Monday, January 2, 2017

1/2/17 | Happy New Year!

  I can't believe it's 2017 already!! What a year. It's nice to have a fresh start, in my companionship, in our ward we've been swept into, and in the new year!  It's been an amazing week this week!  Training has been awesome, I think I'm finally starting to get a hang of things!  My new companions name is Elder Kimball, he is from Atlanta, Georgia.  He just graduated way early from high school, and has two semesters of college under his belt.  He just barely turned 18! He's super young but I love him to death!  We have already become really good friends. 
           Tuesday was a long transfer day.  It was way difficult trying to pack all the Christmas presents into my bags along with everything else, but I managed to fit it all in.  Saying bye to Elder Clemence and Elder Miner was pretty hard, they're some of my best friends in the mission, but I was super excited to meet my brand new missionary! We had a long drive down to Windsor, and I finally met Elder Kimball! I could already tell he was going to be a stud from the first time I saw him, that was definitely a relief! While we were at the mission office, they fed us pizza and we just talked with President and Sister McMurray.  It was awesome.  Then President said that a missionary has been talking some smack to everyone about how he's the tallest missionary in our mission, specifically calling me out saying he's 6' 8 or something..... I honestly said no chance!  The missionary happened to come into the building when we were talking about it and President had us stand back to back.  The whole office was watching us, and I was taller by quite a bit.  I kind of felt bad because the other missionary looked shocked, but I guess he should choose his battles a little more wisely next time! Haha, it was pretty funny.  
            Elder Kimball and I went to our apartment that night and it was horrifying! The other Elders before us were super messy, so we spent two hours that night cleaning the place before we even brought our stuff in.  I'm glad Elder Kimball likes to be cleanly like I do.  Cleaning the apartment honestly changed the atmosphere so that the Spirit could be present.  It looks super nice now!  
            We got to meet with our Bishop and Ward Mission Leader this week.  They both said to us as soon as we walked in that they were so happy we were there!  They explained how the missionaries before weren't diligent and obedient, and they could already tell that we wanted to work! I can't wait to get the ward rolling again.  There is so much potential, all we have to do is work!  The Peak View Ward is HUGE!  There are almost 400 active members in the Ward with almost more inactive members, so we'll definitely have some work to do! 
           Our first lesson this week was pretty solid! It was with a contact in our area book, and we were super excited.  We taught them the Restoration, and they were asking questions, then it went a little downhill when they said all they needed was the Bible.  We testified that we knew the Bible and The Book Of Mormon were the words of God, and that the Book Of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel.  They didn't really want to hear about it.  I asked them if they would Pray to know if it was a true book and if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  They said they didn't want to, but they would give it a try.  Hopefully they will follow through and they will let the Holy Ghost testify to them of its truth.  I know that if they do ask with an open heart, and with real intent, that the Holy Ghost will manifest unto them of its truth.  
            We had some awesome dinner appointments with super cool families.  Our second one we had was awesome!  As soon as Brother Anderson answered the door I knew we were going to have a lot to talk about.  He is so huge!  Like a whopping 7 footer! I felt so small, it was hilarious! His wife was 6' 6" so I fit it pretty well I guess.  We had an awesome dinner, and turns out Brother Anderson played for Florida State from 98-01.  Of course I asked him who was the best player he played against, he said it was Shane Battier on Duke!  It was crazy.  They also told us that all of their kids are supposed to be between 6' 8", and 7' 2".  They will be monsters someday!  It was nice to talk about basketball with him.  
            On Sunday I guess we didn't get the memo it wasn't Fast Sunday.  Bishop asked us if we would introduce ourselves a little, so we were for sure going to bear our testimonies! That was already the plan, but when we got to Sacrament Meeting, we looked at the program and I guess we were both giving talks!  I've never thrown together a talk in les than 25 minutes before, but luckily I had some talks pre-written from some Zone Conferences.  Elder Kimball had to throw something together real quick, but it turned out to be awesome!  Both of our talks were super good, and the ward seemed happy to see us!  This has never happened to me before, but when we passed out our dinner calendar in Relief Society, it was completely filled except for two days.... it was incredible!  The ward here is awesome.  
           This area is going to be awesome, I can just tell!  I have an awesome companion, and awesome Ward, and there is so much work to do.  It was a really slow week this week because the Elders before us left nothing, but that is totally okay!  We have been trying to do a lot of finding, and I know we will see success soon!  Hope you all had some wonderful New Years Celebrations!  Love you guys!

Love,
-Elder Bailey

1. Our New Years Celebration, Thanks Mom :)
 

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