give me mountains to climb....and i'll R U N up them

hayyyyy ya'lllllll!

you're probably wondering about my subject line, but i'll get to that in the end....therefore YOU MUST READ MY WHOLE EMAIL(:<3 haha i'm kidding, i give you permission to jump to the end, i know i write too much...(that was for you kayden)

sooooooo what a crazy, hard, frustrating, annoying, dumb, sad, fun, wonderful, spiritual week!!! haha #mishlyfe

last monday was a freaking blast!! like allll the missionaries in the area came and we just played sports hardcore all day. we played basketball, volleyball, and soccer...it was way too fun(: I'll attach a pic of a few of us!! Then we had FHE at Chase's house and we owned everyone at ping pong....remember when me and Matt Minaga took table tennis for college credit haha #UtahStateeee my life is so entertaining.

tuesday we did service at helping hands which is always a blast cuz all of the Elders in the area come too, so there was likeeee 10 of us then we all went to eat at this BBQ place and well all ate fried pickes and BBQ nachos...so good...OMG. We had a awesome lesson with James and Joe and Lexie came with...then institute where we talked about plural marriage and we had 2 investigators there. it rocked(:

wednesday we did a ton of planning...that's what happens when you have two crazy busy areas!! i love to plan though...we have a huge white board and i went crazy with it...I'll attach a pic of that too(: (: Oh hahaha i forgot, we had dinner with the Stake President's family and got a call from the Bella Vista Elders and found out they didn't have dinner so i invited them...haha it was so fun. I've never had dinner with other missionaries in someones home before, we gave a bomb thought about the Priesthood and the Book of Mormon. I love being a missionary and i love my missionary friends(: (ps happy birthday so my sister annie)

thursday was wayyyyy too sick!! we had a mini zone conference in springdale with the shumways and surrounding zones! Elder Nuttle (a senior couple missionary who used to be a physical  therapist) fixed my back and made me cry and scream but now i feel so much better!! hooray. grateful for that man<3 then the Shumways killed it.........ahhhh we talked all about the WHAT and the WHY of missionary work. Which is exactly why I've gotten in so much trouble on my mission, in a good way. Because I really just wish everyone was actually themselves. There are just too many missionaries that are robots and do things for the numbers and not out of love. I like to think I'm a genuine and straightforward person that loves everyone (at least I try to) so it makes me sooo annoyed when people or leaders do things out of obligation because it needs to be BOTH! we all need to understand the letter of the law as well as the spirit of the law!! And that's what the whole conference was about...i loved it!! The closing hymn was "be thou humble" and president just sat up there and cried. It was so special. I love that man! Some people like to say that you get called to the mission president...and after all the amazing experiences i've had with President Shumway I believe that wholeheartedly<3 They have 10 weeks left so we made some awesome goals to push to the end! I'm sooo pumped(:

well after the conference i had a wonderful talk with the shumways and president told me he was proud of all the hard things i've been going through lately. he said "i told you to pray for mountains to climb....now run up them!" it was awesome...he is such a great pep talker!! I love them<3 <3 they have so much faith in us individually and in the mission collectively! WE ARE TRULY THE GREATEST MISSION IN THE WORLD!!

Friday we had lunch with one of our investigators, Macy, and Nate came along too. We had a sweet lesson with BIG MIKE!! He is so awesome....he's coming along great...just needs to trust and READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. it all comes down to the book of mormon...always go back to that. it's the keystone of our religion for a reason!! That night we taught our recent convert, Grace, and her fiance, Winston, about the Law of Chastity. It was pretty awkward but ya know...we got it done(: WOOT

Saturday we went on exchanges I stayed in the area with Sister Whitaker, my evil red head twin, we had a ball and taught 7 lessons. and got 3 new investigators. and had 2 active member lessons. HOLLA. it was a blast...i love that girl plus we were trained in the same area!! so much fun(:

Sunday we were at the church from 8 am....til 6 pm I WANTED TO DIE I WAS SO TIRED!! in the morning bentonville stake had a special meeting where the stake president, OKC temple president, and patriarch (brother ming) spoke and people could ask questions!! it was sooo amazing and inspiring and BIG MIKE CAME!! it was so sick! then we had meetings on meetings on meetings. but i love meetings! i think i wanna be a business woman someday...we'll see(: (: we had dinner with my fellow LONE PEAKER!!! Anyone remember Sam Beck?! He got home from his mission in March and is out here being a bug boy! so he and his roommates fed us dinner with our investigator Reagan! sooo fun(: (:

Today weeeee made gluten free brownies for the Elders, traded out car with the Bentonville Elders and rode their bikes from downtown to the stake center...those hills tho....it was really fun i'll send pics! then we played soccer in the parking lot and now we are emailing!! next is more soccer, maybe some tennis, and definitely some more soccer!

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are my 5 life motto's:

1. Be somebody that makes everybody feel like somebody
2. Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate
3. Be a triumph, not a tragedy
4. Give me mountains to climb...and I'll R U N up them
5. Be yourself...and make Christ apart of yourself

I love ya'll!!! Have a great weeeeek!

i'm just happy to be hereeeeee(:

All my love,

Sister Bailey

What I Wish I Would Have Known Part II

• Learn how the spirit works, how to recognize it, & how to use it
• Bring more clothes are mix & match, but realize that you WILL acquire a lot of things...especially if you volunteer at a thrift shop like us (;
• Some Elders said...bring 10 long sleeve shirts & 4 short sleeve, & you can never have too many ties...but Elder Merryweather has over 150...that's too many ties LOL
• Consider bringing a small set of scriptures with you...they can fit in your bag BUT if you had bad vision or if you want people to read from your set of scriptures...don't do it
• Get a new set of scriptures just for your mission...this is my personal opinion (obviously), some missionaries praise having their scriptures from seminary with you...but it you are like me & didn't pay attention nor mark up your scriptures in seminary & just have your 8-year-old-picture-drawn-every-scripture-you-ever-read-marked like myself...then get yourself some new, pretty, scriptures. I'm glad that I did!!
• Bring a scripture case....my sister def had to send me one...you need to have something to protect your scriptures. Some missionaries make lil scripture boxes out of used cereal boxes covered in pictures of Jesus from the Ensign...haha whatever fit yo style (;
• Bring pictures of your family...mostly for your companions & for members so they can see who you are & where you come from...plus it's nice to see familiar faces every now & then
• bring uplifting music with you...music guidelines vary by mission but when we discussed this as a district we all agreed that you cannot go wrong with hymns (both regular & appropriate different versions) & also #MoTab...but make sure to double check with your mission president!
• Chill out, relax, & realize that God is in charge
• MISSIONARY WORK IS FUN, if you are not having fun...I do not think you are being obedient...we were meant to have joy (& to be obedient)...sooo enjoy your mission, every day of it, even if everyone canceled on you & several people slammed their door in your face
• Be positive in your emails...one Sister said "I have such a testimony of lying" haha what she was meaning, however, was to not complain in your emails, share your struggles, but always, always, always be positive
• You can be SO BOLD with members, less actives, & your investigators
• Learn to work with the members, earn their trust, love them & they will love you back
• Develop the ability to make your lessons f l o w...it makes all the difference
• Be yourself...get out of that robot missionary mode & be yourself, let your personality shine through because (as cheesy as it is...) the people you come in contact with need YOU & they need your personality

all my love,

sister jaybay bailey

GRATEFUL IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE

Holaaaa everyone!! (:

Today I'm just so incredibly grateful. And that's all I want to talk about today.

I'm grateful for my perfect, loving Heavenly Father.

I'm grateful for my Savior, and his perfect, amazing, continuous Atonement.

I'm grateful for the Comforter.

I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and the safety it brings to the human heart and soul.

I'm grateful for Thomas S. Monson and all the other leaders of the church.

I'm grateful for Joseph Smith and that he died for a book...

I'm grateful for my FAMILY.

I'm grateful for my Daddy.

I'm grateful for Eileen.

I'm grateful for Melissa, Gavin, Kayden, Cassidy, Maddie Rae, Stockton & Lincoln.

I'm grateful for Annie, Tim, Kaylin & Ryan.

I'm grateful for Patrick & Molly & future baby bailey.

I'm grateful for Ryan William Bailey.

I'm grateful for Rachael.

I'm grateful for Grandma & Grandpa Turner.

I'm grateful for Grandpa Bailey & Gerri.

I'm grateful for Aunt Lori.

I'm grateful for alllll the bailey family.

I'm grateful for President Shumway, Sister Shumway, Sister Petersen, Sister Palmer, & Sister Smith.

I'm grateful for Elders Kofford, Horsley, Gordon, Allred, Murdock, Whitehead, Connor, & Sokol.

I'm grateful for Suz, Bob, Tanner, Liz & Zack Evensen.

I'm grateful for my missionary friends & their amazing example.

I'm grateful for my college friends; Tara Barber, Jeremy Street, Hunter Lassen, Jacek Hacking, Lindsay Williams, Matthew Hart, Gibson Sibley, Brooks Benson, Kengo Adachi, Matthew Minaga, Lexi Hansen, Jessica Valle, & Sarah Handy.

I'm grateful for Madison Holt<3

I'm grateful for the Kujanpaa family.

I'm grateful for the Petit family.

I'm grateful for my Marshfield family.

I'm grateful for my Tahlequah family.

I'm grateful for Kylie Elaine Myers.

I'm grateful for Tim and Tara Warren.

I'm grateful for Jim and Jan Phillips.

I'm grateful for Debra Lafon.

I'm grateful for Dale and Bonnie Hutchins.

I'm grateful for my new Bentonville and Rogers family.

I'm grateful for mountains to climb.

I'm soooooooo grateful to be a missionary at this time, in this place, with these amazing people.

I don't know how I got so lucky.

Thank you all for the love and support and prayers. I couldn't do this without your help.

Lastly,

I'm grateful for my mother and her amazing example.

God is good.

All my love,

Sister Bailey

don't even ask....just bring it!

hey ya'll!!! hahaha i've quoted that movie sooo many times this week so i thought i'd put it in my subject line!!

i literally don't have like anytime because we have so many fun things planned to day with all da missionaries in our area and the areas surrounding!!

this morning sister smith and i went on a lovely walk/jog through the trails at crystal bridges and it was slightly rainy and soooo warm. it was like a dream.

then we grocery shopped. then she got her hair did. color. cut. the whole shabang. i sat in the chair and danced to the radio music for the two hours she was getting it done. good times...it looks sooo good!! then we went real life shopping and tried on theeeee cutest dresses. omg. i'll send a pic. but i ended up getting a really cute mint one for easter? (; yeah, sorry daddy. then we did some other random shopping and now we're here emailing!! next is basketball and going to the crystal bridges museum and playing hide and go seek on the trails! my life is so much fun(: did i mention i'm having the time of my life?

this week was so so good. are ya surprise?!

this week we: 

went to chili's

had zone training with the shumways!

got pizza with the shumways

sister shumway came to lessons with us at the park

had interviews with sister shumway and she said i have the "darling factor" hahaha i just laughed

sister smith and i found swings at a park and talked to some cute moms

we had lunch with the STL's at the park in the wind...it was still fun(:

I TRIED ON A HUGE FROZEN YOGURT COSTUME AT KIKKIBERRY....hahahaha it was thee funniest thing of my life

i got to curl sister smith's hair and take cute pictures of her by a cute wall

we had an awesome lesson with jesed and jair (the brothers)

had a stellar lesson with this guy santiago

nate came with to a lesson with macy!

then micah came to brenda's lesson

annnnnd we had a sweet lesson with grace and her fiance winston! so fun(:

i met the chandler family...that is really good friends with the Garrett Howard family!

had sushi with rebecca and swheta my new friends from nepal!! add that to the future travel destinations

had a great conversation with cute brother olsen whom we live with and we decided i should be a ticket agent at the airport and get reallllyyyy cheap airfare (:

had indian food with rebecca and may or may not have gotten chalk in our hair from the festival that we didn't even know was happening on saturday!!

sunday was a blast. we were at the church from 10-8, doing meetings, and mcm over the phone cuz chase slept in, then i went to branch council solo while sister smith attended sugar creek meetings, but chase and i rocked branch council and then i had lexie be my companion during rogers ysa...which is always a blast, i love that girl. she's my soul sister <3

then tait fed us breakfast for dinner at the church so we were there for even longer!! but hey it was a blast(: (: 

i love love loveeee it here and i couldn't be more blessed!! my misison is so fun and so amazing and i literally meet people every day that change my life. at this point i feel like i've been doing this my whole life and i will be doing it for my whole life. home and family is just a figment of my imagination....but hey...talk to ya'll next week <3 <3

have a fantastic week everyone!!

i love you sooooo much!!

#ether12

#sisterbayyyyyyy

arkansas is pretty

and then i realized...adventures are the best way to learn

whoahhhhh i seriously....don't even know where to begin. this week was so so so amazing. every night i come home and want to just cry because i'm so happy and blessed. someone tell me how i got so lucky...

something achy?: soooo last monday i finally got approved to go the the chiropractor!! yayyyyyyyy. it was amazing. he's a member in the bentonville 2nd ward and he rocks my world. he's such a good chiropractor...similar to shiloh's husband courtney! and he's super nice and does it for free cuz i'm a mission. sooo awesome! but the last couple months when i wake up i have felt like i was going to throw up...and some days i did but it was just like sour spit? so i was like maybe i'm allergic to something...IDK can't stop won't stop. welllll i told him about that...and then he fixed my back and guess what?! no more throwing up feelings! wahoo!

something adventurous: we are in a total finding situation right now....i went from being crazy busy teaching 35 lessons a week in Tahlequah to barely hitting 20 here in Bentonville...so it's been different and a challenge but it's been so fun and we did an awesome job of finding new people to teach this week!! on tuesday we didn't have anything really to do....so we went to the square in downtown bentonville and just started talking to people...we call this OTM'ing (open thy mouth-oklahoma tulsa mission) and it was soooo awesome. It was a perfect beautiful day so there were a lot of people out and about! we gave out like 20 #becauseHelives pass-along cards. then we noticed some guys slack-lining.... so what does adventurous Nellie (now sister bailey) do? SHE TALKS TO THEM AND QUOTES ETHER 12:6 AND WALKS ACROSS THE SLACK LINE, OF COURSE. hahaha it was super #rad. turns out  the three guys are firefighters in rogers and were just hanging out. their names were Lucky, Josh, and Scott! they were sooooo cool and we already planned a moab/escalate trip! don't worry i took picures/video...WHAT EVEN IS MY LIFE?

something super fun & happy: LOL sooooo wednesday the leadership of the mission met here in Bentonville for MLC...aka I got to see Sister Pete & Elder Kofford & all the other Zone Leaders/Sister Training Leaders!! it was unreallllll plus we got to "babysit" sister buttars because her companion was at the top secret meeting. we had a BALL! we had tons of errands to run...we went to target...did some training because she's a new misisonary, went otming, prepared for our baptism later that day, and hung with all the friends once the meeting was over...i took a #classic picture with kofford & pete hahaha my two best friends<3 haha sister buttars is such a funny person...we decided to call "babysitting" her "SUPER FUN HAPPY HANG OUT TIME WITH SISTER BUTTARS" hahaha man, such a funny day.

something swaggy: ahhhhhhhhh WEDNESDAY NIGHT (APRIL 1ST)  was Eliza's baptism!!! She liked the irony of the day(: we spent the whole day preparing for it. It was so so so special and there room was packed with people supporting her, even her mom came which was a big deal(: and my girl Lexie gave an awesome talk about the holy ghost. we showed #becauseHelives while she got dressed and met a ton of people. I love the YSA's here....they are all like extraordinary people. not even kidding. I'm grateful for Eliza and her example and her friendship! She knows i love Polaroids so she brought her camera and we took a super cute pictures...i'll attach it(:

something amusing: friday there was something called "first friday" at the square, basically a farmers market/carnival on the square....it was so dang fun. that morning we had zone training, sister smith and I instructed on dignity...we killed it(; it was actually really fun, i love instructing....anyway! then we went to lunch with a group of elders, which is always enjoyable haha. we saw a bunch of people, had an awesome lesson with a former investigator they call "Big Mike" he's soooo sick. He's 22 and a Pentecostal preacher, but he's so so nice and we had an awesome lesson with him! Then we had an awesome BBQ dinner with a cute family, the Allreds. Then went to an Easter Concert at the Stake center! It was sooooooo good. Like omg...well then it got over at8:30 and we are supposed to stay out until 9:00 sooooo being the ambitious missionaries we are...we went back to first friday! there we had three lessons with awesome people and gave them cards and invited them to YSA activities! It was soooo fun(: Then outta nowhere...a guy walks up to us and hands us a bag of footlong corn dogs!!!! I'm not even making this up....it was too funny. My life should be a movie at this point...

something amazing & inspiring & spiritual: GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS UNREAL. man....I was so spiritually fed. We watched it at Johnny Damon's house on Saturday with a ton of YSA, in between we had a lesson with this girl, Joy. Then went TO SUSHI<3 We also watched Priesthood session at the church(: !! Sunday we had breakfast at our Branch Mission Leader's house....it's the ultimate bachelor pad....pool tables, fancy art, wedding ring magazines....all of it. They're super funny guys...anyways a ton of YSA people came over and we all watched conference!! I was so good, Elder Nielson, then Holland, then Uchtdorf all made me cry...I think I took 27 pages of notes...I have issues...BUT I GOT SO MANY ANSWERS....it was so so good. The main themes I noticed were: FAMILY. GRACE. PRIESTHOOD. LOVE. ATONEMENT. CHRIST. MORE ATONEMENT. GRATITUDE. SERVICE.

something special: this weekend was super special...not to mention...what an amazing time of year. A time of green grass and trees and flowers and rain (not to mention crazy unreal Arkansas thunderstorms) and baby bunnies running around and REBIRTH AND NEW BEGINNINGS AND THE RESURRECTION. How grateful I am that this time last year was when my whole life changed. How grateful I am that I will always remember my Easter of 2014. I remember feeling so lost and broken and sad and really not knowing what to do or what  the future had in store. Little did I know that I would spend my next Easter surrounded my NEW friends, who love, support, and uplift one another. I got to partake in General Conference and hear the amazing testimonies of the Savior, His perfect Atonement, and His amazing grace<3 I couldn't have asked for a better day yesterday. We spent the evening with a big family. Lots of kids and cousins running around, it almost felt like home. We shared our message...our was prompted so share my last year's Easter experience with everyone...I bore my testimony of hard things and the Saviors grace and eternal families. It was just so special. I think I made everyone cry...but it was a perfect day. My heart is so full and content. There is literally no place I'd rather be. I'm so grateful to be here.

Thanks to everyone that sent me letters and postcards and packages(: I am so so blessed. I love y'all!!! <3 <3

#SisterBay

#becauseHeLives