Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Homecoming Talk
Building a strong testimony
Good morning brothers and sisters! It is good to see so many familiar faces! I am so happy to be with you today! Last weekend I returned from the best 2 years of my life! I am so grateful for that experience. I’ve thought about why it has been the best 2 years of my life? It is because I have been teaching people about Jesus Christ and His Church on the earth! I know this is truly Christ’s Church on the earth! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, it has brought be so much happiness in my life! I am grateful I have been asked to speak on one of my favorite things I’ve learned on my mission, that is how to build a strong testimony. I wanted to begin with a scripture.
- In 2 Nephi 32:3 it states, “Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.”
One of the Key Elements of Building a strong testimony:
1. Studying the words of Christ/Studying The Book of Mormon daily
-Studying the Book of Mormon is so important! This is something I have come to love on my mission! I’ve felt the power of Christ’s words help me get through some of the toughest days. Each day I’ve read from The Book of Mormon, I’ve felt so happy! Happiness comes through the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I can testify that each of you is a part of this wonderful plan that Heavenly Father has created for us. You each have a purpose in this plan! God has provided a way for us to be happy here on earth, and that is through the Gospel! What an amazing gift! To maintain and build a strong testimony, we must study The Book of Mormon; we must feast upon the words of Christ!
- I had the privilege to work with a man named Scott Saulnier up in Casper, Wyoming. (Give a brief background about Scott). He was a recent convert to the church, and right after he was baptized he struggled with studying The Book of Mormon daily. He expressed to us how his days would just get “too busy” and he could never find time to study. This is how the adversary works within our lives. He makes us think we are “too busy” to study the scriptures, and keeps our priorities set on things not pertaining to our spiritual wellbeing. Scott knew things needed to change, because he felt the spirit dwindling in his life. The thing he changed was making his study of The Book of Mormon a priority in his life. This is something that I’ve learned throughout my mission. Studying The Book of Mormon is truly the key to inviting the spirit into our everyday lives! Just as we need to eat food and drink water so we are not hungry, we must feast upon the words of Christ to nurture our spiritual needs.
-Something we teach as missionaries almost every single day is The Gospel or Doctrine of Jesus Christ. As a mission we did a “Book of Mormon reading challenge” and my mission President, President McMurray, asked us to focus on these five points. Before my mission I knew these points vaguely. But now they are engraved upon my heart! These points are Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. It was amazing to study The Book of Mormon looking for these specific points, because they are absolutely everywhere! That specific study helped me gain a strong testimony that The Book of Mormon truly testifies of our Savior Jesus Christ and His Gospel!
Faith:
-One of my favorite scriptures that talks about faith is Alma 32:21, which states, “And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” Studying The Book of Mormon builds our Faith upon Jesus Christ! I have seen this countless times as a missionary. The Book of Mormon changes lives, and helps us find our identity and purpose as sons and daughters of God!
- My last transfer up in Casper, Wyoming, my companion and I were blessed to meet a man named Ken and his wife Nicole. Nicole was a returning member, and Ken was not a member! We met them our second Sunday serving in the Casper 9th ward. Our bishop came up to us after sacrament meeting and introduced them to us. He said they wanted us to come and teach them. My companion and I had been talking just days before that we had never had someone come to us, be absolutely “Golden”, and want to be baptized. This was a huge miracle that they came to us and were so prepared! Throughout our time teaching them, we saw how Ken’s faith was recognized and strengthened through studying The Book of Mormon! Ken had actually read The Book of Mormon twice before, but this time he expressed how he wanted to actually study it, and we encouraged him to do so. Ken did not think he had a very strong faith in Christ and His Gospel, but as he shared his testimony with us, it was very evident that his faith was very strong! The thing that strengthened Ken’s faith wasn’t just studying, but it was by his commitment, desire, and action upon his faith. It talks about this aspect later in Alma 32, when it says to “experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith…” To strengthen our faith, we need to act upon the faith we have!
Repentance:
-The Doctrine of Christ is all about action! First is Faith, and then this Faith we gain in Christ and His Gospel leads us to have a strong desire to repent. This process is happening in all of our lives, constantly! As a missionary I saw people gain this desire to repent through their sincerity!
- I want to share another part of Ken’s conversion. In one of our lessons with him and his wife Nicole, we taught him The Word of Wisdom. We had a great discussion about it. One thing he admitted to us was that he had been drinking coffee for most of his life, and that he would drink about a cup each morning. He then told us how he was going to stop drinking coffee that very instant, and never drink it again. This was incredible to us! Ken stopped drinking coffee that day, and hasn’t looked back! This is a perfect example that illustrates how powerful acting in faith truly is! Ken’s faith lead to his action, it lead him to have a desire to change and repent. I learned something about repentance on my mission that has changed me. President McMurray always invited us to have daily repentance. At the beginning of my mission I didn’t really understand this concept, but as I continued to learn and grow I learned how crucial this truly is! Daily repentance means utilizing the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ every single day! As I applied this, it helped refine my actions, and be more aware of the choices I make on a daily basis. All of those little things that we do wrong each day truly add up! Through Jesus Christ’s Atonement, we can all be forgiven not just on Sundays when we partake of the Sacrament, but each and every day. Repentance is so essential to help us come closer to our Savior and our Heavenly Father.
Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost:
-When we are baptized, we make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. We find these covenants in Moroni 4-5 when Moroni teaches us how the sacrament should be administered as he writes the sacramental prayers. These covenants are that we will take upon us the name of Christ, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. It is nice to know that God works the way that He does. Every commandment we receive has blessings associated with it! The blessing of living our baptismal covenants is that we will always have His spirit to be with us. What an amazing promise! After we are baptized we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost! In order to always retain this gift; we need to be living what we have covenanted to do. Each week we have an opportunity to partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants with Heavenly Father. This is how we can continuously live the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The sacrament isn’t something we can only think about on the Sabbath Day, but we need to continuously remember those covenants we make each day, and I think that is how Daily Repentance ties back into everything! As we learn to repent daily, we can truly remember that precious gift Jesus Christ has given to each of us, and have a greater sense of happiness and peace in our lives!
Enduring to the End:
-The last aspect of the Doctrine of Christ is Enduring to the End. This is simply living the rest of the principles every day for the rest of our lives! It is a simple concept, but it takes daily effort to accomplish the mighty task at hand!
- I have an experience from my mission that illustrates this very well. My companion and I had a member bring her friend to church in Greeley Colorado. His name was Tom Jenkins. He seemed interested, and we set up a time to meet with him and teach him. We had our very first lesson with him the very next Wednesday. We taught him The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was a very powerful lesson! After our lesson he told us how he could feel the spirit as soon as we walked into his home. It was a powerful but sweet feeling as we taught him that day. Our next lesson with Tom went just as well. We followed up with him about how his reading went, and he had read the first 14 chapters of The Book of Mormon in 3 days! That is not very common; sometimes we were lucky to get someone to read 2 or 3 chapters between teaching appointments. As we read with him and taught, you could see a fire in his eyes that he didn’t have before. Tom continued to learn and became a strong faithful member of the church. I know that Tom’s testimony came from studying The Book of Mormon sincerely. It was an amazing thing to witness! But the story doesn’t end there! About 6 months later, my companion and I were performing baptisms for the dead in the Fort Collins Colorado Temple with a recent convert, Scott Saulnier, from the ward I was serving in currently. This was Scott’s first time being in the temple performing ordinances! After we finished, we were waiting and talking with Scott about how his experience had been being able to be baptized for his close family members, when I felt a hand on my left shoulder. A man’s voice said “Hey their big guy!” I turned around and it was Tom! We had a great conversation, and he told me that he attends the temple twice a week! It was so amazing to see him there. I was talking with the ward mission leader from Tom’s ward the next day, and he said the ward is calling him “Tom the Baptist” because he attends the temple so much! What an example to me of what Enduring to the End truly is! It is the constant act of living The Gospel of Jesus Christ each and every day! This is the goal that we are all working towards, progressing on the covenant path! As we live The Gospel of Jesus Christ, our testimonies will grow, we will be happier, and we will become fully converted to Jesus Christ and His Church!
Brothers and Sisters, I have loved serving the Lord for the past 2 years! I want to share a scripture that expresses my testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel! Alma 5:45-46 says,
“45 And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?
46 Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.”
Bear testimony
Friday, December 7, 2018
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
9/11/18 | Heavenly Father is mindful of each of us, boy do I love Him!
What a week! I love being a missionary!!! Man time flies, so crazy that it is September 11th! Well, this week went great. We had exchanges with Elder Treanor and Elder Fronk this last Wednesday, and they went great! I was with Elder Treanor. It was a great day and a great exchange! We decided we were going to do a bit of street contacting after dinner, so we went and walked some busy streets of Casper. Well, they were usually busy, but they were kind of dead. We talked to the people we came across, but none were super interested. At about 8:45, we saw this guy sitting in his truck on the side of the road. We walked past him and both of us felt like we definitely needed to talk with this guy. We approached his window and waived hello. He rolled in down, and we talked with him. He was not too interested, but Elder Treanor saw he had a camera around his neck. That struck up a conversation. When it was about to end, Elder Treanor asked if he would take our pictures. He said he would for sure! He got out and actually talked with us for another 45 minutes! It was amazing how just been friendly and asking for him to take our picture, open some doors! At the end of our conversation, after a lot of laughs and then testifying to him of what we knew to be true, we invited him to attend church. He told us, “Well I can’t believe it, but I’m actually going to come and check it out!” We hope and pray he does! How amazing! He took a few pics of us, and then we were off. It is amazing to see the people we are able to touch when we put forth the effort, even when it was not very “busy.” God still provides a way for all of His children to hear about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!! Even thought this man may not join the church anytime soon, we helped him feel the spirit. He will remember that experience someday to when he is completely ready to change. Missions are truly incredible!
We had a lesson with Mark and Debbie again this past week. We read Alma 42 with them. They are starting to read more again on their own. We invited them to church, but they couldn’t make it once again this week. It has been a frustrating time teaching them, not seeing the progress too much, but hopefully someday they will come around! They are great people, who have a great desire to change. All on God’s timetable! Right after that, we had a lesson with a inactive member, Sarah, who we got in contact with a few weeks ago. We talked to her about The Gospel of Jesus Christ, with an emphasis and focus on faith. We read Alma 32:21, 26-30 with her, and had a great discussion about how we can each individually develop and grow our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. She asked us if she should focus her studies in the Book of Mormon, and we said that would be great! We invited her to read daily from The Book of Mormon and to pray daily as well. She said she would, so that is awesome! She hopes to attend church in a week or two! It has been great to see her desire to come back to church since she reached out to us. So amazing!
We had a bunch of member visits, teaching families about missionary work, this past week! We also met and taught Roger and Jerri again, a member and a non member we’ve been working with. They are doing good, coming to church every week (except one since they were out of town) since we’ve been meeting with them! That has been cool to see their knowledge in the gospel grow, and their desire to meet with us grow as well. I love them! We hope and pray they may continue to attend church, and have a desire to meet with us continually!
One of the most exciting lessons we’ve had this past week were with Ken and his wife Nicole. We taught them two more times, and reviewed the Baptismal interview questions with him. He is so prepared and humble. He understood all we have taught him, and has committed to follow all of the gospel standards and commandments. It has been cool to see not only Ken, but his wife change for the better as we’ve taught them! They are both progressing so well. Ken had his Baptismal Interview yesterday, and is all ready to go this Thursday! What a miracle it has been to have Ken and Nicole come into our lives so that we could teach them. Wow! Can’t believe this is all happening so fast. We are looking forward to Thursday night for Ken’s baptism, we can’t wait to see him make those first covenants with God! We are so grateful that they both came into our lives, what a tender mercy from our loving Heavenly Father!
We had dinner last Friday with Angel, Jessica, and Jessica’s boyfriend. Angel is the little 9 year old girl we have been working with. It was a great dinner. We had a great lesson about the Atonement, reading from Alma 7:10-13. She hasn’t attended church in awhile, because they’ve been very busy with different things, but hopefully she starts attending soon! We’re grateful that God sent us to talk with them on the street next to our apartment so that they could start progressing in the gospel. Heavenly Father hand is in all the aspects of our lives, most the time He goes unnoticed. We always need to remember the small and simple blessing that he blesses us with every day. Speaking of this topic, I am grateful to be a missionary. This experience has blessed me now and for eternity. I love Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are all so incredible!
Yesterday, we were determined to visit and contact a ton of people with interest. We didn’t get to talk to a lot of them, haha but it provided us a way to talk with a bunch of random people we wouldn’t have been able to talk with otherwise. Even though we didn’t see much “success” in finding more people to teach, we know we made an impact in someone yesterday through all the rejection!
Well, a lot of you may know this. My time is far spent...... this is very crazy to think about how two years of hard work, studying, preparing, sweat, rejection, enduring both hot and cold days, disappointments, daily fatigue, love, happiness, hardships, and difficulty, has been two of the most joyful years of my entire life! There is nothing like serving the Lord and doing His work! I’ve learned so much throughout my mission, I can’t even begin to write them, it would take up most of this email! Through all of the things I’ve learned, one things stands above them all. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is your Savior. He suffered, bled, and died for us, so we can live with God again. He loved us enough to perform the Atonement, so that we could become perfect like our Father in Heaven. It was the most loving act ever performed, and I’m so grateful for it. I can’t express how much I love Him and my Heavenly Father. I know that The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. If anyone doubts this, please prayerfully study it with an open heart! If you study and ponder about it, you will feel the Holy Ghost touch your heart! Every time I read from its pages, I feel the spirit testify to me that it is truly Christ’s Doctrine! I know that Joseph Smith is truly the prophet that God called to restore the same church that Jesus Christ himself established when He was on the earth. I love and respect the prophet Joseph with all my heart. I know that we have a living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. He receives revelation and guidance for the whole world! He is God’s mouthpiece. All of these things I know to be true were kindled and are continually being fed by a book, The Book of Mormon! What a blessing it has been to teach people about this joy and happiness I’ve experienced my whole life! I’m grateful for the people that Heavenly Father has sent in my path for my companions and I to reach out to. All things are done by and through our Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ! I hope each of you feel how much love I have for this gospel as you’ve read my weekly emails! Because I truly do! :) There has been a scripture running through my mind the last transfer, it is 2 Timothy 4:1-7, which states,
We had a lesson with Mark and Debbie again this past week. We read Alma 42 with them. They are starting to read more again on their own. We invited them to church, but they couldn’t make it once again this week. It has been a frustrating time teaching them, not seeing the progress too much, but hopefully someday they will come around! They are great people, who have a great desire to change. All on God’s timetable! Right after that, we had a lesson with a inactive member, Sarah, who we got in contact with a few weeks ago. We talked to her about The Gospel of Jesus Christ, with an emphasis and focus on faith. We read Alma 32:21, 26-30 with her, and had a great discussion about how we can each individually develop and grow our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. She asked us if she should focus her studies in the Book of Mormon, and we said that would be great! We invited her to read daily from The Book of Mormon and to pray daily as well. She said she would, so that is awesome! She hopes to attend church in a week or two! It has been great to see her desire to come back to church since she reached out to us. So amazing!
We had a bunch of member visits, teaching families about missionary work, this past week! We also met and taught Roger and Jerri again, a member and a non member we’ve been working with. They are doing good, coming to church every week (except one since they were out of town) since we’ve been meeting with them! That has been cool to see their knowledge in the gospel grow, and their desire to meet with us grow as well. I love them! We hope and pray they may continue to attend church, and have a desire to meet with us continually!
One of the most exciting lessons we’ve had this past week were with Ken and his wife Nicole. We taught them two more times, and reviewed the Baptismal interview questions with him. He is so prepared and humble. He understood all we have taught him, and has committed to follow all of the gospel standards and commandments. It has been cool to see not only Ken, but his wife change for the better as we’ve taught them! They are both progressing so well. Ken had his Baptismal Interview yesterday, and is all ready to go this Thursday! What a miracle it has been to have Ken and Nicole come into our lives so that we could teach them. Wow! Can’t believe this is all happening so fast. We are looking forward to Thursday night for Ken’s baptism, we can’t wait to see him make those first covenants with God! We are so grateful that they both came into our lives, what a tender mercy from our loving Heavenly Father!
We had dinner last Friday with Angel, Jessica, and Jessica’s boyfriend. Angel is the little 9 year old girl we have been working with. It was a great dinner. We had a great lesson about the Atonement, reading from Alma 7:10-13. She hasn’t attended church in awhile, because they’ve been very busy with different things, but hopefully she starts attending soon! We’re grateful that God sent us to talk with them on the street next to our apartment so that they could start progressing in the gospel. Heavenly Father hand is in all the aspects of our lives, most the time He goes unnoticed. We always need to remember the small and simple blessing that he blesses us with every day. Speaking of this topic, I am grateful to be a missionary. This experience has blessed me now and for eternity. I love Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are all so incredible!
Yesterday, we were determined to visit and contact a ton of people with interest. We didn’t get to talk to a lot of them, haha but it provided us a way to talk with a bunch of random people we wouldn’t have been able to talk with otherwise. Even though we didn’t see much “success” in finding more people to teach, we know we made an impact in someone yesterday through all the rejection!
Well, a lot of you may know this. My time is far spent...... this is very crazy to think about how two years of hard work, studying, preparing, sweat, rejection, enduring both hot and cold days, disappointments, daily fatigue, love, happiness, hardships, and difficulty, has been two of the most joyful years of my entire life! There is nothing like serving the Lord and doing His work! I’ve learned so much throughout my mission, I can’t even begin to write them, it would take up most of this email! Through all of the things I’ve learned, one things stands above them all. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is your Savior. He suffered, bled, and died for us, so we can live with God again. He loved us enough to perform the Atonement, so that we could become perfect like our Father in Heaven. It was the most loving act ever performed, and I’m so grateful for it. I can’t express how much I love Him and my Heavenly Father. I know that The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. If anyone doubts this, please prayerfully study it with an open heart! If you study and ponder about it, you will feel the Holy Ghost touch your heart! Every time I read from its pages, I feel the spirit testify to me that it is truly Christ’s Doctrine! I know that Joseph Smith is truly the prophet that God called to restore the same church that Jesus Christ himself established when He was on the earth. I love and respect the prophet Joseph with all my heart. I know that we have a living prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. He receives revelation and guidance for the whole world! He is God’s mouthpiece. All of these things I know to be true were kindled and are continually being fed by a book, The Book of Mormon! What a blessing it has been to teach people about this joy and happiness I’ve experienced my whole life! I’m grateful for the people that Heavenly Father has sent in my path for my companions and I to reach out to. All things are done by and through our Father in Heaven and His son, Jesus Christ! I hope each of you feel how much love I have for this gospel as you’ve read my weekly emails! Because I truly do! :) There has been a scripture running through my mind the last transfer, it is 2 Timothy 4:1-7, which states,
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
My mission has changed me, it has refined me, and it has defined what I will be for the rest of my life. I hope to continue and become the disciple I need to be for my Savior Jesus Christ! I may be released as a full time missionary soon, but I will never stop doing missionary work! I want to continue what has brought me such an insurmountable amount of happiness and joy for the past two years, for the rest of my life! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way we can feel this pure joy and happiness, and I know as we all love the teaching of Jesus, and live by them each day, we can all find happiness, peace, comfort, and joy in an ever changing world! I want to thank you all for supporting me in this endeavor. I’ve been blessed with the best mission President and wife, President and Sister McMurray, the best parents, siblings, grandparents, extended family, and dear friends who have helped me through these two years. Thank you. I am so blessed to have each of you in my life! I love you all so much! I will see you all shortly, but for now I am still Elder Bailey and have a calling to finish! Have a wonderful rest of your week!
Love,
Elder Bailey
1-2: helped a member get a coyote tail off of a hide he is preparing to be tanned! (Smelled like straight up death......)
3: alleyway in downtown Casper, while we were street contacting!
4: said bye to Scott Saulnier!
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
9/4/18 | What a fantastic week to be a servant of the Lord! :)
Well let’s just get into the week! Last Tuesday night we went and contacted a referral we received from a member of another ward here in Casper. The man was so happy to see us! He is in a wheel chair due to a disorder, and has become interested in learning more again about our church! He has been making some business deals with members of the church from Utah, and he was so amazed and impressed with how honest they all were, so he felt inspired to reach out to his member friend to send us over! We talked with him, set up a time to meet, and he asked us if he could have a copy of The Book of Mormon! Of course we handed one to him, and we invited him to read from it and pray to ask God to know if it is true. He said he would! He pushed our lesson back to yesterday. We showed up at his house and he didn’t answer! Too bad, but we’ll get him this week! I love meeting elect people who are ready to listen and learn!
Speaking of elect people, Ken is honestly the most elect person to enter into my life as a missionary, no joke! We taught him last Tuesday, Sunday, and Monday, three times in a week! Wow! He is the man who moved from technically Las Vegas, but pretty much Missoula. (Long story! So I can’t fit it all in here :). We hadn’t received his record yet from the sisters in Vegas, so we just decided to go over all the lessons anyways. We taught him The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ over the course of those three lessons! We tied in a couple commandments while we taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that was good too! During our first lesson last Tuesday, Ken had mentioned how he wanted Elder Godfrey and I to teach him everything, and work with him up to his baptism. Ken has previously studied with missionaries since February of this year, so he knows all of the lessons. We were expecting his record to be full of lessons, but when we finally got it he had only been taught The Restoration (according to the missionaries records, which may be a bit spotty......). We think Ken was taught more, but they forgot to record it. Anyways, we decided and agreed to teach him all of the lessons anyways! Sounds like the other missionaries couldn’t meet up with them too often, because Ken knows a ton, but never got baptized. Since he had met with missionaries, he has had a few spiritual experiences, including one incredible answer to a prayer! Another cool long story, but it is all summed up with Ken knows the church is true now, and he wants to be baptized! In our lesson on Sunday, we taught him and invited him to be baptized on September 13th! (He has Thursday’s off from work, and it worked out so Elder Godfrey and I can both be at his baptism! Amazing!). He accepted, and we shared a plan with him to help him be ready by then! He had so many questions that we were able to answer as well. He has been reading The Book of Mormon a bunch, studied and prayed over all of the Pamphlets, and has kept all the commitments we’ve given him! He is incredible! The third lesson went so well! We had a young man who is leaving on his mission in October as a member present! Ken understands the gospel, and is so intelligent, it is amazing! At the end of this lesson, Ken and his wife Nicole, thanked us. It was one of the most sincere appreciative comments I’ve ever received. It has been a special experience teaching Ken so far, and we can’t wait to continue to help him on his path to conversion! What a miracle!
Last Wednesday we had a priest, who is starting his senior year of high school, come with us for the day! His name is Devan. Devan recently joined the church about a year ago. He joined on his own, his parents aren’t even members! How amazing is that!? We picked him up at 8:15, and we had him for his “Micro Mission” as we called it, and it went amazing! We had great studies, good insights, great practice and role plays, and a great time doing the work! We had lunch with Scott, the recent covert, and we taught him another after baptism lesson. The most special experience we had was while we were Tracting. We decided to tract in a trailer park near our apartment, and Elder Godfrey and I went first so that we could show Devan how we approach doors. On his first door he ever knocked on, the lady was busy, but wanted us to come back! She asked for a copy of The Book of Mormon, and Devan gladly gave it to her! He was so happy! And excited because Elder Godfrey and I had both gotten rejected pretty hard, haha! After another couple times of us all being rejected, and after some time of Tracting, on the last door we planned to knock that day, it was again Devan’s turn to knock, a native women answered, she said “oh look, it’s the cute Mormon boys!” She was slightly drunk, but not horribly drunk. We talked with her, and she wasn’t open at all. After we testified to her about The Book of Mormon, she asked us why bad stuff happens to good people. Elder Godfrey pulled out Alma 14, and talked about how God has given us all agency, and sometimes good people are hurt due to bad peoples decisions. She started to cry, and later asked us for a blessing (her grandparents are members.). So we gave her a blessing, and Devan was able to give her a copy of The Book of Mormon and we testified that as she read she would feel peace, comfort, and hope! She said she would read and pray. Devan was absolutely stoked! The rest of our day went well, and he told us and a member family we stopped by for some water, that he did have a stronger desire to serve a mission now! I surely hope that us being with him helped him! Elder Godfrey and I fasted and prayed that we would see some amazing experiences, we know God answers our prayers! :)
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Petersen this past week. He is a good guy, this is his first transfer as a missionary! We had a great time! We Tracted (of course:), worked with members, gave a blessing to a Sister missionary who asked for one, set up appointments to work with more members, and had a great lesson with Mark and Debbie! It was a great day! I was surprised we didn’t get any comments in our companionship for the day. Elder Petersen is about 5’ 1”, so it was a good difference between us! Haha.
We had our Car Fast/No Drive Day this past Saturday, and we had Mark, the person we are teaching, give us a ride to the other side of town so we could do work in the Casper 9th Ward area. We visited a bunch of members, and had a lot of success! We inactive man told us his wife wasn’t ready yet, but when she is he would call us to come and teach his whole family. We gave him our number, and he was so grateful we had stopped by! Hope that benefits the work here in the future! This random guy we talked to on the street, after he rejected us and we asked him if he knew anyone we could reach out to, pointed towards his neighbors house and told us to try them. We did, and as we introduced ourselves, the lady told us that they were members! We had missed them on our area book map! We scheduled a return appointment with them next week! These exact Members turns out to be someone who the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric, my cousin Brother Whitlock, asked us to go try sometime! Miracle! So amazing the guy guided us to them, even if he didn’t mean to, the Spirit was definitely guiding him! Super cool! We also had some born again Christians poke their head outside of their door and asked why we skipped their house. They invited us in, and we had a semi friendly conversation about what we believe, and we answered a bunch of their questions! They didn’t agree with a few things, but we left them with a copy of The Book of Mormon to read and pray about. They said they’d give it a try, so hopefully they check it out! That was a first on my mission, to get called into someone’s house to teach them, and it wasn’t contentious! Haha, amazing!
Sunday was amazing! It was a great opportunity because we got to bear our testimonies two times because we are covering two wards. What a blessing! The Casper 6th Ward has struggled with supporting us as missionaries, but lately since we started to focus on working with individual families, it has gotten a lot better! Anyways, we had President Davies, the 2nd Counselor in our mission presidency, attend our Fast and Testimony Meeting. We did not see him until he got up to bear his testimony. When we saw him, I quickly went up so I could be right after him! He said some very nice things about us, and testified a strong testimony about missionary work! After I shared mine, Elder Godfrey shared his. Then one by one missionaries from the crowd started to come up to share amazing testimonies about missionary work! Some senior missionaries serving in Martin’s cove, a couple who happened to be attending our sacrament meeting in their way from the MTC to their mission in Minnesota, a couple kids with mission calls, some service missionaries, and some random visitors who had served missions recently. The Spirit was so strong, it was amazing! Then a member of the ward council, who we had shared a message with last Wednesday, got up and bore his testimony about how the message we were sharing was amazing, and that if their were any families who hadn’t had us over to share it, they should! It was such an amazing meeting, and we’ve never felt so much love before in this ward! Truly a neat experience! Hopefully this helps the ward in the future, we know it will! The rest of our meetings were amazing, but that one trumped it all! I love feeling the spirit! :) I honestly couldn’t stop smiling after that meeting!
In my studies this past week, and Mormon 3:22 stood out to me. It states,
Speaking of elect people, Ken is honestly the most elect person to enter into my life as a missionary, no joke! We taught him last Tuesday, Sunday, and Monday, three times in a week! Wow! He is the man who moved from technically Las Vegas, but pretty much Missoula. (Long story! So I can’t fit it all in here :). We hadn’t received his record yet from the sisters in Vegas, so we just decided to go over all the lessons anyways. We taught him The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ over the course of those three lessons! We tied in a couple commandments while we taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that was good too! During our first lesson last Tuesday, Ken had mentioned how he wanted Elder Godfrey and I to teach him everything, and work with him up to his baptism. Ken has previously studied with missionaries since February of this year, so he knows all of the lessons. We were expecting his record to be full of lessons, but when we finally got it he had only been taught The Restoration (according to the missionaries records, which may be a bit spotty......). We think Ken was taught more, but they forgot to record it. Anyways, we decided and agreed to teach him all of the lessons anyways! Sounds like the other missionaries couldn’t meet up with them too often, because Ken knows a ton, but never got baptized. Since he had met with missionaries, he has had a few spiritual experiences, including one incredible answer to a prayer! Another cool long story, but it is all summed up with Ken knows the church is true now, and he wants to be baptized! In our lesson on Sunday, we taught him and invited him to be baptized on September 13th! (He has Thursday’s off from work, and it worked out so Elder Godfrey and I can both be at his baptism! Amazing!). He accepted, and we shared a plan with him to help him be ready by then! He had so many questions that we were able to answer as well. He has been reading The Book of Mormon a bunch, studied and prayed over all of the Pamphlets, and has kept all the commitments we’ve given him! He is incredible! The third lesson went so well! We had a young man who is leaving on his mission in October as a member present! Ken understands the gospel, and is so intelligent, it is amazing! At the end of this lesson, Ken and his wife Nicole, thanked us. It was one of the most sincere appreciative comments I’ve ever received. It has been a special experience teaching Ken so far, and we can’t wait to continue to help him on his path to conversion! What a miracle!
Last Wednesday we had a priest, who is starting his senior year of high school, come with us for the day! His name is Devan. Devan recently joined the church about a year ago. He joined on his own, his parents aren’t even members! How amazing is that!? We picked him up at 8:15, and we had him for his “Micro Mission” as we called it, and it went amazing! We had great studies, good insights, great practice and role plays, and a great time doing the work! We had lunch with Scott, the recent covert, and we taught him another after baptism lesson. The most special experience we had was while we were Tracting. We decided to tract in a trailer park near our apartment, and Elder Godfrey and I went first so that we could show Devan how we approach doors. On his first door he ever knocked on, the lady was busy, but wanted us to come back! She asked for a copy of The Book of Mormon, and Devan gladly gave it to her! He was so happy! And excited because Elder Godfrey and I had both gotten rejected pretty hard, haha! After another couple times of us all being rejected, and after some time of Tracting, on the last door we planned to knock that day, it was again Devan’s turn to knock, a native women answered, she said “oh look, it’s the cute Mormon boys!” She was slightly drunk, but not horribly drunk. We talked with her, and she wasn’t open at all. After we testified to her about The Book of Mormon, she asked us why bad stuff happens to good people. Elder Godfrey pulled out Alma 14, and talked about how God has given us all agency, and sometimes good people are hurt due to bad peoples decisions. She started to cry, and later asked us for a blessing (her grandparents are members.). So we gave her a blessing, and Devan was able to give her a copy of The Book of Mormon and we testified that as she read she would feel peace, comfort, and hope! She said she would read and pray. Devan was absolutely stoked! The rest of our day went well, and he told us and a member family we stopped by for some water, that he did have a stronger desire to serve a mission now! I surely hope that us being with him helped him! Elder Godfrey and I fasted and prayed that we would see some amazing experiences, we know God answers our prayers! :)
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Petersen this past week. He is a good guy, this is his first transfer as a missionary! We had a great time! We Tracted (of course:), worked with members, gave a blessing to a Sister missionary who asked for one, set up appointments to work with more members, and had a great lesson with Mark and Debbie! It was a great day! I was surprised we didn’t get any comments in our companionship for the day. Elder Petersen is about 5’ 1”, so it was a good difference between us! Haha.
We had our Car Fast/No Drive Day this past Saturday, and we had Mark, the person we are teaching, give us a ride to the other side of town so we could do work in the Casper 9th Ward area. We visited a bunch of members, and had a lot of success! We inactive man told us his wife wasn’t ready yet, but when she is he would call us to come and teach his whole family. We gave him our number, and he was so grateful we had stopped by! Hope that benefits the work here in the future! This random guy we talked to on the street, after he rejected us and we asked him if he knew anyone we could reach out to, pointed towards his neighbors house and told us to try them. We did, and as we introduced ourselves, the lady told us that they were members! We had missed them on our area book map! We scheduled a return appointment with them next week! These exact Members turns out to be someone who the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric, my cousin Brother Whitlock, asked us to go try sometime! Miracle! So amazing the guy guided us to them, even if he didn’t mean to, the Spirit was definitely guiding him! Super cool! We also had some born again Christians poke their head outside of their door and asked why we skipped their house. They invited us in, and we had a semi friendly conversation about what we believe, and we answered a bunch of their questions! They didn’t agree with a few things, but we left them with a copy of The Book of Mormon to read and pray about. They said they’d give it a try, so hopefully they check it out! That was a first on my mission, to get called into someone’s house to teach them, and it wasn’t contentious! Haha, amazing!
Sunday was amazing! It was a great opportunity because we got to bear our testimonies two times because we are covering two wards. What a blessing! The Casper 6th Ward has struggled with supporting us as missionaries, but lately since we started to focus on working with individual families, it has gotten a lot better! Anyways, we had President Davies, the 2nd Counselor in our mission presidency, attend our Fast and Testimony Meeting. We did not see him until he got up to bear his testimony. When we saw him, I quickly went up so I could be right after him! He said some very nice things about us, and testified a strong testimony about missionary work! After I shared mine, Elder Godfrey shared his. Then one by one missionaries from the crowd started to come up to share amazing testimonies about missionary work! Some senior missionaries serving in Martin’s cove, a couple who happened to be attending our sacrament meeting in their way from the MTC to their mission in Minnesota, a couple kids with mission calls, some service missionaries, and some random visitors who had served missions recently. The Spirit was so strong, it was amazing! Then a member of the ward council, who we had shared a message with last Wednesday, got up and bore his testimony about how the message we were sharing was amazing, and that if their were any families who hadn’t had us over to share it, they should! It was such an amazing meeting, and we’ve never felt so much love before in this ward! Truly a neat experience! Hopefully this helps the ward in the future, we know it will! The rest of our meetings were amazing, but that one trumped it all! I love feeling the spirit! :) I honestly couldn’t stop smiling after that meeting!
In my studies this past week, and Mormon 3:22 stood out to me. It states,
22 And I would that I could persuade all ye ends of the earth to repent and prepare to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.
Now is the time to prepare! We must do the small things daily and weekly, read our scriptures, pray, Attend Church (partake of the sacrament). All of these things help us to prepare, and endure to the end! I hope you all are having a great time feeling the Spirit in your lives! We can always feel the spirit, especially when we have the Gift of the Holy Ghost! Do what is necessary to invite the Spirit daily! Hope you all have a fantastic week! Good luck Jenna and Mike! The new baby coming will be so fun!!!! Can’t wait to see pictures of little tiny Emma! :)
Love,
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1. President and Sister Davies at church! :)
2. Pretty Wyoming sunset!
3. District Preparation Day today! Elder Fronk and I won the big prizes because we were 1st and 2nd in bowling! Wooo!
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
8/28/18 | Zone Conference! President McMurray is the man!!
Another great week as a missionary here in Casper Wyoming! I’m lovin it! We had a great lesson with the random man, Ken, and his wife this past Tuesday. We talked about what he has learned so far. We had a great discussion about this, and what the plan is going forward! Ken wants to continue to progress and learn so he can get baptized and sealed to his wife, who is returning to activity! How amazing is that? I mentioned this last week, that they just moved here from Las Vegas, and they just showed up to church last week. Miracles! We will be teaching him again tonight again, so that will be awesome!
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Fuller this past Wednesday, and we had a pretty good day together! We did some nice quality service at a thrift shop, and had to help out some other missionaries at a service too. We had a very strange lesson with some people we’ve been working with as well. Their son attended, and he has some strange views....... we weren’t able to teach them to effectively, but we are hoping our next lesson goes better. We went Tracting after dinner, and we were able to find four people with interest, and they all accepted copies of The Book of Mormon! So awesome! The last 30 minutes of the day, 8:30-9:00 we didn’t have many people answer, and those who did weren’t too excited about seeing us, but we were grateful for the four people who were nice and interested! So many blessings! I love it!
Elder Godfrey and Elder Fuller had to go practice their musical number, so we met them up at the Morado Building, and the Zone Leaders were there with another set of elders setting up for Zone Conference. So we helped them out while those guys practiced. We headed to go and Weekly Plan, and we got a message from Elder Tippetts! He was in Casper visiting, so he came and said hi to us. It was so fun! I was able to meet his parents, and they are just as amazing as I thought they would be! We had a great visit, and it was so nice that Sister Tippetts sent you guys a Happy Anniversary video from me! Glad I could wish my wonderful parents a happy anniversary! Man do I love the Tippett family, they're amazing! Glad they could say hello to Elder Godfrey and I.
We had our Zone Conference last Friday, and it was just as amazing as I was expecting! We had amazing trainings by President and Sister McMurray, as always, and some amazing trainings from the assistants and STL’s. We learned a lot about the importance of Diligence and working with members! President McMurray shared a General Conference Talk by Elder F. David Stanley from April 1993. Wow, this was powerful! If you have time, go find it on the Gospel Library! Truly amazing! It is our decision to joyfully endure to the end! We need to all make that decision and do what is necessary to remain happy in this life! Overall it was incredible! Crazy thing is I was asked to give my departing testimony......... wow, how crazy..... but it went very well! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to bear my testimony to the zone. We had a nice training from the Zone Leaders in our Zone Breakout session, and they invited us to talk with everyone! I love that! I had the chance to see the Bakers from Riverton, they were visiting for our Zone Conference. It was so fun to see them! Elder Godfrey and I were the last interviews, so we waited and talked with Sister McMurray until that time came. Sister McMurray is awesome! We had some great discussions. It was finally my turn for my interview. This interview with President McMurray was absolutely incredible! We talked about a lot of things to help me stay on the covenant path. Such amazing advice and counsel! He shared a scripture that really impacted me that I wanted to share with you. It is Mosiah 2:41 which states,
41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
The key to being happy in our lives is keeping the commandments! Do all that God needs us to do! How amazing is that? He invited me to follow God’s Commandments, and to do the little things each day and week to do so. I will heed upon his counsel! I would invite you guys to think about any way you can keep God’s Commandments for us, and how you can better do the small and simple things to build up your testimony each day. You will be blessed as you do so! Anyways, just some thoughts from this scripture. President McMurray, I’m truly convinced, the best mission president on planet earth! Bold statement, but with the amount of love, power, and conviction that comes when he testifies and teaches you is astounding! I love him and Sister McMurray so much! After our interview, it was about 7:30 when we got out. President asked us if we had dinner plans, and we told him that dinner had never gotten back to us. He offered to take us out to eat! How nice of him! We followed them over to Dsasumo Thai and Sushi, and boy was it good! We had some great talked with President and Sister McMurray over dinner, it was great. I’m so grateful for them both, they are so kind. What a treat to end off an incredible day!
On Saturday, a member family had us over for dinner and they have this new foreign exchange student that just came here to go to school. She is from Moldova! So cool! It is between Romania and Ukraine. We had caught wind of this a few weeks ago, so we had the assistants bring up a Romanian copy of The Book of Mormon for this girl, Julia. After we ate with the family and got to know her, we had a great lesson about Alma 32:21 centered on Faith! We gave Julia the Romanian copy of The Book of Mormon, and had her follow along in her own language! (They speak Romanian in Moldova:) It was really cool! The Spirit was definitely present. The family attended a friend’s child of record baptism, so she has already seen a baptism, and she came to church yesterday! The bishop welcomed her from over the pulpit, so she felt very welcomed! Amazing! We are hoping she learns more and gains a desire to eventually enter into the waters of baptism. Baby steps, but she will continue to learn and have a desire to be baptized eventually! Julia is so ready! I love little miracles like these! :)
We had Jeri come to Sacrament Meeting as well with her returning to activity member friend Brother Thomas! That is exciting! Four weeks in a row! Long live the streak!!! Hopefully she continues to attend. Julia, the foreign exchange student, came as well. Super awesome! Ken didn’t make it.... sadly, but we should see him tonight and see what is up!
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Fuller this past Wednesday, and we had a pretty good day together! We did some nice quality service at a thrift shop, and had to help out some other missionaries at a service too. We had a very strange lesson with some people we’ve been working with as well. Their son attended, and he has some strange views....... we weren’t able to teach them to effectively, but we are hoping our next lesson goes better. We went Tracting after dinner, and we were able to find four people with interest, and they all accepted copies of The Book of Mormon! So awesome! The last 30 minutes of the day, 8:30-9:00 we didn’t have many people answer, and those who did weren’t too excited about seeing us, but we were grateful for the four people who were nice and interested! So many blessings! I love it!
Elder Godfrey and Elder Fuller had to go practice their musical number, so we met them up at the Morado Building, and the Zone Leaders were there with another set of elders setting up for Zone Conference. So we helped them out while those guys practiced. We headed to go and Weekly Plan, and we got a message from Elder Tippetts! He was in Casper visiting, so he came and said hi to us. It was so fun! I was able to meet his parents, and they are just as amazing as I thought they would be! We had a great visit, and it was so nice that Sister Tippetts sent you guys a Happy Anniversary video from me! Glad I could wish my wonderful parents a happy anniversary! Man do I love the Tippett family, they're amazing! Glad they could say hello to Elder Godfrey and I.
We had our Zone Conference last Friday, and it was just as amazing as I was expecting! We had amazing trainings by President and Sister McMurray, as always, and some amazing trainings from the assistants and STL’s. We learned a lot about the importance of Diligence and working with members! President McMurray shared a General Conference Talk by Elder F. David Stanley from April 1993. Wow, this was powerful! If you have time, go find it on the Gospel Library! Truly amazing! It is our decision to joyfully endure to the end! We need to all make that decision and do what is necessary to remain happy in this life! Overall it was incredible! Crazy thing is I was asked to give my departing testimony......... wow, how crazy..... but it went very well! I’m so glad I had the opportunity to bear my testimony to the zone. We had a nice training from the Zone Leaders in our Zone Breakout session, and they invited us to talk with everyone! I love that! I had the chance to see the Bakers from Riverton, they were visiting for our Zone Conference. It was so fun to see them! Elder Godfrey and I were the last interviews, so we waited and talked with Sister McMurray until that time came. Sister McMurray is awesome! We had some great discussions. It was finally my turn for my interview. This interview with President McMurray was absolutely incredible! We talked about a lot of things to help me stay on the covenant path. Such amazing advice and counsel! He shared a scripture that really impacted me that I wanted to share with you. It is Mosiah 2:41 which states,
41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
The key to being happy in our lives is keeping the commandments! Do all that God needs us to do! How amazing is that? He invited me to follow God’s Commandments, and to do the little things each day and week to do so. I will heed upon his counsel! I would invite you guys to think about any way you can keep God’s Commandments for us, and how you can better do the small and simple things to build up your testimony each day. You will be blessed as you do so! Anyways, just some thoughts from this scripture. President McMurray, I’m truly convinced, the best mission president on planet earth! Bold statement, but with the amount of love, power, and conviction that comes when he testifies and teaches you is astounding! I love him and Sister McMurray so much! After our interview, it was about 7:30 when we got out. President asked us if we had dinner plans, and we told him that dinner had never gotten back to us. He offered to take us out to eat! How nice of him! We followed them over to Dsasumo Thai and Sushi, and boy was it good! We had some great talked with President and Sister McMurray over dinner, it was great. I’m so grateful for them both, they are so kind. What a treat to end off an incredible day!
On Saturday, a member family had us over for dinner and they have this new foreign exchange student that just came here to go to school. She is from Moldova! So cool! It is between Romania and Ukraine. We had caught wind of this a few weeks ago, so we had the assistants bring up a Romanian copy of The Book of Mormon for this girl, Julia. After we ate with the family and got to know her, we had a great lesson about Alma 32:21 centered on Faith! We gave Julia the Romanian copy of The Book of Mormon, and had her follow along in her own language! (They speak Romanian in Moldova:) It was really cool! The Spirit was definitely present. The family attended a friend’s child of record baptism, so she has already seen a baptism, and she came to church yesterday! The bishop welcomed her from over the pulpit, so she felt very welcomed! Amazing! We are hoping she learns more and gains a desire to eventually enter into the waters of baptism. Baby steps, but she will continue to learn and have a desire to be baptized eventually! Julia is so ready! I love little miracles like these! :)
We had Jeri come to Sacrament Meeting as well with her returning to activity member friend Brother Thomas! That is exciting! Four weeks in a row! Long live the streak!!! Hopefully she continues to attend. Julia, the foreign exchange student, came as well. Super awesome! Ken didn’t make it.... sadly, but we should see him tonight and see what is up!
We received a referral from a member from another ward, and we are going to contact the guy tonight, stay tuned to hear how that goes next week! :)
While we were eating dinner with President McMurray, a random senior couple missionaries came up in conversation, and apparently president had been looking for this couple for a few months. They are in our ward, and work at the interpretive trails center up here in Casper! They are apparently assigned to our mission, so president was eager to meet them. Him and Sister McMurray visited them last Saturday, and invited them to Zone Conference and district meetings! So now Elder and Sister Thorup are in our district! How fun! We called them up and invited them to our next district meeting, so that should be fun! Great news, and glad we found them. Heavenly Father definitely guided our conversation to talk about this senior couple so they could start being a part of everything! I love it! (Hope this all makes sense haha)
In D&C 58:26-28 it says,
26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
It is our choice to act, we are agents unto ourselves! Choose this day to serve God forever and always! I know that I will do this, and I hope and pray that we can all become true servants and disciples of Jesus Christ! I love you guys, and I hope you have another fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1: Cam the Man!
2: 5 generations! Love these guys!
3. Brother and Sister Baker from Riverton!
4. Dinner with President and Sister McMurray!
5. Nice bear we found
6. Pday hike today!
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
8/21/18 | California's making us Smokey!!!
What a great week! As you can tell by the title of my email, Casper has been super smokey, especially the last couple of days! It has been super weird, sad to think how many fires are happening around. Hope they get put out soon! Other than the smoke and some rain, it has been a great week! Like I mentioned last week, I had the opportunity to perform another Baptismal interview for man named Eric. It was so amazing to hear Eric’s testimony and how he found out for himself that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, Joseph Smith and Russell M. Nelson are prophets of God, and that this is Jesus Christ’s church on the earth today! What an amazing thing to hear someone bear testimony about! I love it! Every time I hear someone’s testimony, it strengthens and reaffirms my own, because of the strong spirit that it invites! I love this gospel, I love my Savior, and I am grateful for my opportunity to be a full time missionary!
The second counselor in the bishopric in the Casper 9th Ward, Brother Whitlock, brought us with him to share a message with two people last Wednesday. It was awesome to be out with a member to visit those in need. With one of the people we visited, we were able to share a brief message about our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement! Truly amazing! The other individual we visited we did not have time to share a message, but we listened intently to what she had to say, and administered the sacrament to her because she cannot attend church regularly. It was very neat to visit these people! Brother Whitlock brought us out to lunch afterwards, so that was so nice of him to do! I love the members here, they are awesome!
We were Tracting this past week, and decided to use the last five minutes until we had to head to dinner to walk down a street and talk to anyone who was outside. We met this man, and he let us talk with him a little about the Restoration. He listened, but politely told us that he was not interested. We asked him if he knew of anyone that could use an uplifting message or who was going through a rough time that we could reach out to? He thought for a second, and said that there was someone from work. He told us he didn’t know his address, but that he would text it to us. So we gave him our number. Honestly, we did not expect him to text us. We hoped he did, but usually when people have taken our number in the past, they don’t call us or text us. The next day however, we got a call! We had no idea who it was, then he said “I’m the guy you talked to yesterday on the street!” We were a little shocked, but glad he called! He told us that he got the address and would text it to us. But he said it was funny that the guy was already Mormon, but would love to have us stop by! Crazy right?! Turns out he is in another ward, so we told the missionaries to go visit him. He is an inactive member who has a desire to come back. So amazing that we were guided to that guy to get in contact with this member! Cool little miracle!
We received a referral for an inactive lady in our ward who wanted us to stop by. She had recently left her place and is staying in a motel in a sketchy part of town until she find a permanent residence within our ward again. We met her at the motel, and there were a ton of very interesting people there! When we got there, a lady’s car had died. So we helped her push her dead car into a parking spot. We met on the balcony of the motel and read Alma 7:10-13 with the inactive lady and talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement with her. She expressed a great desire to attend church and start to come back to church! How amazing! We have another lesson with her this Thursday, so we are excited to meet with her again! That same night we taught Jerri and Brother Thomas. Jerri is not a member. Her and Brother Thomas have been best friends for years, and we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants with them! We had another great lesson with them, and they came to church again for the third week in a row! We truly know that our visits are helping them continue to progress in the gospel! I love it. We met with them every Thursday night, so that will be another great lesson again this week!
After those lessons that night, we went out to contact some of the people with interest we are working with, and we set up many return appointments and talked to a man in a trailer park who accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon! We actually met all of our daily finding goals after dinner, so that was a huge blessing and miracle! It is amazing how the Lord provides the people and a way to further his work on His timetable, that is an amazing thing to witness daily!
The second counselor in the bishopric in the Casper 9th Ward, Brother Whitlock, brought us with him to share a message with two people last Wednesday. It was awesome to be out with a member to visit those in need. With one of the people we visited, we were able to share a brief message about our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement! Truly amazing! The other individual we visited we did not have time to share a message, but we listened intently to what she had to say, and administered the sacrament to her because she cannot attend church regularly. It was very neat to visit these people! Brother Whitlock brought us out to lunch afterwards, so that was so nice of him to do! I love the members here, they are awesome!
We were Tracting this past week, and decided to use the last five minutes until we had to head to dinner to walk down a street and talk to anyone who was outside. We met this man, and he let us talk with him a little about the Restoration. He listened, but politely told us that he was not interested. We asked him if he knew of anyone that could use an uplifting message or who was going through a rough time that we could reach out to? He thought for a second, and said that there was someone from work. He told us he didn’t know his address, but that he would text it to us. So we gave him our number. Honestly, we did not expect him to text us. We hoped he did, but usually when people have taken our number in the past, they don’t call us or text us. The next day however, we got a call! We had no idea who it was, then he said “I’m the guy you talked to yesterday on the street!” We were a little shocked, but glad he called! He told us that he got the address and would text it to us. But he said it was funny that the guy was already Mormon, but would love to have us stop by! Crazy right?! Turns out he is in another ward, so we told the missionaries to go visit him. He is an inactive member who has a desire to come back. So amazing that we were guided to that guy to get in contact with this member! Cool little miracle!
We received a referral for an inactive lady in our ward who wanted us to stop by. She had recently left her place and is staying in a motel in a sketchy part of town until she find a permanent residence within our ward again. We met her at the motel, and there were a ton of very interesting people there! When we got there, a lady’s car had died. So we helped her push her dead car into a parking spot. We met on the balcony of the motel and read Alma 7:10-13 with the inactive lady and talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement with her. She expressed a great desire to attend church and start to come back to church! How amazing! We have another lesson with her this Thursday, so we are excited to meet with her again! That same night we taught Jerri and Brother Thomas. Jerri is not a member. Her and Brother Thomas have been best friends for years, and we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants with them! We had another great lesson with them, and they came to church again for the third week in a row! We truly know that our visits are helping them continue to progress in the gospel! I love it. We met with them every Thursday night, so that will be another great lesson again this week!
After those lessons that night, we went out to contact some of the people with interest we are working with, and we set up many return appointments and talked to a man in a trailer park who accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon! We actually met all of our daily finding goals after dinner, so that was a huge blessing and miracle! It is amazing how the Lord provides the people and a way to further his work on His timetable, that is an amazing thing to witness daily!
On Saturday we had a lesson with the recent convert in our ward, Scott! He took ur to eat lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then we had a lesson at his apartment afterwards. He just received his patriarchal blessing last Sunday, and he loves it! He has now received new guidance and instruction on how he will go forth and serve God for the rest of his life. It was amazing to hear his thoughts about his blessing and answer any questions he had about it. Patriarchal blessings are truly amazing! I would encourage and invite you guys to take it out and study it this week. I have been studying mine a lot recently, and have found new knowledge and guidance as I’ve prayed and studied about it. Patriarchal blessings are incredible! I love them! If you haven’t received one yet, talk to your bishop about it and work towards receiving your own! It will change your life and your perspective! I have felt a tremendous amount of God’s love for me as I’ve studied mine! You will too I promise!
That night we had a “drop/stop teaching” party! (Wasn’t really a party, it was kind of sad, but this helped us be happy about it!). We tried visiting a lot of people with interest, and they were not interested anymore. They will be someday, and we hope and pray that they will remember their interaction with us! God will provide another chance for them to receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ again! All on the Lord’s timetable!
This past Sunday, we had two people being taught attend sacrament meeting! After the Casper 9th wards sacrament meeting, our Bishop came up to us and introduced us to two random people we haven’t ever met before. He told us that they wanted to meet with us. We got talking with them, and they have just moved to Casper within the past week, and Ken is not a member of the church! His wife is a returning active member, and Ken wants to be taught and be baptized! Amazing! Heavenly Father has blessed us with an elect person to teach! We have a lesson with Ken and his wife tonight at 7, we can’t wait to teach him! It will be a fantastic lesson! Wahoo! I love these small but incredible miracles!!!
Yesterday, we had four lessons set up, and they were all pretty solid lessons we had set a few days prior. Throughout the whole day, everything went wrong...... all four lessons ended up cancelling, and it was a bit sad, but just a normal day as a missionary! We pressed forward and made the best of it. We hope we can meet with those four people latter this or next week. Crazy how sometimes our days just don’t go according to plan, but God is still mindful of each of us. He knew those lessons were going to cancel, but we still had a good day through all the cancellations. I love this work!
I was reading in 3 Nephi this past week. I wanted to share these scriptures. 3 Nephi 14: 7-8, 13-14,
7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat;
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
These are truly amazing! I love that promise, that as we ask, seek, and knock, we will receive answers to our prayers! Interesting thing is, what do all three of these words require? Action!! It needs to be our choice to act, choose to pray and utilize the gift of prayer in our lives! Those last two verses are very profound as well. It is easy to be disobedient, and follow the path to destruction, but it is hard to follow the narrow path to eternal life! As we choose to act and pray to our Heavenly Father fervently, and do all that is necessary to stay obedient and keep our testimonies strong, we will be able to stay on that narrow strait path to eternal life! I know that Jesus Christ is at the helm of The Church, I am grateful for this Gospel that has been provided for each of us. I hope you all have a great week, love you! Thanks for all the support!
Love,
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1: found this bird in the middle of the road while we were walking, he didn’t move so I thought it’d be a NICE pic with him, haha (he may have been sick with something, so I kept my distance!)
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