Week 48!!!

Hi world!

It's been busier than a bee's nest! 

So many meetings have been going on, but it's been so much fun! I've been learning TONS. Just so you know I'm Sister Renlund's number 1 fan. 

We have been able to go on a couple of exchanges with the sisters this week and it has been so much fun! We were able to talk to lots of people and I have learned so much from them! The first exchange was with Sister Anderson.. She is 6 feet tall so you can imagine how that looked. :) It was totally fine, she was KILLING ME the whole time and my abs were BURNING by the end of the day. We knocked on the door of this super passive- aggressive Indian man; who, when I asked where he was from, pointed to his skin and yelled at me... basically I stood there and took it while there was a friendly tower behind me who had my back... @ S. Anderson. She just smiled and we walked away and she busted out laughing. Judist! The second was with Sorella Stolk! She is a Visa waiter.. she's going to Italy so when we went on exchanges we did language study and I was STOKED. She is going to be so awesome in Italy but I would do almost anything to keep her here! She has a really cool story and is one of the most humble humans I have ever met. We were able to have really awesome lesson and give out Books of Mormon.. We ALSO were crying laughing the whole day between teaching people!  The mission is so much fun!

We ended one of our days this last week visiting some less active members who had our skin crawling as they were explaining that there were tons of thieves in their neighborhood who were constantly breaking into their house and stealing everything... ask me if it was dark and we had to walk a mile back to our car. YES. But it was fine. The scariest thing that happened was a man that came up behind us on a bike... it was only scary because I was belting at the top of my lungs in an English accent a hymn... and then BOOM... there he was laughing at me.  I can't remember which hymn it was but I'm sure he does... shoulda made BIG money. 

We serve at the coolest children's museum. I love it! We greet people and talk to everyone. This lady had to get my info before I started, and was super emotional talking about what we do as missionaries... but never wanted us to come teach her less. So open and so closed at the same time! So that happened.

We taught a couple lessons this last week that made our hair GREY. One was with a former lady cop that would shut down the spirit every time she felt it. The best way I could describe her is pheobe off of friends. Kinda a ditz. We testified and testified and gave her 1823793837 chances to accept the gospel and she just couldn't get there... closed off. Then we taught a family that moved here from Ghana Africa 5 years ago! They had met with missionaries in Ghana (too bad it couldn't have been Elder HP) but they kept saying that we didn't think God's word was enough, so we made another book.... he was super hard to get through to... had tons of faith, but just hard!! We challenged him to pray every day to see if God wanted him to read the Book of Mormon, and that we didn't expect him to just believe us... he agreed and the spirit was super strong. SO COOL! Pray for R.A.*! 

One day we were walking down the street and SICK OF NOT FINDING ANYONE. It all of a sudden smelled like the Celestial Kingdom. We hunted down this man that was grilling and I asked if I could take a picture because it smelled so good. Then we taught him and his wife the restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon. :) FOOD BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER. 

I'm so grateful for my mission. It's the best thing I've ever done. I learn so much every day and I realize that it all comes down to how much Heavenly Father loves us. I have an unshakable testimony of it as Jacob did when that punk Sherem walked into town. I love that there is always so much to learn!  Nothing but the truth could be simple and have so much depth at the same time.  All I know is that Heavenly Father sure does know what he is doing and we can bank on the fact that everything will be okay if we live our testimonies and always strive to make them grow... why Jesus Christ was so willing to come down and feel all that we feel would be best answered by a quote from Uncle Shauny "I CAN'T KNOW."

I LOVE YOU!

Love,  S. Bays 

1) Sorella Stolk bearing her testimony in Italian

2) S. Muhlestein... 

3)I asked him if I could take a pic of His food because it smelled good as we were walking down the street... then we taught him his wife the restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon. :) 

4) Naperville

5)S. ANDERSON on exchanges... my abs hurt by the end of that one..

6) Sorella and IIIIIIII (I heart her)