9/25/17 | Winter is on the way!

 Another great week up here in Wyoming!  It is getting a bit chilly now, it has been rainy and in the 30’s and 40’s for the past couple of days.  Winter is on the way!!  Doing missionary work in the winter time is fun, so I can’t wait!  Also, General Conference is this week!  I always love hearing inspired words from our beloved prophet and apostles.  They always feel me with love, peace, and joy!  I would invite everyone to watch it!  You will feel the spirit, guaranteed!

        We went on exchanges with Elder Bush and Elder McFadden this week, they’re awesome!  I was with Elder McFadden, he’s one my best friend friends out here in the mission field so we had a great time!  In Windsor there are these little library stations around the whole city, with books in them.  The rule is if you take a book you have to leave a book.  Elder McFadden and I found a lot of these as we were walking and driving around, so we put some copies of The Book Of Mormon in them and took some other religious books (primarily Jehovah Witness materials) out to learn more!  Just spreading the good word through the word of God! We had a good time working all day, and honestly didn’t see too much success until the very last person we visited.  We knocked on a mans door, and he was so happy to see us!  He let us in, and we had a great conversation.  He grew up a member and eventually left the church when he was 18.  After he explained his story, he asked us how we gained our testimonies.  We both told him how we gained our testimonies of the Book Of Mormon and the prophet Jospeh Smith.  The Spirit was so powerful as we testified, and we knew he was feeling it too!  After we bore our testimonies, he sincerely said thank you!  We asked him if we could go back and visit him again, and he said he would love that!  It is so cool to feel the spirit testify to someone else of truth, and to be able to bear testimony to him.  Bearing testimony invites the spirit so strongly!  That was an amazing miracle to see as we worked hard all day!  

       It has been pretty tough with Janet this week.  We contacted her daily through visits and FaceTime.  She came to the Book Of Mormon institute class for the third week in a row, and she attended the Women’s Session Of General Conference with some members who have been fellowshipping her!  We were excited about that!  The thing that was really hard was she attended the Greek Orthodox Church this Sunday, for a sense of “closure” from the catholic faith.  We talked to her Sunday night, and she is planning on watching General Conference this next weekend!  That should be so awesome!  We brought up attending our church in two weeks and she was super hesitant, it was so hard to see her slowly slipping away.  The adversary is working so hard to keep her away from the truth, and we are trying our hardest to get her to attend church, but she needs to make that decision for herself.  General Conference will help her so much, and we are praying so hard that she will come to church in two weeks.  When you see one of God’s children find the truth, but they don’t embrace and accept it fully, it is super hard and frustrating.  But that is the life of a missionary!  Janet will hopefully come to church, and we know that if she does she will start progressing very quickly, it will just take an act of Faith!  One act of Faith could change her life eternally.  Faith is huge, and I can promise that if you read The Book Of Mormon daily, you will have faith that it is true.  Faith comes from truth, and I know The Book Of Mormon is truly the word of God!  

       We had an interesting meeting with a man we met in our area late on night.  His name is Ken, and he studies the Bible very frequently.  He isn’t a member of a specific church, but he reached out to us and wanted to meet us at the Cheyenne Stake Center.  We knew he would have questions of how the Restored Gospel and The Gospel of Jesus Christ relate from The Book Of Mormon to the Bible.  We knew what member we could bring who has an absolutely amazing knowledge of the scriptures, Brother Weber!!  This man is super legit, so we knew he would be the best one to bring to this lesson.  We got to the Cheyenne Stake Center, and had an amazing lesson/visit with him.  He started with questions, which led to more questions, and it seemed as if he was digging to find ways to disprove what we were teaching him.  That is when Brother Weber laid down the hammer, and started talking to him about what he was doing.  He started teaching from the whole Bible, and quoting verse by verse exactly how it was written.  It was a sight to behold, and I hope I can be that versed in the scriptures as he is someday!  He explained that if you truly want to find and know the truth, you have to pray to ask God, the ultimate source of knowledge, if it is true or not.  He invited him to hear the words from prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ next week during General Conference and pray to know if they were prophets of God.  Throughout this, we all testified of the living prophet, President Thomas Monson.  The spirit that was in that room was undeniable!  I honestly couldn’t stop smiling, Elder Tippetts and Elder Masaniai can attest of that!  I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time!  The spirit witnessed to him of what was true, but he kept having a heard heart, and ultimately said what we were saying was false.  It was so sad to know he had felt the spirit, and to know he had rejected it.  We are praying he softens his heart and comes to the truth, but ultimately he has his agency to choose.  This experience built up my testimony, and it just makes me more happy that we as missionaries have the opportunity to bring forth this wonderful message of comfort and joy to those who are willing to accept.  These elect people are out there, the trick is finding them.  That’s what we are always trying to do, find find find.  The Lord will put those people who are ready in our path, I know He will!  

        I forgot to mention last week, that we had the opportunity to teach the mission prep class.  We taught them about the missionary purpose, and how big of a role it plays in missionary work!  Overall the lesson went well, and we have a bunch of solid youth who attended.  It brought back so many memories of attending Brother Lee’s mission prep class before my mission.  I truly appreciate the time I had to attend a class like that, with such an amazing teacher too!  I wish I would have known Preach My Gospel better than I did, it helps so much to know it well.  I would encourage anyone who is wanting to serve a mission, to attend a mission preparation class, and to read Preach My Gospel!  It will help you so much as you step into the mission field and it will honestly help you share the gospel with everyone!

       I was reading in 3 Nephi this week, and chapter 15:9 stood out to me,

9 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.

       As we look unto the Savior, the ultimate life and light of the world, we can find peace, rest, hope, and joy in our daily struggles.  I can testify and promise you that if you look unto Him, continuously, you will always feel love and peace.  Anything you are struggling with, look unto Him for help.  He will help you endure to the end!  I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Can’t wait to hear from our beloved prophets and apostles this week, it should be absolutely amazing!  

Love

Elder Bailey 

Pics:  

1. Gary the Man stark drove here from Riverton to take us to lunch!  Haha food to see him again!

2. Service pic from exchanges!

3. pic from Kohls 

9/18/17 | Another great week in Cheyenne!

 This week was pretty good!  We had some disappointments and some
success's, but that is just how missionary work goes!   Staying
positive and working hard is the key, and we've seen that play a huge
role in this entire week!
     We had two exchanges this week, and they both went really well!
On one of the exchanges, we didn't have a dinner so I called the
Weber's last minute and asked if we could eat with them.  They had us
over, and it was a great meal and a lesson!  We role played with them,
and had them think of a specific friend that they could invite to
either church, or an activity.  They all picked one out and role
played with each other.  It went really well, and they all feel more
comfortable sharing the gospel!  Brother Weber also talked to us, and
has two of his patients who he is going to have us teach!  We are
going to set those up this week, so those should be awesome!  Member
referrals are absolutely amazing!  Can't wait to see the Gospel change
these individuals lives.  We were also able to teach an investigator
named Heather in the other elders ward.  We taught her the Restoration
and now she has a baptismal date for October 7th!  It was a really
cool lesson to be a part of.  The Spirit was extremely strong
throughout the lesson, and we asked her after we invited her to be
baptized if she was feeling the Spirit.  She said she was definitely
feeling the Spirit, and started to tear up!  The Holy Ghost is real,
and it is amazing to see how much comfort and love he can provide!  I
know that as each of us pray for guidance and help, we can receive
that help and comfort through the Holy Ghost!
     We had a meeting with our ward mission leader in the Prairie View
Ward this past week to discuss a Ward Mission plan.  We had a
wonderful meeting, and helped our ward mission leader understand how
he can help us more effectively.  We went to Bishopric Meeting for
this ward, and made a plan to visit each of them to teach their
families "the rescue plan" to help us reach out the the less actives
of the ward.  The missionary work should start to progress in the
Prairie View Ward, so we are hopeful about that!  Brother Weber's
referrals are in this ward too!  We can't wait!
      It was a pretty difficult week with Janet.  We met with her
again almost every single day, and we were working with her to finally
attend church!  During our last lesson of the week on Saturday, Janet
said she was going to attend church!  We were really excited, and
started to again explain to her how we would do everything in our
power to get her there!  Then she said that she had made the decision
to attend another church.  She said she knew every road points to
going to our church, but she has to make sure by attending the other
church to give her a sort of closure.  She said she would attend the
other church this week, then go to ours next week.  We were absolutely
devastated, and we didn't hide any of our feelings.  She asked us why
we looked so sad, and we explained to her that we knew that as she
attended Christ's true church, that she would feel so much happiness
and joy and would know for herself that it would be where she needed
to be.  We left that lesson feeling pretty sad, but we had faith that
something would happen that would make her want to attend our church
this upcoming Sunday!  On Sunday, we went to church and got a text
from Janet about how she didn't even attend the other church because
she got extremely fearful again, and just couldn't do it.  We had a
lesson with her Sunday night, and we explained to her that if she
decides to attend our church that we will help her get there, and we
know that with Heavenly Fathers help she would get there.  But it she
decides to attend another church, we can't really help her get there.
She seemed to get where we were coming from and we are hoping she
understands that she needs to attend our church.  We are praying so
hard that she does.  We know the Holy Ghost has witnessed to her that
the things we have taught her are true, but ultimately it is her
choice.  We are praying she will make the right choice!
       In church we were talking about President Monson's message this
past General Conference titled "The Power of the Book Of Mormon."
There was an article in the August 2005 Ensign titled "A Consistent
Prophetic Call," and we discussed how not only our prophet, President
Thomas S. Monson, has invited us to read The Book Of Mormon, but
prophets and apostles have consistently invited us to do so forever!
Here is the article,

President David O. McKay (1873–1970): “I testify to you that the Book
of Mormon is truly the Word of God, that communication between earth
and heaven has been opened up again, and that the true way of the Lord
has been revealed to men on earth, showing the means by which all
needful knowledge and blessings may be received by every true believer
in Christ” (“Marks Pointing to Authenticity of Book of Mormon,”
Instructor, Oct. 1952, 318).
President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972): “No member of this Church
can stand approved in the presence of God who has not seriously and
carefully read the Book of Mormon” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1961,
18).

President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973): “It has always seemed to me that
the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith in counsel to the brethren,
impressing the value of the Book of Mormon, have greater significance
than many of us attach to them. His statement was: ‘I told the
brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on
earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to
God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book’ (History of
the Church, 4:461). …
“If one wants to get close to God, he can do it by reading the Book of
Mormon” (Teachings of
Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee [2000], 62).

President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985): “[The Book of Mormon] is the
word of God. It is a powerful second witness of Christ. And,
certainly, all true believers who love the Redeemer will welcome
additional evidence of his divinity.
“This inspiring book was never tampered with by unauthorized
translators or biased theologians but comes to the world pure and
directly from the historians and abridgers. The book is not on
trial--its readers are” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed.
Edward L. Kimball [1982], 133).

President Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994): “The Book of Mormon is studied
in our Sunday School and seminary classes every fourth year. This
four-year pattern, however, must not be followed by Church members in
their personal and family study. We need to read daily from the pages
of the book that will get a man ‘nearer to God by abiding by its
precepts, than by any other book.’ (History of the Church, 4:461.)”
(“Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon,” Ensign, Nov. 1988, 4).

President Howard W. Hunter (1907–95): “The Book of Mormon is the word
of God. We invite you to read this wonderful record. It is the most
remarkable volume in existence today. Read it carefully and
prayerfully, and as you do, God will give you a testimony of its
truthfulness as promised by Moroni (see Moro. 10:4)” (The Teachings of
Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1997], 54).

      I honestly love how this shows the importance of why prophets
and apostles stress reading The Book Of Mormon so much!  This is
because it is the key part of what a testimony should be made of!  I
can promise and testify to you that if you read The Book Of Mormon
each and every day, you will have a solid testimony of Jesus Christ's
true church that has been restored back onto the earth through the
prophet Joseph Smith!  If we rely on The Book Of Mormon, we will never
fall and our testimonies will always remain strong!  I hope you all
have a great week, and always remember that Heavenly Father loves each
and every single one of you!

Love
Elder Bailey


Pic:
Beautiful Wyoming!

9/11/17 | Always Remember

Happy 9/11!  I'm grateful for all of those who sacrificed
their lives on that day, and for all of those who serve our country!
I will always love America!  Land of the free! Woo! Things were pretty
crazy this week for transfers!  Elder Tippetts and I had to drive down
to Colorado to pick up another car, so that was pretty crazy driving
solo!!  (We had permission don't worry:))  Everything eventually ran
smoothly, and we picked up our new companion Elder Masaniai!  He is
from Oakland California, and he is part Samoan, Tongan, and Hawaiian.
For the first couple hours he was pretty quiet, but  Elder Tippetts
and I could honestly break anyone out of their shell!  Once we made
him laugh, he opened up, and we're all super good friends already!  I
can just tell that this transfer is going to be so fun and we are
going to put in the work!
       We had MLC this past Friday, and we talked about a lot of
interesting things!  First off, our mission is getting Online
Proselyting (a.k.a Facebook) come October!  We were all super
surprised about this change, but it should be good.  Our next MLC is
going to be a ton of training on how to use it properly to further the
work, and we are going to receive 30 new District videos for our
training!  It's going to be an exciting change!  Another big change is
our p-days are being changed in October due to new missionaries coming
out later.  The new missionaries are now coming in Tuesday afternoon
instead of in the mornings so they are changing transfer days to
Wednesday, so changing p-days to Tuesday just makes sense!  We have
our temple trips on Tuesdays too so that works out well too!  It is
going to be weird to change that on October 24th, but it will be all
good!  One of the last big things we discussed was changing our
Standards of Excellence for our mission, which are our key indicator
goals for our mission.  The previous standards were a bit out of
reach, so we were able to change them so more missionaries could work
to reach them!  We feel it will help missionaries be more successful
and push us to work harder to reach them.  Overall it was a good
meeting, fun to see President and Sister McMurray and all of my
mission buddies again!
       We did some service for our non-members friends the Gregory's,
and we helped them fill up a dumpster full of old stuff from their
property.  They gave us a couch and a nice desk to add to our new
apartment!  Oh yeah!  We are finally able to move into our new
apartment!  We are moving over today, so we are going to be living
their now!  We are so excited, living in WWII bunkers are great and
all, but it's going to be awesome to live in a nicer apartment!  We
also have more room for exchanges, woohoo!
       We were able to meet with Janet this week almost every day.
Over the course of this week, she hadn't been reading.  There was
always something in her life that came up to interrupt her reading.
This was getting super frustrating, and we finally talked it over as a
companionship.  We decided we were going to make our Saturday lesson
the "do or die" lesson!  In preparation for this lesson we decided to
have a special fast on behalf of Janet.  I can testify that fasting
works, because the lesson went very well!  We watched President
Uchtdorf's Mormon Message "Shower of Heavenly Blessings" and talked
about how Heavenly Father is waiting to shower so many blessing upon
her as she took away the "fear and doubt umbrella" and attended
church! We talked with her about how every single time she planned to
read, something came up and interrupted her.  We explained that this
was how Satan was trying to haunt her progress.  Janet had told us
that she felt like she was feeling super peaceful while reading the
Book Of Mormon, and that she wanted to just feel that peace and not
have to worry about church.  We told her this was Satan making her
feel comfortable where she was at, and knowing that she would find a
tremendous amount of peace and joy at church, he was magnifying her
fears of coming so that she would never experience that joy and peace
of partaking of the Sacrament and attending church!  We testified to
her that as she trusted in the Lord and as she recognized the tactics
of Satan, she could overcome her fear and be able to make it to
church.  It was a really good lesson, and Janet finally began to
understand that she could make it to church if she put forth her
faith!  Janet set a goal for herself to read five chapters from the
Book Of Mormon each day in preparation to come to church next week!
We know Janet will attend church this upcoming Sunday, and it will be
so amazing!  The Spirit was overwhelmingly strong throughout the
lesson, and Janet told us she felt it! On Sunday Janet called us and
said she had planned to come to church, had all of her clothes ready
after we left the night before, but she said something kept her awake
all night.  We had a lesson yesterday, and talked about it.  We told
her that was Satan trying to get her not to come, so we promised her
again that as she prepared throughout this whole week, and as we met
every single day she would be prepared to face that fear and doubt and
combat the tactics of Satan.  We can't wait to see her at church next
week!
       For MLC we had the chance to read a wonderful talk by Elder
Lynn G. Robbins from this past BYU Education Week.  I would encourage
you all to read it!  It gives such an amazing perspective on the
tactics of Satan, and how we can become more responsible in our lives.
This talk changed the way I looked at responsibility and Satan's
tactics, and really helped me apply it to  missionary work!  If you
have a chance, please read it, and ponder how you can become better
and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ!  I promise that as you
do, you will be able to become a better more Christlike person!  I
hope you all have a great week this week!  I'm grateful for the chance
I have to be here on my mission, it has been the best decision of my
life!  Love you all!

Love
Elder Bailey :)

Elder Robbins talk

9/4/17 | Staying in Cheyenne!

 We had a great week this week!  It was a little crazy, but it
was awesome!  For this past week Elder Tippetts and I had another
companion, his name is Elder Spence.  We had to shuffle some
missionaries around in the Zone, and Elder Spence got to be with us.
It was so fun having him!  It made for a really fun hard working week.
We also found out our transfer information on Saturday, and Elder
Tippetts and I are staying together here in Cheyenne for another six
weeks!  I am so pumped to be with him for another transfer, but they
threw in a twist.  We are also getting another companion, so we will
be in a threesome.  His name is Elder Masaniai.  Things should be
good!  Threesomes are always a good time, and I'm excited for this
upcoming transfer!
       We were able to teach Janet six times this week!  She is
honestly one of the first investigators on my mission who has been
willing and wants to meet with us daily.  It was awesome!  Every
lesson we have been focusing mainly on the Book Of Mormon, and
stressing her reading.  We know that when she reads consistently, she
will feel more comfortable attending church, and conversion will
follow.  I love knowing with confidence that if someone reads from The
Book Of Mormon with an open heart and with real intent, they will be
converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The power of The Book Of
Mormon is absolutely incredible.  Janet is truly starting on her path
to conversion, and it is amazing to see it take place.  Her reading is
going very well, and she is reading consistently!  We talked with her
each time we met how her Book Of Mormon reading went, and we had some
really good discussions!  She is slowly but surely continuing on the
path of conversion, and I know she will be comfortable coming to
church soon!  I am so glad I get to stay here to continue working with
her.  We are planning to meet with her every day for this next week as
well, and we are going to continue to work with her, I can't wait!!
         We had some really good service this week.  We helped a less
active family, the Chapman's, take their trailer down to the recycling
pits to throw a bunch of trash away.  It was awesome!  We also went
and helped the Gregory's, a non member couple, spread a bunch of mulch
in their front yard.  They were so grateful for the help!  We are also
helping them clean out a barn on their property this week, so it will
be a good one!  We are waiting for a good opportunity to ask them if
they would like to take the lessons, and learn more about our church.
The Chapman's came to church this past Sunday!  We will continue to
work with them as well.  We know that as we demonstrate Christlike
service, that it softens hearts.  It is amazing to see that work in
God's children!
         Elder Tippetts got an email from a bishop in Longmont,
telling him some homeless people that he had worked with last transfer
were moving to Cheyenne.  They are in the Capitol Hill Ward, so we
took the other elders serving in that ward down to the Motel 6 where
they were staying.  We got there and it was a pretty bad situation.
They had no food, the wife was pregnant, and they were being driven
crazy because of hunger.  We talked to them for a little bit, and they
said they tried to call the bishop in the area, and he didn't answer.
They were about to give up all hope when we showed up!  They explained
to us their story and the trials they have gone through, they have had
it pretty rough.  We tried calling some members of the ward, with no
success...... but we knew it was in our hands.  We rushed over to
Walmart, and with all five of us pitching in money, we bought them a
bunch of food!  We rushed back and gave them the food. They were
absolutely overly grateful for the food.  They asked for a scripture
off the top of one of our heads, so I immediately blurted out Helaman
5:12.  They read it out loud, from The Book Of Mormon we gave them,
and it hit home.  They were crying and it really explained their life.
We promise them that as they trust in Jesus Christ, they can push
through every trial!  It was a really cool experience.  The ward is
helping them out a lot now, so they are in good hands. It was awesome
to help them out so much for doing so little!
          While we were Tracting a bunch this week, we ran into a very
inactive man.  He was a really nice guy at first, asking where we were
from, and was being very polite.  We asked if he was a member, and he
said he was but he stopped going to church six years ago.  We asked
him why, and he went off about the things he left the church for.  I'm
not going to get into detail, but it was a lot of anti-Mormon stuff he
got into.  I've noticed that there are two kinds of less active people
that I have seen and met personally on my mission.  First are the ones
who really just fell away because of laziness or they married a non
member or something to that effect.  Second are the prideful ones who
elevate themselves above all other church members, and think they have
received new knowledge of things that are incorrect about the church,
mostly because of anti-Mormon literature they run into.  This man we
met was the second type.  He told us that he had run into new topics
of doctrine that he hadn't ever heard about while growing up, and he
thought it was being hidden from him.  It was all the things that
anti-Mormon literature has focused on since the church of restored to
the earth in the year 1830.  Polygamy, Joseph Smith, modern-day
prophets, and The Book Of Mormon.  He attacked every aspect he could
while talking with us.  In the middle of the conversation, I
immediately thought of seeing my dad go through a similar experience
on our front door step a few years ago.  Someone in our neighborhood
came over to tell him he had found something knew to disprove Jospeh
Smith was a prophet of God.  I saw my dad calmly handle the situation,
he went out of the front porch with him, and testified to him that
nothing could shake his testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith because
of his testimony of the Book Of Mormon.  That was powerful to see my
dad do that, and I'm thankful for the example you have set for me dad,
thanks!  That instance has stuck with me ever since, and Elder
Tippetts, Elder Spence, and I were in the same situation.  We were
able to testify of The Book Of Mormon and how we knew it to be true.
The man wasn't satisfied, but I left the conversation knowing that my
testimony of The Book Of Mormon was stronger than ever!  I had the
opportunity to finish our mission wide Book Of Mormon reading
challenge this past Saturday, and I can testify to you with all of my
soul that The Book Of Mormon is the word of God, and that Joseph Smith
is a prophet of God!  I didn't experience a huge spiritual experience
as I finished the last chapter of The Book Of Mormon, but I realized
that every single day that I read the Book Of Mormon, I felt of its
truthfulness.  Little by little, day by day it built, and honestly
that is how my testimony has grown!  Just know that you don't always
have to experience a huge spiritual experience to receive a witness of
truth.  I know that these things are true, and this means everything
else is absolutely true, because everything is dependent on the
truthfulness of The Book Of Mormon.  I would like to invite all of you
to, when you have questions, seek from the true sources of the Gospel.
The scriptures, church leaders, prayer, etc.  It is good to ask
questions, but it is essential to get the answers from the right
sources.
          I love you all so much!  I'm thankful for the prayers,
support, and love I receive each and every day from all of you.  I
hope you guys have a great week this week!  Remember that God loves
each of you, and knows you by name!

Love
Elder Bailey



Pics:
1-2 Colorado state line!
3. Elder Tippetts with the G.O.A.T
4-5. Said bye to elder Lamouli and elder Callahan, they're headed home tomorrow!