the Hermanas in my zone (ball, despain, hansen, hansen, carpenter, jeromin)  I can't remember if I told you: Hna Jeromin is from Hamburg. She's like my favorite ever. She gave me olives with anchovies inside.

Sisters who came -a-caroling. The only one whose name I know is sis. Vallinga, who is Mary

Hola todo! :)

I had a good Christmas. It actually ended up being pretty action packed; we were originally scheduled to have 3 hours of free time, but when the final schedule came through, we only had about 45 minutes of free time the whole day, and we were running behind, so it ended up being just long enough to go to the residence, drop stuff off and leave again. I really like that quote by Elder Holland. It's something I've been thinking about in that I was thinking how Christ is the only person ever to live who truly knows what it means to be alone. Every time we've felt abandoned or alone or even cast out from God's presence, we've always had the safety net of knowing that Christ has been there before (whether we acknowledge that in our state of misery or not haha). But Christ was removed from the presence of God on the cross and had NO ONE, not a single person, not even the hope of a single person, who knew exactly how that felt, and who had been through that before. He knows exactly how we feel and more. I've loved teaching the "fake" investigators. I know they've learned from our experiences, as have I. I remember when I would come and volunteer at the MTC, I would always come with a question, either for myself or someone else, and by the end of the night it would invariably be answered. It's amazing how the Lord works. He never makes mistakes, He never causes coincidences, He never has "fake" investigators. I've been well, but I'm beginning to get nervous... my entire zone is sick except for my companionship and a few lucky others. Here's hoping it stays that way.

 

So, this last week has been really hectic, but fairly good. Christmas eve, we had a nativity devotional. They used missionaries to reenact the nativity, and Mary had never held a baby before, so when they gave her "baby Jesus," every single sister missionary in the room panicked as we watched the baby's head go unsupported. Later when the baby started crying she tried to bounce it, but had little experience, making it clear to us that shaken baby syndrome was a definite possibility. Luckily Joseph was able to help her (a lot) and the mother of the child quickly whisked the baby away and replaced it with a much more durable plastic. I suppose the MTC will have to be more careful in their selections of Mary in the future. It was a really good devotional,a nd afterwards, we watched a Christmas carol. Sadly, it was a very creepy version, which, if you take into account our antsy-ness from just sitting still, was a bit ridiculous. Christmas we had a devotional with Elder Nelson, which was really good, but the line waiting to get into the devotional was so smashed together taht a bunch of people got clostrophobic (sp?) and eventually, my companion went sprinting from the throng to throw up. Luckily for us, that put us at the very front of the line into the devotional once she was feeling normal again. We sat right in front of Elder Nelson, and we smiled at him haha. Tender mercies... ish. (my companion really was fine; don't think me heartless... she just got too hot, she said). We also had a temple walk, a talent show, and a devotional by Greg Olson, the lds artist. As I mentioned in Eileen's section, we watched it's a wonderful life later that night, which was good except taht the missionaries were antsy again and my companeras whined the whole time haha. Anyway, I'm going to spend my last 5 min. uploading pics. Hope you're all well and happy. God is good, the church is true, and people are undoubtedly crazy (but they're worth it).

 

I forgot to tell you: I LOVED MY STOCKING!!! So much! :)

We made a fireplace out of a sandwich bag. That's what's uup.

Mucho amor,

Hna Bayles

December 19, 2012

Dec 19, 2012

Hola Todos!

 

Como estan? All is well here. We're happy, healthy, and working hard.
 

Hermana hansen has already been to Guatemala as her father is an archaeologist. As far as sister Carpenter and I, we can hope, but I SERIOUSLY doubt that we'll ever go to Guatemala on our missions. As far as things I've learned, it would probably be easier to tell you what I haven't learned: past tense, future tense, and random vocab. Otherwise, I'm already to a point where I can converse semi-coherently. This new 6-week program we're on is intense, but the results are amazing, especially when you have God on your side, teaching you what to say. We've already had 6 lessons, completely in spanish, and we just got 2 new investigators. Things are going well with them and we're enjoying the work.

I've learned a lot about my companions, but I can't think of anything particular except that Hma Hansen has awesome hiccups that happen ALL THE TIME and Hma Carpenter is a blast to be around. Christmas eve with Gma Gpa  and Nate&co sounds awesome. I hope it's super fun and that you all travel safely.

The elders are even more squirrelly, but they're honestly so fun to be around. They can have their serious moments, but they do a great job of helping us remember that life is about having joy and enjoying every moment. :)

Thanks for all the packages, especially the memory card reader thing. The rice krispies were good, and I look forward to opening the other packages next week.

I was made coordinating sister this last Sunday, which is the female equivalent of a zone leader, so taht's been an adjustment. It's a big responsibility as far as MTC stuff goes, so I'm feeling rather humbled that the Lord is trusting silly little me with it, but I'm confident that He knows what He's doing, so I accepted the call. I'm pretty sure it's for me, but maybe it will be good for other people too.

 

We found some old hole-y boots in a give-away box, so we've declared them the sisterhood of the traveling boots boots. They are pretty much awesome.

We've had lots of cool speakers in RS... the RS president, the YW president. Both gave awesome talks.

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!! 1 Cor 1:3

 

We're getting 11 new elders today, and I get to help greet them as Co. Sis.

 

If you're trying to tell someone repentance can help them feel clean of sins, be sure to say "pecados" for sins, NOT "pescados." That totally happened. Good thing I was playing the investigator instead of it being a real investigator.

 

Love you all! Hope you're having a great Christmas Season.

 

Todo mi amor,

Hermana Bayles

 

 

Dec 12, 2012
To answer your questions: my companions' names are Hermanas Carpenter and Hansen. Hma Carpenter is from Wyoming. She loves loves loves running and is super funny. they're both super nice, so that's awesome. Hma Hansen is from Idaho. She was adopted at birth from Guatemala and has lived in Rupert Idaho ever since. I have Elders Cooley, Pedro, Welker, Olson, Reid, Johnson, Doyle, and Mccloy in my district. They're all very nice but VERY squirrely. They have a hard time staying on track and focusing, but they have good hearts and great intentions. I feel like I've come into having 8 little brothers. haha. We're the only sisters in our district, but there are more hermanas in our zone and we really like them/get along with them well. Sister Carpenter is going to my exact mission, and sister Hansen is going to Nicaragua.Today was p day, which meant we got to go to the temple today. It was such a good session! It's amazing  being in the room and hearing all those people pray for missionaries... and then you remember that there are hundreds of temples that put on hundreds of sessions a day. We've decided that that means we're getting at least 2,000 prayers a day on our behalf. That's pretty amazing. Sitting there, I could feel the power of their prayer wash over me, and it was incredible.

 

On our way out of the temple, we saw a girl kneeling and crying on the lawn, so we decided to go talk to her (cause, you k now, we're missionaries and all). We saw that she was praying and decided to wait until she was done to talk to her. She finished her prayer, and right as we were about to head over to talk to her, she reached into her bag and pulled out a large white envelope. You guessed it. A mission call. We hung off to the side to let her open her call and enjoy the moment by herself, but when the moment seemed right, we walked over and gave her big 'ol hugs and told her how excited we are for her. She's going to Warsaw, Poland, which in case you didn't remember, is the Nielsen's mission. I told her that I knew her mission President, and that she would be in the best of hands. She told us she was so excited that we had stopped to talk to her, because she had no one to tell her news to, and she was relieved to know that the Nielsens are kind. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

 

On another note, I am no longer going to Guatemala. It's almost official. Because of the influx of missionaries (thanks a bundle, you 18 and 19 year-olds! haha) the Guatemala MTC is completely full (and then some). So even though I'm excited for all the new missionaries, I'm slightly bummed I don't get to go to Guatemala. All the same, I'll go and be wherever the Lord needs me, and if that's Provo, that's where I'll be, and I'll be legitimately happy about it.

 

Spanish comes to me very well when my companionship is very obedient, but the days we're running late, it's a definite struggle. I've already learned so much Spanish, but I feel like I could be doing so much better if we could just be exactly obedient to EVERYTHING as a companionship. I do pretty well on my own, but it's hard getting 3 girls going, so we've struggled with that as a companionship. We're working on it a little every day, and hopefully soon we'll be able to claim perfect obedience. I feel like that will really jump the barrier I've been brushing up against these last 2 days. Other than that, Spanish is awesome and I love it! We're being trained on the schedule for new missionaries (but we're still here til february), so we're hitting things a lot faster than missionaries normally do. We're the guinea pigs for when the new younger lot comes along. We're teaching an investigator here in the mtc. He's hired on by the MTC, but he never breaks character, so it's almost like a true investigator. However, we're expected to teach him only in Spanish, which has been a challenge. He "only speaks Spanish," so we've had lots of interesting lessons. We're giving our 4th tonight, and we're not entirely sure how it will go, but we have hope and faith that it will work out. Our first lesson, we forgot how to ask if we could come inside, so we gave the entire lesson standing at the door, prayer and all. The funniest part is, he didn't open the door all the way, he just peeked his head out, and we gave the lesson in that way. jajajajaja (that's how we laugh in spanish jajaja).

Let's all write Hermana B tons! ;)

Alrighty friendolas! If you want to write to me, you can send letters to:

Sister Maren Bayles
MTC Mailbox # 132
HON-SPS 0205
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

That address will work for the next 9-ish weeks; I originally was going to Guatemala MTC, but now probably won't.

      Sister Bayles
      Guatemala MTC
      Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71
      Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15 
      01015 Guatemala City
      Guatemala, C.A.

That Provo address should work for 9-ish weeks. The address for the rest of mi mision will be the mission office:

Sister Bayles
Honduras San Pedro Sula Mission
12 Calle, Avenida Circunvalacion, S.O.
Edif. Yude Canahuati, 3 Nivel, Oficina 4
San Pedro Sula, Cortes
Honduras

(if you want to send packages, send it to the address above)

Cheers! See you in 18 months! :)