We went
to three out of the four district meetings in the Zone this past week,
and they are doing pretty good! For one of them we had a nice drive out
to Yuma again to pick up the rest of a closed missionary apartments
furniture. Let me tell you, that is a long drive with nothing in
between! After the lovely drive we had dinner with our amazing ward
mission leader, Jack Sattler! He’s one of the best ward mission leaders
I’ve had on my mission, and he is a recent convert of a year and a
half. We went out and visited some people afterwards, and a less active
lady committed to come to church! Which she ended up not, but it’s all
good! That’s all in the life of a missionary! We will be hounding her
this week about it! We also started creating a ward mission plan for
our ward, so we are excited to help get that rolling!
We had MLC this past Friday,
and it was so inspiring! We were able to watch the Christmas video for
this year, and it’s so awesome! They are using the same initiative as
last year but with new videos! #lighttheworld is back at it again!
I’ll talk more about that in a few weeks. President McMurray read out
of 3 Nephi 11:10-15 about The Doctrine Of Christ. I love how he focuses
on Christ’s Doctrine every single meeting we have with him, so
amazing! He told us never to take The Gospel of Jesus Christ for
granted, and to always remember the importance of our callings here as
missionaries. He said, “Don’t be Shy, teach by the Spirit!” That got
me super pumped up! Throughout the meeting we focused a lot on having
the Faith to Find, and setting goals for the mission. We have noticed
that our mission is still having a hard time grasping Preach My Gospel
Ch. 9, “How do I find people to teach?” The first concept it mentions
in that chapter is developing the Faith to find. President McMurray
explain to us how developing Hope is a huge aspect in developing the
Faith to find. He shared with us Ether 12:4-6,
4
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better
world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of
faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure
and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.
5
And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things
unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.
6
And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I
would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and
not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no
witness until after the trial of your faith.
He explained how it is a never ending cycle between Hope and Faith, that
they are dependent on each other, and that you can’t have one without
the other. It opened my eyes a lot to this concept. Someone asked why
disobedient missionaries are successful, and President McMurray said,
“Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds an acorn.” We were all dying
laughing, but then in all seriousness President shared a quote from
Elder Bednar which states, “Disobedient Missionaries who testify of
Christ and Baptize, use the Lord’s name in vain, and will one day be
held accountable.” He explained how God will not withhold the blessings
of the Gospel from his children, even if the missionary is disobedient,
but the missionary will be held accountable. This kinda sent chills
through my body. I would much rather always be obedient than have to
account for that at judgment day. After Presidents instruction, Sister
McMurray had us read Elder Rasband’s talk, “By Divine Design,” from this
past October Conference. The past two General Conferences, Elder
Rasband’s talks have been my overall favorites! In his talk he speaks
of “divine coincidences” because there are no coincidences! Heavenly
Father plays a huge part in our lives, we just have to learn to
recognize His hands helping us each and every day, and be grateful for
them! Absolutely love that talk! We have a new mission theme that we
came up with. One Eye, One Faith, One Baptism. This comes from Mosiah 18:21,
and it honestly applies to everything! We know that this will help us
be united as a mission, and see the fruits of our labors as we work
diligently with “an Eye single to the glory of God!” In closing
President McMurray said, “Go out there and do good things!” This was
truly one of the most uplifting meetings I have been a part of, and we
can’t wait to help the rest of the missionaries feel inspired and gain
the Faith to Find!
We received two amazing
referrals this past weekend as well. One is a less active man, Jon, who
wants to get his family back to church. We visited him the same day we
received the referral, and it went amazing! His nine year old son
Parker wants to be baptized, and we asked him if he wanted to set a
certain date to be baptized. He excitedly said yes, and picked December 2nd!
It was so amazing, and we are so excited to help them come back to
church and renew their baptismal covenants, and ultimately be sealed in
the temple! What a miracle! We also visited the other guy, Shannon, he
moved here a few days ago. He was being taught back in Oregon, and
wants to continue to be taught here! We will see how that goes! We
tried getting in contact with a lot of the people we tracted into the
past couple weeks but couldn’t connect with any of them, but it’s
amazing because every single time we try one of them, we run into
someone on the street to talk to. Definitely not a coincidence that’s
for sure!
I’m excited to continue to do missionary
work here in Greeley! We are already seeing the fruits of our labors!
In the past three Sunday’s,
we have gone from 0 Investigators at sacrament meeting to 3! There is
definitely a lot of work to do here, and the people are eager and ready
to receive the message of Jesus Christ’s true church on the earth. This
past Sunday
was fast and testimony meeting. Elder Nally, Elder Hatch and I all
bore our testimonies, and the Spirit was very strong in that meeting! I
talked about our Savior, Jesus Christ. The first two lines of one of
my favorite hymns, “I know that my redeemer lives”, say “I know that my
redeemer lives, what comfort this sweet sentence gives.” He is our
Savior, He is our Comforter, I have come to know these things through
reading The Book Of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ.
I can promise each of you that if you want to strengthen your testimony
of Him, open up The Book Of Mormon and read each and every day! You
will come closer to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, that is a
promise from President Monson! I love this true everlasting work, I
know it is the right thing to be doing, and I’m grateful to be a part of
it! I hope you all have a great week!
Love
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1-2: our drive out to Yuma! Found the birthplace of THE KING, Lebron James! Akron!
3-4: Elder Tippetts and Elder Kimball, the greatest!
5-7: MLC, (we all decided to match with floral stuff)
8: found our sign! (We got the same first name haha)
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