and short tours that I or Sister Bitter have ever taken. We shared with him Joseph's Smith's experience. We began from the very beginning at Joseph's confusion over what God wanted Him to do, what the scriptures meant and more importantly what it all meant for him. To this Lou said, with exasperation, "Well, I think I can connect with that". As we moved on he talked about the doubts he's had with the rest of Joseph's experience, the confusion lifting and his prayers being answered, his mind enlighten and as a result the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. He wants to hold it in his hand. Part of me wants to say that holding the restoration in your hand is like trying to hold a sunrise in your hand. It's an event, not a something. When we watch the sun rise into our view we do not say, "Did the sun come up? I'm not sure, I need to touch it". We know the sun has risen because of the light that fills our world and the warmth that creeps into our skin the longer we find ourselves in it. In the same way, we know the restoration has happened..... not because we can touch it, but because of the light that fills our life as we abide by and believe in the truth that has been revealed to us through the Prophets and the warmth that rises in us the longer and longer the spirit has opportunity to testify to us of this truth. We don't touch it. We see it and we feel it. But, for Lou, and anyone else who does wish to hold it in their hands, Joseph Smith was asked to translate The Book of Mormon by the power of the Holy Ghost. The same power that brought about the restoration and has built up the Kingdom of God on the earth in our day. One can hold the Book of Mormon and in a sense hold the restoration, and even better, one can read the Book of Mormon and feel Heavenly Father's love for them and know that it is true. The same way one touches a hot stove and feels that it is on. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It testifies of Christ and stands as a beacon to all who seek His face. I echo men of God when I say that I invite all people everywhere to read it and feel of it's power. I Promise you can know it's true. I promise God will bear witness of it in a way that you will recognize.

If anyone is wondering what happened to Lou, he felt the spirit. He filled out a referral card and requested the missionaries to bring the Book of Mormon by. As he reads he plans to call the missionaries in order to get any of his questions answered, and more importantly to call upon His Father in Heaven to recognize the spirit clearly.

These are the things that happen in Nauvoo. These are the things that I plead will follow me for the rest of my life. I will open my mouth. I will speak on His behalf.

I love this place. I love this work. I love the Book of Mormon and I love my Savior Jesus Christ.

I love each of you.

Sister Bailey

2Nephi 33:10-11 "...All ye end of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye shall believe these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto to me; and they teach all men to do good. And if they are not the words of Christ judge ye--for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory that they are His words at the last day...

Onward, Ever Onward.

August 7, 2010

Sorry this is so late. I haven't had any time. On p-day we went to Springfield Illinois with the Ludwigs (my mission president and his wife). We saw the old city court house that Lincoln worked in, went to the Lincoln museum, and to a chocolate shop. It was such a good day, but no time for e-mail. I don't really even have much time to e-mail now, so this will have to be really short. I would have to say that my favorite part of Tuesday was being with all the Sisters I've served with the past 18 months in a completely stress free environment. That has NEVER happened before. Ever. We met in the MTC, one of the most stressful places ever known to man and then continued onward. The stress has never ended. For a short few hours we were just us. Nothing to worry about but keeping up with the group. It was wonderful.

Things have slowed down. All I want to do is be in the call center calling and entering cards. I feel productive. There's no lag time. I love it. I will miss it. I will miss most things about this place. Even the hardness. The Lord knows us. He will help us. Even when it's slow.

I will write more on Tuesday.

Love you all. God be with you.

Sister Bailey

Isaiah 41:13