So last p-day we went up in the Wind River Mountain Range and went
hiking in Sinks Canyon. They call it Sinks Canyon because the river
sinks underground in some caves, and rises back up to the surface a
couple miles down the canyon. It was so nice to get back into the
mountains again and go hiking! We hiked up to Popo agie falls which
was so incredible. It is this waterfall that comes off some rocky
cliffs, and splits off into different streams that go into these cool
pools that a lot of people go swimming in. It was so pretty! I'll
show you guys some pics at the end. I didn't notice how much I had
missed the mountains till we went on this hike.
That night we had dinner at the Revelli's house, they're
members. We got talking before our lesson and I said I was from
Highland. He said, I have an uncle that taught at Lone Peak.......
Yes, creepy science teacher Mr. Revelli! I just smiled and said he was
a great guy..... If he only knew that his uncle was a creepy man.....
I love these random connections that I make with people up here. The
other day a young couple moved into the ward, and we talked to them
for awhile. He knows a lot of kids I knew from basketball, and he
said he knew Frank and everything. So that was pretty cool.
Anyways, I went on exchanges with Elder McFadden this past
Tuesday, still in Riverton just on the other side of town. He is an
incredible missionary, we work very well together. We taught some
solid lessons where I could truly feel the Spirit in. After every
lesson Elder McFadden turned to me and said, "Man I wish we were
companions, you are such a good missionary!" That made me feel pretty
good, I really like him. He got here a transfer before me, and we
both have that fire burning within us, and we just want to teach
everyone! His companion is struggling, and pretty much interrogates
people instead of teaching them by the Spirit.... So that's not good.
It was good to help Elder McFadden out, and have a super solid
exchange with him. We taught a lesson to this old lady named Georgi
and she had a lot of questions, one of the questions was about how her
brother never heard of the Gospel, then how could he be Baptized. So
of course I explained to her about baptisms for the dead and Elder
McFadden also talked about how the other temple ordinances are saving
ordinances for us on earth and in heaven. I asked if she had ever
done her family history work. She said she tried ancestry.com but
hated it. I told her about how the church has a program called
familysearch.com and how everything works. That helped her a lot, she
wants to start with her family history work now! Elder McFadden was
really happy I was there to talk about family history, cause he said
he had no idea how to do any of that! We also ran into this
less-active member with one of Elder McFadden's investigators when we
were street contacting. We got talking with her, and I don't know how
it came up, but the less-active member said, "ya, I have the gift of
seeing guardian angels." Elder McFadden and I were like, ya sure you
do...... So we asked some questions about that, then Elder McFadden
kind of doubtfully said, "what does mine look like?" She said that all
she could tell was that he was a man. He kind of went silent, and
then I asked if I had one. She started laughing and said that mine
was just under my shoulder. At that moment I felt a tingling warm
sensation on the left side of my body where she pointed. I honestly
think she was telling the truth. I said to her that she was blessed
with that God given gift to be able to see that. It was a really cool
experience! Afterward I talked with Elder McFadden, and he said he
felt that same feeling on his left side where she pointed. So this
kind of bore witness to both of us. I know that we all have guardian
angels who help us through our lives. I don't know if she could
really see them, but I did feel like someone was there. It is so cool
to feel those kinds of experiences, and they are magnified when we are
on missions.
Another highlight of our week was teaching mutual in the
Pavillion Branch. We taught about 6 youth. We explained how
missionary life is, how we prepared, and let them ask questions. The
funniest question was a kind of awkward kid asked me "Are you like a,
white version a Shaq?" Haha people up here just haven't seen tall
people before. I feel like everywhere I go, people ask me about my
height, which starts up conversations very well! Yesterday for Sunday
we also taught Junior and Senior Primary in the Sunset Park Ward about
missionary life and preparing for missions. Before we could even
introduce ourselves, the kids said I was a giant and started chanting,
"Touch the Ceiling!" So, of course I did! They went wild. So then we
calmed them down and taught them. They all love me now!
So we had our Mission Tour this past Friday. All the
missionaries in our district carpooled in the transfer van down to
Laramie on Thursday, then to Cheyenne and back on Friday. We have the
3 biggest missionaries in our mission in our district. So we had to
split them up so there would be room. So we were really squished for
about four and a half hours. We spent the night in Laramie, then went
on to Cheyenne. So we had Elder C. Scott Grow come from the quorum of
the 70. I totally forgot this, but he spoke at our Stake Conference
this past spring. So I remembered that we talked afterwards with our
family. He said to say hi to him when he came to my mission! So
before he started speaking, he said he wanted to meet all the
missionaries. So we said hi to him, and he remembered me. He said he
was glad to see me, and how much he loved you guys! So we started the
meeting, and he talked about how he knew some of the missionaries. He
said he knew someone's grandma from Arizona, and some other things,
then he said, where is my friend from Highland? I raised my hand, and
he had me stand up. He said we met at my stake conference, and how he
told me to say hi to him at our mission conference. He also said how
amazing my family was, and especially mom :) and how dad is in the
stake presidency. So that was really nice of him! So we had our
meeting, and he talked to us about how our mission is an elevator
mission, how we baptize people all at the end of the transfer. He
wants us to become an escalator mission, to baptize people throughout
the transfer, and to prayerfully set goals for baptisms 3 weeks in
advance. He emphasized a lot on focusing on teaching families and
caring for those that we teach. I know it has helped me a lot of
focus on truly teaching people not just lessons. These things are
awesome to learn at the beginning of my mission! Some older
missionaries were kind of complaining and asking stupid questions, but
all of us new guys want to shape up the mission! After one of the
complaining questions was asked, Sister Grow said, "I don't think you
guys get the point, your mission is below average and needs to be
shaped up!" That made me so pumped, to turn this mission around by
listening to Elder Grow's council. It made me so pumped! At the end
of the meeting, Elder Grow bore his testimony, I could feel the Spirit
so strong! It was awesome! We sang "I know that my Redeemer lives"
which is one of my favorite hymns to sing. The Spirit in that meeting
was incredible! I love how the Spirit can touch our hearts on a daily
basis!
We did quite of bit of service this past week as well! Some of
it was awesome to help people out, and some was absolutely disgusting.
We volunteered to help this investigator clean his yard..... He has
two big dogs that they haven't cleaned up after in years. So he had
us rake it all up and clean his whole back yard while he sat and
watched us.... So we had two garbage cans full of dog poop and some
other random things he told us to go take to the dump. So we got in
our car and drove to the dump. We were in our car for about 15
seconds and we could smell the dog poop. Elder Ma'ake said, oh shoot
check the bottom of your shoes! So we checked and we both had a ton
of dog poop all over them! It was so bad! So we had to go and scrape
it off on the road. That was the worst thing that happened to us this
week! Hopefully that helped our investigator though.
Overall this week has been incredible! I am so glad that I am
serving a mission. It is seriously the best thing that I could be
doing right now! I found a cool scripture this week in Doctrine and
Covenants 17:6, it is when Jesus Christ himself bears testimony of
the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It strengthened my testimony
of the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness as well. If Christ himself
testifies of the Book of Mormon, I know that what I am doing is true,
and I'm so grateful for that! I love this work! Hope you guys have a
fantastic week! Love you!
Love,
Elder Bailey
Elder Bailey
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