My Talk on Sunday

Talk on Faith:

In Alma 32:21 it states, 

21 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.

Alma's definition on Faith is perfect.  Faith is truly to hope for things which we cannot see, but what we know are true!  I've had this particular question a lot throughout my life, "Do I have enough Faith?"  I am sure many of you have had the same question.  Sometimes it may seem like we do not have enough Faith to press forward in the Gospel, but every time I have felt this way there has been one thing that has helped, and that is doing the little things, daily prayer, daily scripture study, and attending church meetings.  We have to act in order to gain a stronger testimony, and gain more Faith each and every day.  

In my favorite Mormon Message, The Hope of God's Light, it says something concerning Faith and gaining a Testimony of Jesus Christ.  It states, "Spiritual Light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness, waiting for someone to flip a switch, it takes an act of Faith to open our eyes to the Light of Christ."  Faith is acting.  If we want to gain a stronger Faith and Testimony in the Gospel, we need to act upon the key principles of the Gospel.  Like I said before, daily scripture study, prayer, and attending church are so important in gaining a stronger Faith in Christ.  These three things are also included in the simple primary concepts that primary children learn every week.  Prayer, reading the scriptures, going to church, and being obedient, provide that structure that we need to press-forward in Faith.  I think one of the reasons why Primary Children have such strong testimonies is because they are willing to act and do these things.   Their undoubting Faith is such an example to me, and I strive to be like them every day.  I know that we can all be like these Primary Children if we do act on the key concepts of the Gospel each and every day. 

I thought my Faith was pretty strong, and that I understood what Faith was, but I learned that I didn't know as much as I needed to.  When I left on my mission on August 3rd this past year to enter the MTC, I thought that it was going to be the last time I saw my family for 2 years.  I would have never guessed what happened to me next.  Just before the end of my first transfer, I was rushed into emergency surgery in Casper Wyoming, and the next day I was on my way home.  The next two months were the hardest months of my whole life, but my burdens were made light through Faith in my Heavenly Father and in His son Jesus Christ.  At first I was wondering why Heavenly Father had made me go through this, why if I had chosen to serve Him and the people of Colorado for two years he had made me come home and experience these things.  My family helped answer these questions for me.  Every time I would doubt in my ability to overcome my medical issues, my mom and my dad would always have a positive attitude.  My Dad, never once doubted that I would be healed, but he did this through trusting in God's Will.  He helped me understand what true Faith was.  My doctor shared with me Elder Bednar's talk, "That We Might Not Shrink".  In this talk, Elder Bednar shares a story of a young couple who the husband, just three weeks after their temple marriage, was diagnosed with bone cancer.  Elder Bednar said a statement to him that truly blessed me and helped me understand true Faith and helped me get through my trials.  He stated, "I then posed questions I had not planned to ask and had never previously considered: “[John,] do you have the faith not to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father that you are transferred by death in your youth to the spirit world to continue your ministry, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?”  I gained the Faith to be healed, and the Faith not to be healed during my medical trials.  My Dad helped me understand this concept, that if we have Faith in whatever God has planned for us, or having Faith and trusting in His Will, we can overcome any trial or tribulation that is placed before us.  This is true Faith. I know that because I understood this, I was healed and I was blessed for my efforts.  

In President Uchtdorf's talk, Fourth Floor, Last Door, given in this last General Conference, he states, "Faith is a strong conviction about something we believe--a conviction so strong that it moves us to do things that we otherwise might not do. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”"

Like in Alma, this teaches us that the essence of Faith is believing in those things we cannot see.  Through my medical trials, I believed that God would provide a way for me to get better, but I also believed that if it was His Will, that I would not be healed and I wouldn't be able to return to my mission.  I know that it was God's Will for me to come back to my mission, and that I will serve Him for my full 2 years. Some may ask how we can believe in something or someone who we cannot see? This is a very valid question, but those who ask these things are missing something.  President Uchtdorf continues, "What they fail to understand is that there are more ways to see than with our eyes, more ways to feel than with our hands, more ways to hear than with our ears."  Isn't this so true!  People who question our Faith in our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ cannot see the Big Picture.  President Uchtdorf says, "Perhaps better advice--for anyone who wants to increase faith--is to listen differently. The Apostle Paul encourages us to seek the voice that speaks to our spirit, not just to our ears. He taught, “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” Or perhaps we should consider the words of Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince, who said: “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”"  We know that through the Holy Ghost we can feel the love of our Father in Heaven and our Savior.  Feeling this is not with our hands, hearing this is not with our ears, and seeing this is not with our eyes, but it is with our hearts.

I know that if you all heed the words of President Uchtdorf, and listen differently than those of the world, then you will have exceedingly great Faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If we strive to truly studying our scriptures and saying prayers daily or doing the little things to make our testimonies stronger, then Heavenly Father will bless us through our efforts.  If we trust in Heavenly Fathers Will for each and every one of us, I know that we will be comforted through any and every trial we got through. 

Testimony

2/28/17 | D&C 6:34-37

 We had such an amazing week this week!  We just had the most
amazing time at the Fort Collins Temple this morning! That's why our
P-Day got switched to today. It was such a blessing to attend an
endowment session again!  I didn't realize how much attending the
temple benefited my life until I hadn't been there for so long. It was
amazing to go to the Lord's house again!  I encourage all of you to
attend the Temple as much as possible, especially when living in Utah!
 What a blessing it is to have so many different Temples to be able to
choose from that are so close!  I know that it will bless your life if
you put forth the effort to attend the Temple as much as possible.
       We had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders
again this week.  This time I was with Elder Aguirre, and we had such
an amazing exchange.  We went campus contacting on UNC's campus and
had little success.  In the middle of campus there is this chalk
board.  So we decided to draw the Plan of Salvation!  We put our
number down on the board for anyone to call us if they were
interested.  It was a little thing, but we thought it would work!
Later that day we got to eat dinner with a YSA member at the campus
cafeteria.  The whole time I noticed these two big football guys
staring at me, I didn't really think anything of it.  When we were
about to leave, one of them came up to me and asked if I was from
Utah.  I said yes, and he was so excited!  He told us how much he
respects us and loves to see us there at the cafeteria.  His name is
Keaton Mott, and he played football for Bingham.  We got talking, and
we know a lot of the same people!  He said the only reason he came up
and said hi was because he knew I was from Utah, and I honestly know
that this was supposed to happen.  We had the opportunity to help him
out this past week.  He is getting knee surgery this upcoming week, so
he asked if I would give him a blessing.  It was such a cool
opportunity, and I know that Heavenly Father had us cross paths to
help him out.  Later in the week, the Zone Leaders got a call from a
random girl from the Plan of Salvation we drew up on the chalk board!
They got talking and somehow they got talking how she is 4' 7", and
they brought me up because I am 6' 7".  She asked if I was from
Highland, Utah, and they said yes.  She said that she was a foster kid
that was in my 9th grade math class with Mrs. Gould for 4 weeks.  I
had the opportunity to talk to her later that day.  I honestly didn't
remember or recognize her at all, but she told me something that I did
remember.  She told me that in those 4 weeks, I invited her to
seminary twice!  The Zone Leaders committed her to Baptism, and she
told them she wants me to Baptize her!  So we'll see if she will
progress in the coming weeks.  In my life I honestly thought because I
lived in Utah, I didn't have that many missionary opportunities, but I
guess I didn't really notice those little things.  I don't know if
that effected her at all, but she remembered those things for the past
5 years and I know that I am in Greeley at this time because of that!
I first thought how random this was for these two people here in
Greeley, Colorado, for me to connect with, but it was definitely part
of Heavenly Fathers Plan.
       Elder Kimball and Elder McFadden taught Chad this week, and
they read him the story of Lehi's Family and the Tree of Life.  He
told us he wants to hear the Restoration this week, and our goal is to
put him on date for Baptism!  I will let you know that goes next week!
 We also had a really good lesson with a man named Ryan, and his son
Shayden.  Shayden is 8 years old and wants to learn more, and his dad
has heard all of the discussions, but hasn't joined the church. We
taught them the Plan of Salvation, and it went very well!  Shayden was
so receptive and wants to learn more, and I think Ryan will follow
Shayden's desire if we invite him to be Baptized! We will be teaching
them again this week, and I can't wait!  We didn't have a chance to
meet with the Wakkinen's this week, but we will be meeting with them
this week as well.
       We had a wonderful Zone Conference this past week in Fort
Collins. We learned more about Obedience and Repentance.  President
McMurray said something that really stuck with me, "If you want to
become the best missionary you can be, focus on Daily Repentance." I
think that applies to everyone!  If we do focus on Repenting Daily, we
can come to understand the Atonement better, and become better people!
 The main thing that stood out to me was in D&C 6:34-37, if we build
upon the Rock of our Redeemer, we can prevail against everything the
adversary throws at us!
        I love serving here Colorado!  I have seen so many miracles
this past week, and it is so awesome to see our area picking up!  We
have been working with many less-actives, and had a couple of them
attend church this week as well.  I hope you all have a wonderful week
this week! I love you just so much!

Love,
Elder Bailey

2/20/17 | Happy Presidents Day!

What a week!  It has been in the 70's all week, and it
honestly doesn't even feel like winter anymore.  Thanks for the
Valentines Day cookies mom, they were incredible like always! This
week we saw so many blessings throughout this week!  Let's start out
with Chad's lesson.  We didn't know what to do with Chad because he
wasn't really progressing.  We decided we would talk to him about the
Plan of Salvation.  He brought us to get Hot Chocolate, and we asked
if he would want to go to the church to have us teach him a lesson.
He agreed, and we went and taught him!  It went really well, and at
the very end he said that this just makes sense to him!  It is so cool
to see how our spirits remember what we learned in the pre-earth life,
and that it seems so familiar to us.  We are going to invite him to
come to church and invite him to be baptized after we teach him the
Restoration, I can't wait!
          We taught a less-active couple this past week.  We have been
trying to get in contact with Dusty for awhile,  but he has been busy
performing around the Western U.S in his band.  We finally got to talk
to them, and teach them a lesson!  We showed them Daily Bread:
Pattern, and taught them how important it is to have that daily
spiritual sustenance in order to keep their testimonies strong,
especially in this crazy world we live in!  We invited them to read
and pray daily, and they said they would!  We are going to follow up
with them next week to see how their doing!
           We had Zone Meeting this week, and had wonderful trainings
on "Locking your Heart", diligence, and obedience.  Our mission right
now is having a big push on working a lot more with the youth, because
young people are so much more receptive to learning about the Gospel.
 We are going to start implementing different ideas this week as we
work with them to help them teach their friends about the Gospel, as
well as having them meet with us as missionaries!  I know that as we
focus on the youth more, we will have more success.  We are attending
a mutual night this week to get to know the youth in both wards!  I
can't wait to use these new ideas to become more effective!
            Out of the clear blue on Tuesday, President McMurray
called us right after we got done teaching Chad.  He asked us if we
had a lesson that he could come to that night.  We said we taught
Chad, but that we had a lesson Thursday night with at 7:00 with the
Wakkinen family.  He said he would check his schedule and call us
back.  He called us and said that would work!  The Wakkinen's are a
part member family.  Brother Wakkinen is a less-active, and his wife
isn't a member along with their two daughters who are  six and eight.
We were so excited to teach them!  President met us at 6:00 Thursday
night, and we went over our lesson plan with him.  We planned to teach
them the Plan of Salvation, focusing mostly on the little girls.  We
drove up to their house, and we introduced President.  He connected
really well with them and that really set the tone for our lesson!  As
we taught them using little cut-outs, it felt like President faded out
of the room and it was just like any other lesson.  We asked him
questions about how the Plan of Salvation has blessed him and his
family.  That was so awesome to have someone with a family testify of
its truthfulness!  Throughout the lesson, we could feel a sweet Spirit
there with us.  Elder Kimball and I started to finish each other's
sentences and we taught so well!  The little girls would run up to
their parents and hug them saying "mommy, daddy, I want to be with you
forever!"  There were definitely some heart strings being pulled!  At
the end, we invited them to come to church, but Brother Wakkinen said
he would be out of town.  We invited them to have daily family prayer,
and I testified how that blessed my family while I was growing up.
They accepted and said they would!  We gave a Book of Mormon to the
little girls that was signed by the whole Primary, and told them that
they were always welcome there.  On our drive back to the church, we
talked with President about how we did, what we could do better, and
how we could best teach them going forward.  He said we did an
excellent job teaching, inviting, and testifying.   He said he thought
that the only way the family would progress is getting Brother
Wakkinen to start reading from the Book Of Mormon and having that
desire to come back.  If he comes, the family will follow!  We will
definitely be focusing on the Restoration and the Book Of Mormon the
next two lessons we have with them!  It was such an amazing experience
having President McMurray there with us, what an opportunity!  He
really likes Elder Kimball and I.
           We had exchanges with our Zone Leaders this week.  I went
with Elder McFadden, it was nice to be with him again!  Towards the
end of our exchange, we had little success Tracting in apartments in
Greeley, so we decided to tract right next to UNC's campus where
students would be living.  We found five new potential investigators,
and handed out six Book of Mormons!  Whenever I'm with Elder McFadden,
we always find so many people to teach!  I know that as we put forth
our effort, even though we had no success before, Heavenly Father
blessed us for our efforts!
            I read in my personal studies in Alma 48:17.  What a
verse!  It is so true, if we were all like Captain Moroni, all the
powers of hell would shake!  I know that we can be modern day Moroni's
as we read our scriptures and pray daily, and become more like our
Savior using His Atonement and learning from His Gospel!  I want to
challenge you all to look at your life as it is now, and find
something to change to make you more like our Savior.  Even changing a
little thing can make all the difference!  Thank you so much for all
the support!  I love you guys so much, and hope you have a wonderful
week this week!

Love,
Elder Bailey

2/13/17 | Happy Valentines Day!

This week was awesome! It has been in the 70's most of theweek, so we had some really nice Tracting weather! First off,

Happy Birthday to Grandma Burr today, Randon on Wednesday, and GrandpaBailey on Thursday!  I love you guys so much and hope you have

wonderful birthdays!

Well let's start with Wayne.  It was a sad week for us, because Wayne got good enough
to move back into his sons house which was great!  His son lives in
Brush Colorado, and it is about an hour and a half from here.  It's
still in our mission, but way out of our area!  We had to refer him to
the Elders out there.  It was a bittersweet moment, because we loved
him so much!  Everything's okay though, because in the end it doesn't
really matter if we baptize him or if the other elders do.  All that
matters is his progression in the Gospel so that he can receive all
the blessings a loving Heavenly Father has for him!  We had a
scheduled lesson on Tuesday with him, and we were there for about five
minutes when Wayne's son walked in.  He was a very nice man, but he
kicked us out because they has visitors coming to see Wayne.  We tried
again on Wednesday and got to teach him!  In this last lesson with
him, we taught about the Word of Wisdom!  We explained to Wayne all
the things that go along with this, and how God loves us so much and
wants us to be healthy and happy!  He has had some trouble in the past
with this, but he really understands now why God gave us the Word of
Wisdom.  We asked if he would live the Word of Wisdom and he said yes!
 When we were going to leave and say bye to Wayne, he broke down and
started crying.  He told us how much he appreciated our friendship
with him, and truly loved how much we cared for his salvation! I am
going to miss Wayne, I love him so much!  I pray that he will continue
to progress until he is converted!  We took pictures with him so I'll
add those at the end!
             My first District Meeting went super well!  I focused on
Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel Developing Christ-like attributes, and
we had a wonderful discussion on how developing these different
attributes help us as missionaries become more effective ministers.
If we strive to be more like Christ, people will notice a difference
in us.  A fantastic quote from this chapter perfectly explains how
these things can help us. "Christlike attributes are gifts from God.
They come as you use your agency righteously. Ask your Heavenly Father
to bless you with these attributes; you cannot develop them without
His help."  I know that if you all try to become more Christ-like,
Heavenly Father will help and bless you to become greater than you
could have ever become!
             We had some great experiences Tracting this week!  I'll
share the best ones.  Almost every door we knocked, two days in a row,
the people said they were devout in something (Christian, Buddhist,
Catholic, Roman Catholic, Community of Christ, etc), but the strangest
thing was that everyone was a little too nice.  Nobody was mean!  It
was worse then being yelled at I think....... but the main stories
came the third day we tracted.  We got some pretty hilarious
responses.  One man answered and was super happy, then he saw us and
started coughing and said, "I just had surgery, I can't talk right
now." Another guy said, "I have a sinuous infection, I don't have time
to talk."  We saw a lot of cars at his next house, and it looked like
a party going on.  We knocked and the grandma opened the door, and
said "We're having a family Birthday party right now, so how bout
ya'll scat!"  I tried wishing the person a happy birthday, just being
nice, but the grandma wouldn't have it..... It was pretty funny!  Well
all of these negative experiences were definitely weighed out by the
positive!  Like I said we ran into a lot of really nice people.  A
lady told us she wasn't interested, but said how nice and wholesome we
looked.  That made us pretty happy!  The main good experience we had
was with Ray.  He is a high school aged kid that answered and we had
such a great conversation!  We bore testimony of the Book Of Mormon
truthfulness, and invited him to read and pray about it.  He accepted!
 We will be following up with him this next week.  Honestly when we go
Tracting, we have no idea what we are going to run into, but sometimes
it works out!  I know that the Lord blesses us as we put forth the
effort to find His children to teach.
            We had our annual Windsor Stake Breakfast, and it was
awesome!  I got to meet our Stake President, President Packard, and we
had such a wonderful time at his house.  We discussed afterwards in
Helaman 5:5-14 about how important it is for us to remember what
Heavenly Father has given us, and that He always remembers us!  It was
pretty amazing.
            Our wards, along with half of our Stake, had a special
meeting this last Sunday regarding Ward boundaries at 6:00.  Our Stake
Center is the one next to the Fort Collins Temple, so I finally got to
see it in person!  I was so excited to finally have the opportunity to
see it, what a blessing! They split our ward, so now we cover the
Eaton and Peak View Wards.  Our area is HUGE!!  We cover almost up to
Wyoming, so there will be a lot of driving when we visit people up
there! It will be really awesome to go to two sacrament meetings each
Sunday, I can't wait!
            In my personal studies this week, I was reading in Alma
37, and in verses 38-47, it talks about the Liahona, and how it guided
Lehi and his family through the wilderness.  I don't know what it was,
but when I read this something clicked!  I imagined in our day having
a Liahona to guide us through the wilderness, and we do!  The Book Of
Mormon is our Liahona in our day.  I invite you all to not only read
Alma 37:38-47, but to really ponder it in your heart.  I know that if
you do, you will be able to understand how amazing the Book Of Mormon
really is!
            I love you guys so much!  I hope you all have an
absolutely amazing week, remember that Heavenly Father loves you so
much, and He wants us all to succeed and love Him back!  I also
decided that Mom, you're definitely my Valentine this year :). Love
you!

Love,

Elder Bailey

2/6/17 | Another transfer with Elder Kimball!

What a weeks it has been!  So many things have happened! We got a call from President McMurray while we were eating dinner with some members at Golden Corral, we went over where it was more quiet, and President asked me if I would accept the call of being a District Leader!  I accepted gladly, and he told us that Elder Kimball and I will be staying together for another transfer!  I was so happy and feel so blessed to be a staying with Elder Kimball and being a District Leader!  I can't wait for this transfer, it will be so awesome!

            We had really solid lessons with Wayne this week!  Our first lesson on Tuesday went very well!  Wayne has kept all of his commitment so far!  We asked him to read Moroni 10, but he read the whole book of Moroni instead! He said he believes in all the teachings that were outlined throughout it.  When he said that, I had the feeling that we needed to show him the video by Elder Bednar, Patterns of Light: Spirit of Revelation,  I invite you all to watch it! In the video, Elder Bednar talks about three ways that spiritual revelation comes to us.  We explained to Wayne that we think that he is experiencing the second type of revelation, which is compared to the rising of the sun.  Little by little you understand and receive more insight until you see the full picture.  This helped Wayne understand that his testimony of the Book Of Mormon may not all come at once, but over time he can understand small amounts until he see's the whole picture.  Our other lessons with him went fantastic!  We played some cards with him, which he is a little too good at, and we gave him framed pictures of Jesus Christ.  When we gave him the pictures of Christ, he got really emotional and told us how much he loved and appreciated us for being his friends and bringing the Spirit strongly into his life.  We taught him four of the commandments throughout these lessons as well, and he told us all of them are in line with his Christian beliefs.  We promised him that as he continues to read and pray daily, that he will continue to receive knowledge and truth and eventually he will want to be baptized.  Wayne is such a good man!  I love him so much! We'll see how he progresses through the coming weeks.  

            We had some scary ice storms come through here on Wednesday!  It had been cloudy and cold all day, then this weird misty rain came in and started freezing everything!  Elder Kimball and I were up in Eaton visiting less-actives and we were just starting to tract when literally everything froze up in 15 minutes!  It was crazy!  We walked up to a house and no one answered, we were walking back down the steepish driveway, and it was straight ice!  I started slipping, so I jumped to the grass but that was frozen too! By this time Elder Kimball had gone down and I somehow kept my balance. We must've looked like complete goons..... We finally got to the car and I had the feeling we needed to slowly head back to the church in Greeley.  We started to drive back, slipping and sliding really bad.  We saw so many crashes and people sliding off the road, and one time I put on the brakes and we didn't stop for 25 feet.  This whole time I was praying that we would get safely, and I know Heavenly Father definitely answered my prayers.  We got to the church and called our vehicle coordinator to tell him that driving conditions were terrible.  They grounded all the cars in the mission so no one would get hurt, so we were inside for a bit and had to have the members who were feeding us come pick us up from the apartment for dinner.   They were nice enough to do that for us!  I know that our Heavenly Father answers prayers!  I know He does without a doubt.  We were kept perfectly safe because of Him, and I'm so grateful!  I know that if you pray with faith, that God will answer your prayers too.  

           We had a really cool experience visiting a less-active this week.  We have splits with the Elders and High Priest Quorums on Thursday's and they are supposed to have people for us to visit, like friends, less-actives, there home teaching family, or people who are struggling.  We only had Brother Hinckley show up for splits, and he is brand new to the ward and doesn't know anyone yet.  Wee had to come up with a less-active to go visit pretty quickly, and a name stuck out to me, the Wakkinen's.  We went to visit them, and they were so receptive!  They became friends with us and Brother Hinckley really fast!  It turns out that Brother Hinckley lives really close to them, which is such a blessing for a fellowship opportunity!  They have two primary age daughters who aren't baptized, and Brother Wakkinen's wife isn't either!  They said we could come back next week to teach them a little lesson.  They were honestly the most receptive less-actives I've met so far on my mission, and I know that we were meant to go there.  It turned out to be the perfect situation for them to feel loved!  I can't wait to see how they progress!  

          I found some really key scriptures during my personal studies this week.  Alma 36:3 and Alma 36:27.  Know that God is always there for you to bare you up, and he is always there for support!  I have seen it in my life and I know that's true.  I encourage you guys to read these scriptures, I know that they can help us through our everyday struggles!

          I had such a fantastic week, and I'm so grateful that I'm a missionary!  I'm so grateful to be staying with Elder Kimball and to become a District Leader!  I know that if I trust in my Heavenly Father and work diligently, that he will magnify me to become better than ever!  I love this gospel with all my heart!  I love you guys so much, and hope you have a fantastic week this week.

Love, 

Elder Bailey

Cars flipping over all over the place!

I got this amazing picture of Jesus, and though you guys might like it for a background pic to remind you of Him :)

1/30/17 | Time is Flying!

Weeks are starting to feel like days flying by!  I can't believe I'm emailing home again.  It has been an incredible week this week!  So many things have happened.  We had some more amazing lessons with Wayne this week.  He is learning so well and he is so receptive!  Our lesson on Tuesday was awesome! He said he really enjoys reading the pamphlets we have given him, and he has been looking up the different study topics in the back to find answers to his questions on his own.  He has been praying, and reading the Book Of Mormon so much!  We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he really enjoyed our lesson.  He is learning so much. When we talked about Baptism, we invited Wayne to be Baptized on February 18th!  He accepted, and we explained why it was so important to be Baptized with the priesthood authority of God.  Our lesson on Thursday was incredible as well! We brought him a large-print copy of the Book Of Mormon because his glasses broke on him over the weekend.  Wayne said he had a dream about there being some revelations in our day that he was reading!  We were shocked when he said this, and we explained that those revelations in our day were the revelations given to Joseph Smith and modern day prophets in the Doctrine and Covenants.  The large-print copies only come in the triple-combination, so we explained to him about the Pearl of Great Price as well.  He seemed to feel at peace about all of them, he didn't have any trouble with it at all.  We taught him three of the commandments, Obedience, Pray Often, and Daily Scripture Study.  We talked to him after about how his prayer was going.  He said it was okay, then we asked if he felt like he was receiving answers to his prayers?  We then explained about how different people feel the Spirit in different ways.  We asked him if he would wait in a moment of silence, truly acting in faith to receive an answer to his prayers after he prayed.  He said he would, and then he told us how he feels the Spirit the strongest when we are there with him.  This made me really happy!  Inviting the Spirit into people's lives is the most vital thing we do as missionaries.  All we do is invite, and the Holy Ghost does the teaching.  I know this to be true! 

                We had the World-Wide Missionary Broadcast this past Tuesday, and I learned so much!  It was awesome to know that I was watching this broadcast with all of the other missionaries in the world!  We are all on the same team! I love it!  The theme was the same as last years, Teach Repentance, and Baptize Converts.  We learned so much from the missionary board!  Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, Elder Anderson, and Sister Oscarson were present.  They spoke mainly about how we can become more effective teachers and missionaries in the Gospel.  Here are some quotes from Elder Bednar that really hit me.  "We just have to be as good as we can be, and God will magnify us so that we can become more than we could have ever become!"  "Revelation isn't always simple, sometimes it has to be worked for."  There was so much more that we learned that I wish I could include, but it would be pages! Overall, this Broadcast really set a new tone for me as a missionary.  I feel like I will be more effective and happier while I work harder, and apply the things I have learned from this.  I feel like as a missionary, I work hard, and feel like I'm super successful, then I learn something new and it makes me push harder and harder every single day, making me better than I was before!  I know this pattern will continue throughout my whole mission, and I can't wait to become the best me with my Heavenly Fathers help!

              We had a lot of success with less-actives this week!  We had dinner with the Shiver's and there missionary is getting home this week!  The dad hasn't been active for awhile, and we were really bold with him about how his son is going to whip him in shape when he gets home, so he might as well start now!  We invited him to church on Sunday and I know he'll want to come to prepare for his sons arrival!  We also visited the Lewis family on Friday.  We taught them a short lesson, and it went super well! We invited them to church, and Sister Lewis really wants to bring her family to church, but Brother Lewis is very hesitant.  Sister Lewis showed up with her son, but Brother Lewis got called into work.  We will get him to church, and hopefully get them sealed in the temple together!  That's the ultimate goal is to make our families eternal so that we can live with them forever! I can't wait to see them progress.

            Our area is still getting better each and every day!  Seeing success from our hard work is the best thing!   I know that if Elder Kimball and I continue to work our hardest, then we will be blessed for our efforts.  I hope you all have an amazing week!  Being a missionary is hard sometimes, but I know if I continue to work hard and endure those trials well, it makes all the difference! I love you guys so much, and hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Bailey

Colorado Sunsets