Yellow, from Provo USA!
What a week! Everything is yellow here! The bathroom walls, the walls in our study building, the weird carrots in the cafeteria, I love it so much!! I'm so grateful for the mix-ups at the Church Visa Office because I am meant to be at the Provo MTC! My message to you this week is simple: The food here is good, the teachers are great, and God is amazing!!! His love for me was manifested in so many little ways this week that make my heart so happy.
I know this will come as a disappointment to some and will bring smiles to others, but as hard as I tried to leave "Bailee" behind, my personality and flaws snuck onto the mission with me...along with Austin's xbox controller I found at the bottom of my suitcase for some reason. We saw evidence of this before we even dropped me off at the MTC! We of course had to stop at Krispy Kremes before dropping me off at the MTC, and when I went to put some things in my backpack, I discovered it was still sitting on my basement floor 4 hours away! As my dad put it, that was the "if this is the only bag I have with me I'll be fine" bag with my scriptures, study supplies, and wallet in it. But no worries! Thanks to my Grandma Jones and her willingness to take an emergency road trip, I had my backpack by dinner time with some leftover donuts + a nice (not annoyed) note from my mom inside it haha.
We've gone to several "Coping with Stress" and "Adjusting to Missionary Life" workshops this week and everyone seems really concerned about being stressed but... I feel far LESS stressed since coming here! I'm forced to have a regular sleeping schedule, exercise daily, eat 3 solid meals a day, AND have built in scripture/personal time? I'm living my best life! No distractions, no homework, no super crazy work schedule, I feel even MORE like myself since coming here! I promise that if you seek to live a more balanced life and cut out distractions, your purpose and your happiness will become so much clearer!
After arriving at the MTC (feeling a bit "naked and afraid" without my backpack) (hahaha feel free to censor this email mom), I met my companion Sister Pugmire from Minnesota! She is the most darling amazing girl ever and I look up to her so much, even if she is 5 inches shorter than me! She is from Minnesota and plays front line hook for the BYU women's rugby team, so I have to be careful what I say to her because she could destroy me very easily. (We were using the leg machines at the gym and she can do 160lb while I can only do 80....) As it turn out, besides our physical differences, we are the exact same person! She is coming to Scotland/Ireland too! She studied plants and environmental science in hs and took a floriculture class this year at BYU, wants to be a whale watching tour guide when she's back from her mission (we both have ins in alaska now bwahaha), we both have pink water bottles and the same pair of adidas running pants (#imAFakeAthlete), our favorite flowers are both sunflowers, she loves the color yellow and brought the matching rainboots to a yellow raincoat I have that has bees all over it from the same company, we both scuba dive, we're both horrible at volleyball, we love Harry Potter, we both love doing family history,and (DRUMROLL PLEASE!) she has a twin sister that is going to be serving in the Leed's England mission! She and her sister got their calls the same day, reported the same day, submitted their visa paperwork the same day, aaaaaannnnd her sister got her visa while we didn't so she's at the Preston MTC!!!!
Naturally, we both thought we would show up to the MTC, having been switched last minute and put into a district of missionaries going to Nebraska and have to sleep under someone's bed because there wouldn't be any room for us anywhere else. So imagine our surprise when we met our district and it has 6 missionaries reporting to the England Leeds mission, 3 to manchester, and ONE to Nebraska! And with the exception of Sister Adams, our amazing roommate who will be going to Nebraska, we're ALL waiting for our visas together! I love our district so much. At first I saw all the elders as quiet lil high school graduates, but they've come out of their shell so much and I can already see them all turning into such capable, strong elders!!! As for the sisters...that's another story. I've been suggesting to Sister Pugmire all week that we do things like take a shortcut across the construction zone, climb on the roof, and scale a flagpole to get a picture with the Irish flag, and her one and only reason for telling me no every time is because we're wearing dresses. Sister Nicoll, our other roommate, is from Alaska and is going to Leeds. Her dad coached a robotics team in Fairbanks Alaska and she knows Schrodinger's Hat, an world-renowned FTC team from Fairbanks that we had the pleasure of getting to know really well during our first two seasons!! It was such a tender mercy to meet someone that I can connect with on something I'm so passionate about! She's great. Here's a picture of her sitting on top of our dresser when I told her Madi wanted to meet her when I called home this morning.
Our district leader is Elder Gargalis from Corona CA! We met him at Zuppas before we were dropped off at the MTC! He and the rest of the elders in our district really are such amazing examples to me! They are great at staying on task! Confession: the two times I've cried this week have been from laughing too hard at my own jokes, not from feeling overwhelmed by the spirit! One of those times were in the middle of class last night...I've got a lot of improvements to make, but I'm trying my best! And it's working already! I have had so many cool experiences this week that I wish I could you about.
Our zone is incredible too. I've met five missionaries going to Birmingham Alabama that Lindsey will get to serve around! I need to get a picture to send to her so she knows to look out for them! I told them my amazing childhood BFF is coming in December and they can't wait to meet her! We had a meeting with our branch presidency meeting Thursday night and we had to stand up and introduce ourselves. This was the 4th or 5th NEW fun fact I had to come up with in like 36 hours so I didn't know what to say so I said that I love to spend my summers teaching at youth tech camps! Whic h is true! Buuuuut,I shouldn't have been surprised when me and Sister Pugmire were called as Branch Technology specialists on Sunday! We will be teaching the Safegaurds for Technology course to all the new missionaries in our branch every week until we leave on September 2nd.
I've had some incredible spiritual experiences this week I want to tell you about! But first, I need to explain my title: I'm CONVERTED!!!!
Brothers and sisters my heart has been very hard for many years. I've refused to see the see the light, no matter how many people that care about me tell me otherwise. I was prideful and told people that I would never convert. But the day has come that my heart has softened and it's time to humbly admit as I write this while kneeling (literally) in shame to all those who I've ignored for so long: I LOVE SAMSUNG PHONES AND THEY ARE SUPERIOR TO APPLE. Brothers and sisters if there is one thing you take away from this email other than that God loves every single one of you personally and knows you better than anyone else and wants to be involved in the details of your life, it's that samsung phones are incredible. I went from having a cracked iphone 6 with a whopping 16gb and battery problems to a Galaxy a7 that has 128gb, has an amazing battery and an amazing camera (with a specific setting for taking pictures of food!!!) and is ridiculously customizable and interfaces with webapps and google services SO. WELL. Half my decrease in stress is probably due to not having phone issues anymore!! Anywho, just had to get that one off my chest.
Here are 3 stories from this week that have strengthened my testimony!
1. Devotional with Tad R. Callister
Elder Callister is one of my favorite general authorities of all times. So I was so excited to hear that he was speaking to us! We also sang there is sunshine in my soul today, which is one of my favorite hymns! His topic was "A Case for the Book of Mormon." He has a book that's called that. Go read it! It talks about how from any way you look at it, the Book of Mormon, time, and science are all BFF's and support each other so much! Every time a critic says something like, "there wasn't barley in pre-columbian ancient america but it's mentioned in the Book of Mormon!" barley gets discovered dating back to mayan times. Same goes for cement, certain names used in the Book of Mormon, archaeology sites, and so much more. Nothing in the history of the world can match the divine eloquence of the Book of Mormon and it's teachings.
I loved this message because I love science AND the Book of Mormon and I've always thought I'd eventually have to choose one. But they support each other! With the full picture, when you support one, you support the other! In my "professional" opinion archaeologists just need to start using the Book of Mormon to fuel their research! ("It says there were elephants? Let's go find us some elephant evidence since we know it's out there in the 98% of archaologic sites we haven't even touched yet!!!")
He quoted Hank Smith (I almost cried haha) and said that "someone with an experience is never at the mercy of someone with an opinion." Love that! Never let limited-minded people hinder what YOU have come to know because of your experiences and the testifying of the spirit! Above all, the spirit is the best witness of the Book of Mormon. I encourage you all to read it and pay close attention to what you feel as you do. The happiness and peace you feel is truth. Your soul knows what truth sounds like. Listen to it!
One last Tad R. Callister quote: The Book of Mormon is not on trial. It's quality and authenticity is non-negotiable. YOU are the one on trial!" He related this to a story of two teenagers that walked out of the Smithesonian that were overheard by a security guard saying it was "meh and unimpressive." ...WHAT.
2. Short and simple: Sarah
We group-taught a girl named Sarah that just got engaged but is not a member of the church. She spends a lot of time at a friend's home who is a member, and was referred to the MTC because she wanted to know why her friend's family was so happy and so loving. She wanted to know why she felt so peaceful every time she entered her friend's home, and wants that for her future family! The answer? Go look it up! It's in the scriptures. I've got some really good quotes for you though if you email me and ask for them! *wink wink*
One thing she said really stood out to me. She said that she's explored a lot of churches, and we're the only one that teaches that we can become just like God and have the same power and love that He has! We can and will become diety!
3. Volleyball (This one's for you, syd)
We played volleyball this week a lot! I'm horrible, but I'm improving! We have a lot of soccer players in our district and they kept hitting it with their heads. I thought, hey I wanna try that! So I prayed and asked for an opportunity to because God is in the details, right? It came a couple minutes later and I lined up, tried to hit it, and it just barely grazed the back of my head. I blame the glasses. I prayed for another opportunity to, but then got distracted because I started coming up with Volleyball/gospel/life metaphors like this one! Several opportunities came, but I epically missed them all because I wasn't hopeful enough that it would come that I didn't even try to hit it! Silly me! Lesson learned: when we pray for an opportunity, expect it to come. Have hope that it will come. Be watching for it. And then you will be prepared and actually hit it when the time comes! If we allow ourselves to be distracted though or don't believe it will come, it won't! (Don't worry, I hit it a lot with my head the next day and made it over the net almost every day! And also have bruised wrists from playing so much volleyball! Syd should be proud.)
Wow, this was really long! Thank you for all your support and your love and all the letters and packages! (triple wink) You are all so amazing and I look up to and miss you all so much! Keep me updated with all the wonderful things you are doing with your lives!
To close, here are some random quotes of the week from our amazing teacher Brother Beagley / other insights / fun facts:
1. We're punished a lot more by our sins than for our sins
2. The best the world can give you is escape. It can't solve any problems. Come unto Christ for solutions!
3. You don't need to know the scriptures so well that you can prove everyone wrong, you just have to know they are true!
4. We are called to serve ALL men. Not just those in Scotland/Ireland! Please let me know if there is ANYTHING I can do to help any of you!
5. You can send Krispy Kremes / Crubml cookies straight to the MTC! (quadruple wink with both eyes open) (I mean, we're told to be bold as missionaries, right?)
I would like to end with the scripture 3rd Nephi 26:9
"And when they shall have recieved this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall beleive these things then shall the greater things be made manifest to them."
It's been hard to not have instant access to knowledge this week since I can't google 5 things a minute like i did before my mission. It has taught me, however, that I don't have to know everything right now to be happy and to follow what I DO know to be true! When we act on what we receive, we receive more!
The translation of receive in this context in Tagalic (a Philipino language, our teachers usually teach missionaries going to the Philipines until they had an emergency English district dropped into their laps with less than a week's notice that we were coming) is to accept. If we accept what we are given from Heavenly Father, he will bless us with more! I invite you all to let God bless your lives as much as he wants to!!!
I love you all so much!!!
Sister Allen
email: bailee.allen@missionary.org
MTC:
Sister Bailee Kaye Allen
SEP03 SCOT-IRE
2005 North 900 East Unit 305
Provo, UT 84602-1793
Mission:
Sister Bailee Kaye Allen
Scotland Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Rd
Edinburgh, Scotland
EH10 5BP
United Kingdom
