I'm so lame! Sorry about not posting last week, crazy stuff happened, and as a result I blanked. Ironically, when I remember to write, it seems like nothing happens. Oh well.
So to play catch up, I'm back to serving with S.Conor! She and S.Mak switched places, so S.Mak and S.Willoughby are back together, this time in London. S.Conor and I are having a lot of fun and working hard, she's really a wonderful missionary to serve with. 
And our area is picking up again! We hit our mission's Standards of Excellence for the second week in a row! BOOYAH! We had eight member present lessons which blew our goal out of the water! And we received and contacted 7 referrals! (just one short of our record 8) I'm just so happy to see a lot of hard work (can we say six months!) paying off. I love it here in Bayview. A lot.
Oh! So crazy stuff. Apparently, in a chapel in some part of the US, a speaker fell from the ceiling and hit someone on the head. The church did some investigating and discovered a structural problem in the building that had led to the accident. They did further investigating and discovered that the structural problem existed in several other buildings as well--including ours. They had to close the Chapel and Gym off, and they will remain inaccessible for up to two weeks while they do the necessary repairs. So in order to accommodate the lack of space, we had to hold two sacrament meetings on Sunday, half of the ward meeting in the primary room and half in the relief society room. It was actually really cool, everyone was packed in and it felt like a big family. I loved it. Next week we'll be holding church at the stake center, which--fun fact--is the largest stake center in the world and the only one with underground parking. Look at the cool things I'm learning.
I'm busy putting together a Bible Study class that we'll be holding every Saturday evening. It's something I've felt prompted to organize for quite some time now and I'm pretty excited. I'm also nervous to see how it goes, so I'm constantly writing and re-writing my lesson plans. But it should be good :)
Anyways, that's all for the week! Take care and keep being awesome!
Love,Sister Makena Bauss
包爱蕾姐妹

Totally finished emailing today, left the library, went shopping, and then realized I hadn't written a post this week! So I'm back!
I swear, every week on Sunday night I have a whole list of things I want to write about and then when Monday comes around, I've forgotten them all. Thank goodness I'm getting decent about regularly recording journal entries.
Oh!!!!! BIG NEWS! We met our new mission president and his wife this week! The Clayton's are amazing! I'm really excited to serve with them. They talked a lot about beginning with the end in mind, understanding the ultimate goal and purpose behind everything that we do as missionaries, or in other words, helping people have eternal families, getting people to the temple. It feels like we are going to be putting a lot more focus on new member work. The mission department has recently made some changes to what it says in Preach My Gospel (the handbook missionaries train from). Before, it was up to the ward and missionaries to work together to decide whether the missionaries or members would lead teaching recent converts after baptism. Now, missionaries hold primary responsibility for teaching the first four months after baptism. Also the church wants new members to be taught more about how the church works, responsibilities of members, and the long term blessings of church membership, etc. before baptism. So now, the fifth lesson is to be taught before baptism. I'm so excited to put this greater focus on "enduring to the end" in our teaching. Baptism is the greatest blessing, it allows us to become free from guilt and find peace in this life. But if one doesn't endure to the end, doesn't continue to place the gospel at the center of their life, eventually new guilt comes and it isn't washed away. We lose the benefits we were so blessed to receive. Discipleship is a daily action and is what helps us become more like Christ on a day to day basis (see video).
Love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Let it be known, this lady here has just broken a Bayview Ward record! I have served longer in Bayview than any  sister missionary ever! Someone can give me a trophy now :) That was the big news for the week, transfer calls. Sister Mak and I are still together in Bayview. I'm assuming Sister Willoughby and Conor are still together in London. Sister Hsiung just got called as a sister training leader. So sounds like she's out of Mandarin work for good. She'll be awesome, but I'm a little bummed, this knocks our chances of ever serving together down to like, zero. :( Oh well!
We're working with some awesome investigators right now and I'm just loving the work. This past two weeks members have just been throwing referrals at us, it's amazing! I'm so excited to get to really teaching these peoples' friends. It's so great to be teaching these people that mean so much to the members I've come to know and love. It really is humbling to see that they trust us with their friends. Over six months in this ward are paying off!
Love you all and hope you keep doing well! Don't forget to be happy and listen to your mommas! Eat green beans and all that good stuff!
Take care,Sister Makena Bauss 包爱蕾姐妹