5/29/17 | Alpacas!

 This week was absolutely crazy!  It flew by, and so many things happened.  To start off, our Zone had interviews with President McMurray this past Tuesday, and that was awesome!  Elder Callahan and I were the last ones interviewed in our Zone.  President and I talked a lot about the Book Of Mormon challenge we are on.  We are actually both studying the same topic, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so we had a lot of talk about.  We talked about stories that stood out to us, how amazing it is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is found everywhere in the Book Of Mormon, and how this is unifying our mission as we study in unison.  Towards the end of our interview, we talked about how the Cheyenne Zone is doing.  President said after interviewing everyone in the Zone, that things were going very well.  I was so happy to hear that!  President McMurray is honestly the best mission president in the world, and the best mission president for me.  I respect and sustain him with all of my heart!  After we finished personal interviews, President pulled Elder Callahan and I in so that he could discuss how we could best help the Zone.  Afterwards, we gave President McMurray a gift. It is a book called No Bull!! we got from doing service at the Frontier Days Museum.  It has a bunch of pictures about Frontier Days Rodeo.  He was so happy to get that!  Things have been a little stressful in our mission lately, so we thought that would be nice to get for him.  

     The next day we had exchanges with the assistants to the president, Elder Coleman and Elder Chan.  For the day I went with Elder Coleman, and things were great!  We did some Tracting, and it was so awesome to talk to everyone we saw while we walked around.  We ran into a southern lady who was anti-Mormon on our way back to the mission office, and we talked for a little bit.  She told us we were deceived, and all we did was testify of what we know to be true.  She was really hardened to the things we told her, and would not accept the Book Of Mormon at all, but we felt good that we tried our best, and testified.  In some situations that's all we can do with some people.  We just hope that someday that lady has a softened heart to listen to what missionaries have to say.  Maybe someday! We had lunch at 5 guys, which was incredible!  Haven't had that forever!  We had to run and do a bunch of administrative things for some other missionaries, but the rest of our exchange went very well!  At the end we talked about what we had learned, and how we were going to apply it to become better missionaries.  My goal from this exchange is to help the other missionaries in the Cheyenne Zone, while on exchanges, "teach for understanding" as it says in Preach My Gospel.  It's something our mission is trying to do better at, and I know that we can become better if we Study and prepare!  

     We had a cool opportunity to do some service at an alpaca farm this week!  The lady is a non member, and missionaries found he through a neighbor.  We cleaned out one of her barns in preparation for shearing this upcoming week.  We went out in the field of alpacas and caught one to feel how soft they were.  I had no idea, but alpacas are honestly the softest things I have ever felt in my life!  It's like petting a cloud.  It was a bit difficult to catch an alpaca, because they do not want to be caught by a bunch of strangers, but we got one!  The lady was so grateful for our help, she gave us alpaca socks, which feel like you are walking on a cloud, so incredible!  We are going to be helping her shear them this week, so I will definitely send a bunch of pics about that!  We are working with this lady slowly, because she said she would listen to our message after we have helped her a few times, so we are excited for that as well!

      A crazy thing happened on Saturday.  We got a call from some other missionaries, and they asked us if we had read President McMurrays letter yet.  We hadn't because we don't have wifi at the apartment, so they read it to us.  One of our assistants was honorably released for medical reasons and flew home that day, it was crazy!  President called another assistant, and the one that is still there is going home in 3 weeks, so we will have two brand new assistants in our mission soon.  It has been tough for President lately.  In the past two transfers, about 17 missionaries have gone home early, mostly due to depression and other things.  It has been a little hectic here, but we are still pushing forward!  Things like this happen, and I know that as we trust in the Lord, we can get through these trials!  

     Elder Callahan and I, through all of our finding activities this week, had some success where we honestly wouldn't have guessed.  We were getting gas at a Maverick Gas Station here in town, and we went inside because Elder Callahan had to use the bathroom.  We met a random member in there, and he bought us some of the new caramel m&m's (If you haven't tried those, you need to because they are absolutely amazing!).  We parted ways and went back out to our car to get our gas receipt and go head out for more missionary work.  The receipt role was broken so we had to go back in and get it from the register.  We got talking with the guy at the register as we asked for our receipt, and he said he knew exactly who we were.  His name is Trey, and he told us his girlfriend was Mormon, and that they were going to have a baby in the next few months.  He told us he had met with Mormon missionaries before, so we asked if he wanted to again and he said yes!  We were so pumped!  We went over to his house yesterday to teach him a little lesson, and to get to know him more.  Trey is absolutely GOLDEN!  We taught him a short lesson about the Book Of Mormon, read Moroni 10:3-5 with him, and testified that if he followed Moroni's council, to read and pray to know if the Book Of Mormon is true, that he would receive a witness of its truthfulness!  Then he told us he is already reading the Book Of Mormon, and is already in 2 Nephi.  He said that he wanted to find out if this was true, because his girlfriends whole family is actively going to church down in Florida, so he told us he was hopefully going to be baptized at some point.  How amazing is that!  He is already looking towards the first step of becoming a member, we were so excited for that!  We invited him to continue to read it, and pray for that witness.  He said he would, and we scheduled a time to meet with him next week!  He is only open on Saturday and Sunday, so we will text him to invite him to church this Saturday so he remembers.  Heavenly Father truly blesses us as we are putting forth the effort with people to teach, and I know He is always watching out for us.  Always remember that!  He know each of you by name, and wants you to be happy.  He is a loving Father in Heaven, and I am grateful for Him more each and every day!

     During my studies this week I read Alma 36:20-21 and I really loved it!  It states:

20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

     This is an example of how Heavenly Father answers our prayers!  This is Alma the younger explaining to his son Helaman of his experience after an angel came to him calling him unto Repentance.  Heavenly Father answers our prayers sometimes through the feelings, in Alma's case joy and happiness, through the power of the Holy Ghost!  I know that if you have a question, or anything you would like to pray about, that Heavenly Father is always going to be there to listen, and that He truly wants you to feel that comfort, love, and joy as you pray for help and guidance.  I hope you all have a great week!  I am grateful for all of you, and all the support you give me.  Remember, Heavenly Father is always there, and He wants us to speak with Him!

Love,

Elder Bailey 

Pics: Got em! And that alpaca wouldn't even come near me....

5/22/17 | Snow in May!

 This week was a pretty good one!  We had a crazy snow storm on
Thursday and Friday, and we did a lot of YSA finding.  Our Stake
Presidency last Sunday gave us YSA lists for all of the wards in the
Stake, and they told us to find out whether or not they still lived
there, and to invite them to a YSA barbecue that is tonight.  They
said they are trying to figure out if they have enough YSA members to
start their own Ward!  I'm so pumped, that would be so fun to cover a
YSA Ward!  We'll see I guess.  We had a lot of experiences visiting
all of these members.  I will share a few of them.

    The first one was with a lady named Olivia.  Olivia is an older
woman who we ran into while looking for a YSA member.  We got talking
with her, and explained who we were.  She said she has talked to
missionaries before, and we asked if they had given her a Book Of
Mormon and asked her to read it.  She said they hadn't, so we gave her
one and testified that if she read from it and prayed to know of its
truthfulness, that God would answer her prayers through the power of
the Holy Ghost.  We are going to meet with her next week sometime, so
we are excited for that!

    We were trying to find one of the people on our list out about 45
minutes west of Cheyenne.  This was after the big snow storm so the
dirt roads were terrible and muddy, and we are driving a Subaru
Legacy..... this is a bad combination! The Subaru we are in had
4-wheel drive, but it rides pretty low so it was a little sketchy at
times when the snow got a little deep.  Anyways, we were trying to
visit this guy, and his long driveway was full of snow that was 4 feet
deep.  We decided that wasn't the best idea to try and take the Subaru
up the driveway, so we decided to try back another time.  Instead we
went to visit a less active member we didn't know that lived close.
Luckily his driveway was plowed, so we were able to walk up it and
visit with him.  He is such an awesome guy!  He invited us in without
hesitation, and we were able to talk with him for awhile.  He is from
Southern Utah, and has lived up here for almost his whole adult life.
Turns out he builds big grand father clocks, so he showed us some
pictures of them and the main one he has built.  It was so awesome to
meet him, and to be able to get to know him.  We asked if there was
another time we could come back and share a little message with him,
and he said we could come next week.  I hope we can help him return to
activity in the church, and I know it wasn't coincidence that we
decided to visit him.  Heavenly Father definitely played a part in
having us drop by his house.

    Before we visited the less active member, we were out a little
further from town trying to find another person on our list.  We found
her house, but it was down a hill, and there was some melted slushy
snow, with a lot of mud going down all the way to her house.  It
didn't look too bad and we weren't going to turn back, we were
determined to find this lady!  We took the ol Subaru down the driveway
and made it to the house without any problems.  She wasn't home, and
the house looked like it hadn't been lived in for years.  We were
saddened a little by the fact she wasn't there, but that soon left as
we looked back up the driveway.  Looking at our tracks, it looked
pretty terrible trying to get back up.  We decided we couldn't just
sit and hope we would make it back up, we had to just go for it.  So
we did.  I still don't know how we made it up, but I know that there
had to be someone else pushing as we slid like crazy to make it up
this driveway.  Looking back at the driveway, at our muddy tracks and
all of the snow we had gone through, it was definitely a miracle we
made it up without getting stuck.  Heavenly Father was definitely
looking out for us!  We are actually switching our Subaru with some
other missionaries today, and taking their car down to the Mission
Office to get it fixed.  There we will pick up our new car, a Toyota
Tacoma!  We definitely won't have that "getting stuck" problem
anymore!  (I didn't mention it earlier, but we got stuck in the Subaru
earlier that day, but we got it out pretty easily!).

     Most of our week we contacted these YSA members, because we had a
lot of lists to go through!  We are almost done with all of them, but
we still have a little more to go.  Well we had that crazy snow storm
on Wednesday and Thursday.  For our whole Zone on Wednesday and
Thursday morning, we had a no drive day because the roads were so bad.
It was really annoying not being able to do much missionary work, I
hate being cooped up!  We were able to call a lot of the YSA's on our
lists, so we got some things done.  I guess in all of Cheyennes
history, this was a record setting snow!  It was the most snow that
they have had so late in the year, it was crazy!  It felt like it was
Christmas again, because we had just had our Mothers Day Call home,
and it was snowing like crazy!  I actually kinda loved it, but it was
really annoying it deterred us from working.  We live about 15 miles
out of our area, in south Cheyenne, so we couldn't do much except call
those lists.  Our dinner that night came and picked us up, because
they still wanted to feed us.  We had it with the Browns, they are an
older couple who have a lot of their kids living by them, so we met
the whole family!  One of their grandkids was there with his newly wed
wife. Their names are Jenner and Cassandra Brown.  We got talking
during dinner, and he mentioned how he worked with the Senior
Missionaries at the MTC last August and September.  I asked if he knew
Nick Gubler from working in the MTC, and he said that he does and that
they are pretty good friends!  How crazy is that!  I have the weirdest
connections with people out here.  So our mission has been pushing
Member missionary work, and we have been trained a lot on it.  Our
mission leaders have told us what to do, but we have never seen it in
action.  We got talking with Jenner, and he role played with us how
his mission worked with members, and how he taught the Senior
Missionaries in the MTC.  It is exactly what our mission leaders have
taught us, but now I know how to do it!  It was amazing!  I learned so
much, and we actually role played in back to Jenner's Grandparents,
Brother and Sister Brown, and it worked very well!  We have already
applied it in some of our dinners this past week, and it has worked
fantastically!  The summary of how we work with members is we ask them
questions, have them do most the talking, let the Spirit work through
them, and have them decide what the best way is they can invite their
very closest friends to learn more about the Gospel.  This way,
instead of forcing them to do something out of their comfort zone, we
let them decide what they think would be best.  It helps the members
actually follow through with what we invite them to do.  It works, and
I can't wait to apply it more in our missionary work here in Cheyenne.
I really appreciate him for showing us and helping us become greater
missionaries.

     I wanted to congratulate Mike for graduating from Med School!
That's incredible, I'm so happy for you bro!  Keep up the good work
down there in Texas!  I love you all and hope you have a great week
this week!

Love,
Elder Bailey

1 & 2. All the snow in Cheyenne!
3. Fire Danger is crazy high in the snow!

5/15/17 | Happy Mothers Day

This week has been great!  Yesterday was one of the major

highlights when I got to call you guys!  It was so fun to see you
again, and to talk with you!  I am so thankful for my family!  Mom, I
can't even express how thankful I am for you.  You have made me the
person I am today, and I'm so grateful for that!  I definitely
wouldn't be where I am today without you and Dad.  I love you so
much!!  Thanks for being the most amazing family ever!  I couldn't
have asked for a better one.  I'm so glad we were able to catch up and
talk, it made my day!  I hope all you Mothers out there had a
wonderful Mother's Day!

   Our week was filled with a lot of service opportunities.  On
Tuesday we helped out at an old folks home with their lunch.  I was
honestly the topic of the whole year!  All of the old people had so
many questions for me, how tall I was, if I played basketball, how old
I was, what I was doing in Wyoming, etc.  It was honestly hilarious!
The nurses there said they haven't had such a lively lunch before in
awhile, and they said it was because of me.  I'm glad I could help out
where I could.  I made a lot of friends as well, it was awesome!
After this, they had Bingo so we helped call out the different games,
it was so fun!  I love interacting with the community!  Another
service opportunity we had was with Brother Evelo.  He fed us dinner
one night, and lunch the next day, but it was because we helped him
put in his whole irrigation system!  I never knew how hard and tiring
that could have been, but it was!  I have some new found respect for
people who do that for a living.  Since I hadn't really don't any yard
work for awhile, my hands got really soft, so I got a few
blisters...... but they're healing up well now though!  Our last
service opportunity was with a member who lives way out in the
boonies.  They were feeding us Saturday night, so we went early to
help him set up a sheep pen.  We had to move honestly the heaviest
fencing I've ever carried in my entire life across his property to
make the pen.  I have no idea what these fence panels were made out
of, maybe iron or steel, but they were solid.  That made Elder
Callahan and I exhausted, but we were happy to help.  Let me tell you,
I got some good nights sleep from all of this service!  It was
awesome!

   We had a great experience with one of our investigators named
Susan.  We stopped by on Monday night, and she invited us back on
Friday for dinner!  Her husband is an active member, and she has shown
interest in learning more for herself.  It was an amazing dinner, and
we had a wonderful lesson afterwards.  We shared a video called
Patterns of Light: Spirit of Revelation.  In this video, Elder Bednar
explains three different ways people receive answers to their prayers
through personal revelation.  After the video we explained how
important it is for us to understand how Heavenly Father answers our
prayers.  Once we understand those different ways, we can recognize
how many of our prayers are actually answered.  Susan has been reading
and praying about the Book Of Mormon, but feels she hasn't received
her answer.  We helped her understand how those answers come, so she
will recognize for herself when those answers do come!  It ended up
being a really great spiritual lesson.  I can't wait to teach her
again and help her receive those answers she has been looking for!

   Earlier this week we went on exchanges with some elders, and I was
with Elder McCabe.  We had a great day, and we had dinner with a
wonderful family.  After dinner we shared with them the importance of
Member missionary work, and inviting their friends to learn more about
the Gospel.  The mom said "how are my kids supposed to do missionary
work, when there are no Stake Youth activities for them to invite
their friends to?"  This kind of shocked me a little, because I
thought every Stake had activities for the youth.  We got talking, and
it really sparked something inside of me.  I promised the family that
we would do our best to get these things on board with both stakes
here in Cheyenne.  Later in the week we met with the second counselor
in our mission presidency, President Davies.  We discussed how we
could best help missionary work progress here in Cheyenne, and we
brought up the youth activities.  He loved the idea, and was a little
shocked as well about them not having any.  We made a plan that we are
going to meet with both Stake presidencies and present this plan with
them.  If the youth are inviting their friend to activities, their is
so much more work that will come from it!  I can't wait to further
this in Cheyenne so that missionary work will progress!  I will
definitely keep you updated on how this goes in the upcoming weeks.

    In the middle of the week, one of the young men in the Monterey
Heights Ward started to text us.  He told us he was having a problem
at school with a Catholic friend.  He said they had gotten in a
discussion, and that he was trying to explain Gospel concepts to his
friend, but his friend kept on fighting with him about it, and was
saying a lot of anti-Mormon stuff, and really wouldn't listen to him.
He asked us how he could convince his friend that what he was telling
him was true.  We texted him back and told him that we can't really
convince others that our church is true if they don't want to learn
for themselves.  We said, "The best thing that you should do in this
situation, is to testify of what you know to be true, and to invite
him to read and pray about the Book Of Mormon."  Honestly, the Book Of
Mormon is the key.  If the Book Of Mormon is true, then that means
Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that he did in fact see God the
Father and His son Jesus Christ, that the Word of Wisdom and other
modern day revelation through prophets is true, that the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the restored Priesthood
authority given from Jesus Christ Himself while He was on the Earth,
and that we have a prophet here on the earth today named President
Thomas S. Monson.  Everything we believe relies on the truthfulness of
the Book Of Mormon.  This is the way everyone can come to know if this
church is true or not, if they sincerely read the Book Of Mormon and
pray with real intent to know if it's true.  Later that night, we
dropped off a Book Of Mormon at the young mans house, because he wants
to invite his friend to read it.  This was an amazing experience!  I
know that if that friend of his reads and prays, he will receive his
answer through the power of the Holy Ghost.  I know that each of you,
if you want to strengthen your testimony, if your struggling with your
testimony or if you don't know if the Book Of Mormon is true, that you
can come to know of its truthfulness if you give it a shot, read it,
and pray about it with real intent.  If you do this, I promise that
you will receive an answer!

   Mother's Day on Sunday was of course amazing!  It was weird to be
away from you Mom on Mother's Day for the first time, but I know that
this is where I am supposed to be!  We had wonderful Sacrament
meetings in both of our wards, and it was fun to see all the families
celebrate their mothers.  After church we went Tracting with no
success, which is okay!  We then had to pick up some YSA rosters for
each Ward from a guy in our ward, because Cheyenne is trying to make a
Young Single Adult Ward, so we are going to spend a lot of time
finding and looking to see if we have enough members to make that
ward.  We had an awesome dinner with the Smiths, who had literally
their whole extended family over for Mother's Day.  After dinner it
was so fun to call home.  Mother's Day is literally Christmas in May,
I love it!  I honestly love you guys so much, and I'm grateful to call
you my family.  I am so grateful for all that you have done for me
Mom!  I will never be able to repay that.  I want to wish again all
the mother's out there, young and old, a Happy Mother's Day!  You guys
have a special place in my heart, and I'm grateful for each of you.  I
hope you all have an amazing week this week, and remember that
Heavenly Father knows each of you by name, and loves you more than you
could ever know!


Love,
Elder Bailey


1. Found my home street!
2. The flatness of Wyoming.
3. Found this poor cat while Tracting....

5/8/17 | First week in Cheyenne!

Oh It has been such a great week here in Cheyenne!  Elder Callahan

and I get along great, and we are both on the same page.  I'm really
excited for this upcoming transfer, it should be a good one!  On my
first day here, we had to coordinate some of the transfers, and help
out with moving missionaries around.  After we had helped out with all
of that, we headed to our Stake Presidents house, President Bailey, to
have a meeting with him.  He is such an awesome guy!  His whole family
is tall too, and we think that we are related down the line somewhere!
We discussed the missionary work in our Stake here in Cheyenne, and
it was amazing to see the vision he has for Member missionary work.
We are going to focus mainly on that for all the members in the Stake,
and especially in our wards we cover.  We have already seen success
this week from this, and I'm excited to see how much more we can have
over the next couple months!

    We were really busy this week with visiting less active members
and finding people to teach.  We are covering the Prairie View and
Monterary Heights wards, and the work has started to pick up since
this past Monday.  The Prairie View Ward is a lot of ranchers out in
the middle of nowhere north of Cheyenne, and the Monterary Heights
Ward is the very wealthiest part of Cheyenne, so we have some pretty
diverse members.  While we were visiting some Less-actives out in the
prarie View Ward, we ran into the Stevenson's.  The wife is a
non-member, and the husbands the less active.  The wife answered the
door, and she was so nice!  We were a little shocked at first, but we
talked for a bit, and she said she would love to have us come back
next Wednesday.  We found out later that she had been very anti, then
her husband had a heart attack.  Their home teacher brought over meals
to them a lot, and through that her heart has been softened!  I am
really excited to meet with them and teach them a lesson.  I'm hoping
it will lead to somewhere!

     We did a lot of service this week.  We do service at the
Cheyenne Frontier Days Western Museum, and that is really cool!  We
help out with all of these random projects they need help with.  I
hadn't ever heard of this, but I guess Cheyenne hosts on of the
biggest rodeo venues in the world each July called Frontier Days, so
I'm probably going to be here for that!  A ton of people come into
town for it, so I'm excited to do a lot of finding and contacting
then!  We also helped out a member this past Wednesday, in the snow,
dig trenches for his sprinkler system.  That was nice and cold and
muddy!  Then on Saturday the weather flipped to 80 degrees and we
helped a less active member build a fence, which was really hot and
sweaty!  The weather is absolutely crazy here!  I just love providing
service for other people, it makes me feel so good when I'm in the
service of others.  We will definitely have a lot more service this
upcoming transfer.

     We taught a recent convert this week the Plan of Salvation.  Her
name is Sasha, and she was baptized a few weeks ago.  She is such an
amazing convert!  I love hearing the testimonies of those who have
recently joined the church, they are always so powerful.  It was a
great lesson, and her testimony is so strong!

  We had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this past Friday, and it
was awesome!  I got to see a lot of my really good friends, and we
learned a lot from President and Sister McMurray.  We discussed some
of the things our mission is struggling with, and how we can best help
fix those problems.  We also focused on Member missionary work.  I
love talking about Member missionary work, because I know it works!
Having the members and missionaries on the same page is the way it
should be everywhere.  One phrase I loved from this meeting was
"Members should be doing the finding, and missionaries should be doing
the teaching."  Members reaching out and inviting their friends to
learn about the gospel, is so much more effective than anything
missionaries can do alone.  Having a friend reach out to you and tell
you how much the Gospel would bless their lives means a lot more than
two random guys coming up to you on the street.  We are having a huge
push for Member missionary work in our mission, but especially in the
Cheyenne Stake.  I know that as we find those members who are willing
to invite others to come unto Christ, the work will continue press
forward more than it already is!  Overall it was a fantastic meeting
we had as a mission.

   President McMurray asked Elder Callahan and I to attend the
Cheyenne Wyoming East Stake Conference.  We aren't in that Stake, but
he wanted us to go.  We attended the Saturday night and Sunday
sessions of the conference.  Elder Nielson of the Seventy was in
attendance, along with President and Sister McMurray and the Fort
Collins Colorado temple President and his wife. Elder Nielson is one
of the head people over the missionary department, he was the main
person leading the last Worldwide Missionary Broadcast with Elder Oaks
and Elder Bednar.  The whole conference was centered on Member
missionary work, and how it is our responsibility as members of the
church to share the Gospel with all the world!  As President David O.
McKay said, "Every Member a missionary!"  This is such a true
statement!  We have all seen the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His
restored church bless our lives, and don't we want all of our friends
to be blessed by it as well?  I know that is a huge reason I am out
here serving my Savior, is to help others experience the pure joy I
have experienced with my family in the Gospel.  I love this Gospel
with all of my heart!  Another thing Elder Nielson shared that I loved
was in 3 Nephi 9:13, when all of the wicked people are destroyed
during all of the destruction.  The more righteous part of the people
are saved and gathered together, and Jesus Christ asks them if they
will change and become better.  Elder Nielson explained how even the
most righteous ones of God's children need to change, and how the
Savior invites all of us to change and to follow Him.  I want to
invite you guys to find something in your life that you can improve
on, and to let Jesus Christ, through His everlasting Atonement, change
you to become better.  I know that all of us can change if we have our
focus be in the Savior.  Through Him, anything is possible!

      That Sunday night, we taught both the Prairie View and
Monterary Heights Mission Preparation classes.  It was so awesome to
see such amazing missionaries in training, I loved teaching both
classes!  In the Prairie View class, a lot of the youth brought some
of their non-Member friends to practice their teaching on them for
mission prep.  First we had a Q&A where the friends asked questions,
and we had the youth answer them.  They did an amazing job, and as a
group, we taught these non-member friends the Restoration.  One of the
youth explained Joseph's experience in the Sacred Grove, but did not
recite the First Vision.  We had them go back and say the First Vision
word for word.  As soon as that youth started to speak, the sweetest
Spirit entered the room.  I couldn't help but smile, because I knew
everyone in that room was feeling that same Spirit.  After this, one
of the non-member friends asked the two youth with their mission
calls, "Why are you going on a mission, and why do you think it will
help you?"  One of the young men shared the greatest experience, he
said that when he received his mission call, all of his friends in the
next week or so, made fun of him and were very rude to him about
choosing to serve a mission.  He shared that even though all of his
closest friends were going against him, he was still so strong about
serving the Lord.  He said that he prayed to know if he should go on a
mission or not, and he received an answer through the Holy Ghost that
it was what he was supposed to be doing.  He invited all of the
non-members to read from the Book Of Mormon and to pray to know if it
was true, because he knew that they could receive their own witness
from God.  It was the coolest thing to see the youth testify and
invite the Spirit as they did so.  I love seeing others prepare to
serve a mission, because I know how much it will bless their lives and
the lives of those they teach!

      I love it here in Cheyenne, even though it is kinda windy, it's
still amazing!  There is so much work to do here, and I can't wait to
find those people that are ready to receive the Gospel!  Elder
Callahan and I set a goal, and fasted about it yesterday, that we are
going to find three people who want to learn more about the Gospel
this week.  I know that as we work our hardest, and as we diligently
seek to find those who are prepared, either by our own efforts or
through members, I know that we will find those three people the Lord
needs us to find!  I love you guys, and hope you have a fantastic
week!


Love,
Elder Bailey


1. My new friend.
2. MLC, (Elder Callahan is the one kneeling on the bottom right.)

5/1/17 | Last week in Greeley

 This week was my last week in the wonderful Greeley Colorado!
We found out about transfers Saturday night, and I'm headed up to
Cheyenne, Wyoming!  President McMurray actually called us on Saturday
morning, and called me to be a Zone Leader.  I'm still feeling pretty
shocked about it, but I know this is what the Lord needs me to do.  I
definitely trust in what President McMurray and the Lord have in store
for me, and I will definitely be looking to both of them for guidance
in this new calling.  My new companions name is Elder Callahan, he is
a cowboy from Arizona.  I heard he is a hard worker, so I am super
excited!!  I'm going to miss it here in Greeley, but I'm excited for
this change.

        Well, it was a great week this week.  There was so much that
happened!  First off, we had three fantastic lessons with an
investigator family this week.  Their names are the Buckley's, and we
found them last transfer through looking for a less-active family.
They have seven kids and four of them are interested.  The smaller
kids are not super interested, but they'll follow their parents for
now.  They literally live right next to the church, so they already
kind of knew who we were.  The dad wanted to talk to us about what we
believed, so we finally got in contact with them this past week.  He
was interested to know if we believed in life other than our earth.
We said of course, and explained how Heavenly Father has created
worlds without number for all of his children.  After we told him
this, he was interested about learning more!  That first quick lesson,
we committed the family to read the Restoration Pamphlet.  We came for
the second lesson, and they had read!  We taught the Restoration, and
it was very powerful.  I love teaching the Restoration to people,
there is definitely a reason why we teach it first.  There is power in
the Book Of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith!  The wife had been
raised to believe a lot of off things about our church, so she started
going off on us about it.  We happily explained all of her questions.
She was mainly focused on us still practicing polygamy, and how the
Book Of Mormon took away from the Bible. We explained how we both had
one mom, and that we had stopped practicing polygamy a long time ago.
We then explained how we believe and read from the King James Version
of the Bible and how the Book Of Mormon teaches the same exact
principles as the Bible does.  We told her how the Book Of Mormon does
not take away anything from the Bible, and how it does not replace the
Bible at all, it just teaches the same principles and is another
testament of Jesus Christ.  After we talked with her and answered her
questions, her heart was softened.  We invited them to read from the
Book Of Mormon, and to pray to know if it's true.  They accepted, and
our next lesson went amazing as well!  They had read from the Book Of
Mormon, and had a lot of questions about what they read!  We brought
some members with us, and we read from the Book Of Mormon with them.
We went through the first two chapters with them and explained it in
detail, relating it to them and helping them understand it for
themselves!  They really enjoyed learning more about the Book Of
Mormon, and we recommitted them to pray about it.  We also invited
them to come to church the next Sunday, and they said they would.
They weren't able to make it to church due to family in town, but I
know they'll for sure get there next week!  I love seeing people
change!  Our first lesson, the oldest son started to look up what we
believed on the internet, and then started pumping out a bunch of
stuff we believe.  He mentioned the Word of Wisdom, and then the whole
family kind of freaked out about it!  They love coffee, smoking, and
tea.  We explained more in depth about it, and the dad said "Honey, I
need some more coffee, because I might not be able to drink anymore
once I join the church."   They are honestly such a golden family, and
I'm glad they are progressing toward true conversion!  Even though I'm
leaving, I'm so excited for them.  It really doesn't matter what
missionary "gets the Baptism,"  all that matters is that they get
there!

         We did a bunch of Park Contacting this week as well.  We had
some amazing experiences!  Our first one was with these two gangster
guys.  They were about our age, so we started talking to them.  We got
in a really deep conversation and they started asking us questions.
We answered them, and then we asked "Do you guys know your purpose in
life? Or why you're here and where you're going?"  They said they had
no idea, and then we told them we knew all three of those answers.
They thought it was crazy that we could say that we knew.  We
explained, and eventually they accepted a copy of the Book Of Mormon.
Out of the clear blue one of them asked if we had an addiction course?
 We were kind of shocked, but we told him all the information about
where the addiction recovery class was held and at what time.  We
happened to have one of the packets in our car so we gave him that as
well.  He said he was going to attend with his girlfriend because it
had been affecting both of them a lot lately, and he didn't know what
to do.  I know that we were supposed to meet him and his friend,
because they needed our help!  The Lord works in marvelous ways!  On
another day we met Cynthia.  We explained who we were, and about the
Book Of Mormon.  She said she was Catholic, but accepted a Book Of
Mormon and wants us to stop by her house sometime soon!  It was
amazing!  I love it when we  talk to everyone we can, and one person
out of all the people we talk to is interest in learning more.  As we
put forth the effort, the Lord blesses us beyond comprehension!

         We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this past Friday,
and I was with Elder McFadden.  We taught two amazing lessons to some
of their investigators.  One of them has a cousin serving in our
mission, and the other one previously had no knowledge of Jesus Christ
and God in general.  Our first lesson we taught the Restoration.  It
was cool to see how many questions she had because of her cousin, but
to also see that she began to understand more about the Gospel.  She
said when she was younger, she was forced into her parents religion,
and that now she has these options to choose what to believe.  Elder
McFadden and I met her randomly on campus on our last exchange, but I
know it really wasn't random.  God put her in our path, because he
knew she was ready to learn more about His Gospel. She is progressing
so well!  Our next lesson was awesome too!  It was really interesting
to teach someone who didn't have a belief in God, or a knowledge of
Jesus Christ before we met her.  She asked a question about the Book
Of Mormon that made me think.  She asked, "Why did Nephi's brothers,
Laman and Lemuel, always have to go with him when the Lord commanded
Lehi to do something?"  I had never thought of this before!  Nephi
could have done it alone with Sam, and they wouldn't have had any
problems because they both believed and trusted in the Lord.  However,
Lehi sent all of his sons.  We were thinking about her question, and
honestly the only answer we could think of was that his wicked
brothers had to go with him to help Nephi progress, and for a teaching
opportunity for future readers.  We learn so much from these accounts,
how when we trust in the Lord He always promises to provide a way for
whatever He commands to come to pass, but when we do not trust in the
Lord we cannot have that same promise.  I want to extend a challenge
to you all, to read the first 1 Nephi 3-7, and to ponder why Nephi's
brothers had to go with him, and to look for the lessons we learn
because they went with him.  I know that you will learn something from
these chapters that will help you through trials in your life.

         One crazy thing that happened on exchanges with Elder
McFadden was when we got a call from one of the Assistants, Elder
Chan, and he needed us to come to the mission office to come with them
to pick up some brand new mission vehicles from a dealership in Fort
Collins.  We were so excited, no one gets this opportunity!  We said
of course, and headed over to Windsor.  In our cars we have something
called a "Tiwi," it is like having a babysitter when your are driving!
 Tiwi monitors how fast you are going, if you hit a bump too hard or
turn too sharp, or if you are buckled up.  It was very smart for the
church to put these in the mission vehicles so that we drive safer as
missionaries, but sometimes they get a little annoying...... Anyways,
these new cars that we were going to pick up didn't have Tiwi's in
them, and we were going to be driving alone from the dealership to the
mission office.  It was probably one of the funniest things I've done
on my mission so far!  I got to drive a brand new white 2017 Toyota
Tacoma, and I loved it!  Honestly, this was a once in a mission type
of deal.  It was so weird to be alone driving in a car without a Tiwi,
but it was a fun experience!  That day, out of nowhere, it dropped 25
degrees and started snowing really hard, so we got to drive in the
snow and it felt like Christmas all over again!  The next day it was
back up to 60 degrees again.  I love how the weather here is exactly
like Utah! Reminds me a little bit of home.

           One last thing, I was reading in the Book Of Mormon and
found this scripture that I loved.  It is in 2 Nephi 32:3, and it
says:

3 "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."

         This explains how important studying the scriptures is in our
daily lives!  We speak to God through prayer, and God speaks to us
through the scriptures.  I know this to be true!  Before my mission, I
was not a very good at studying daily.  I have seen such a huge
difference on my mission as I have studied from the Book Of Mormon and
Preach My Gospel daily.  I have such a greater love for the
scriptures, and my desire to share what I know to be true has gotten
so much stronger!  I know that if you guys study daily from the
scriptures, and as you say your daily prayers, you will see a HUGE
difference in your life.  Doing the little things upon our testimonies
eventually builds them to be so strong!  My testimony of this Gospel,
Jesus Christ, the Book Of Mormon, and the prophet Joseph Smith is so
strong!  I know that this is Jesus Christ's true church established
back onto the earth again.  I know it, I live it, and I love it!

         I hope you guys have a great week this week!  I am moving on
to a new place and a new responsibility, but I know that this is the
same work all around the world.  My friends in Spain, Ohio, Paraguay,
England, and Mexico are all preaching the same Gospel, and that is the
restored Gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth today, preparatory to the
second coming of the Messiah!  I know this Gospel is true, and I love
teaching it to all the people I can every single day.  Love you guys!

Love,
Elder Bailey


1. Christmas round two
2. Found a cat named Rick