3/27/18 | General Conference is literally in 4 DAYS!!

  The weeks are going faster and faster!  We had a great week, and the weather was amazing!  We had a few rain storms, but most of the days were in the 60’s and 70’s, so it was beautiful!  Spring is coming!  I can’t wait for the beautiful weather, it will be amazing.  
    Every week a member who owns the T-Bar feeds us lunch.  She is so kind to do this for us!  While we were eating, a member came up to us and started to chat with us.  He is a member of another ward in the stake, but works a lot up here in Wellington.  He told us he has someone for us to teach!  In one of his rental properties, a man that recently moved in has been attending local church’s and trying to find one that fits with him.  This man’s name is Jeremiah.  He ended up asking this member if he attended a church.  The member told him when and where, and the man asked if he could attend with him!  How amazing!  He ended up coming to church this past Sunday, and wants us to come by and teach him.  This was an answer to our prayers!  We can’t wait to set up a time to meet with him.  He seems so solid, and open to learning more and progressing in the Gospel!  We hope to meet with him soon.  I’ll keep you posted.
    On Friday we had a dinner out in the boonies of our area, by a place called Red Feather Lakes, so we decided to visit all of the members up there and find out if they were active or less active as well as if they were interested in us coming by and sharing a lesson.  There are a lot of members that live up there!  We spent most of the day up in the Colorado Rockies visiting people.  A bunch of them weren’t interested, but we did find some awesome families to go visit.  We talked with an active family up there, and the husband is a fire fighter.  He told us about a community get together in June that the missionaries could do service at to get to know people in the big community up there in the mountains!  What an opportunity.  Just some background, Red Feather is a big community in the mountains about and hour away from Fort Collins and Wellington, but it is a huge community!  There are so many people, and we can’t really go Tracting up there, but this service opportunity will be a great thing for the missionaries serving here!  It was an amazing day to go visit a bunch of members up there.  It was refreshing to drive up in the mountains!  We also saw a ton of deer so that was fun too.
    We taught Paul this past Saturday with our Ward Mission Leader, and he had his brother Marshall over as well!  Marshall and Paul had a ton of questions about us missionaries, what we teach, the church, etc.  Most of our lesson was spent answering Marshall’s questions.  Near the end, we invited both of them to watch General Conference next week, and to come to church the next day.  We invited Paul to continue to read, and we gave a copy of the Book Of Mormon to Marshall and invited him to read as well.  They told us they would!  They ended up not coming to church, but we can’t wait to have them watch General Conference!  What a cool opportunity to have them see the prophet and apostles speak.  We can’t wait!
    We also taught Bob this past week, and set up times to watch General Conference with him.  It was a great lesson, and he expressed to us that he doesn’t want us to get transferred.  Transfers are next week, and he said he is sick of getting attached to the missionaries, and then having them leave.  We had the thought and impression to express to him how much the Ward loves him.  Bob hasn’t come to church in awhile, and a bunch of different ward members have been asking about him each week.  When we told him this, we could feel God’s love for him and the Spirit was definitely there!  Near the end he was tearing up, and he for sure needed to hear how much love the ward has for him!  What a huge blessing!  We hope he continues to have a desire to learn more, and come back to church!  
    I’ve been having some great studies this past week!  I hope each of you have too.  In Mosiah 4:19-20 it says,

19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

    I loved these verses!  We are all truly beggars unto our Heavenly Father.  He is loving enough to give us what we need.  He is merciful unto us because he loves us so much!  Later in this chapter it talks about how we need to administer unto those in need.  I am definitely going to apply this and watch out for those in need and, when I can, give them help.  If we are blessed with so much, would it hurt to give just a little?  I know that Heavenly Father is waiting to bless us as we look to serve and bless each other!  With General Conference coming up, I want to invite each of you to think of some questions beforehand.  They may be spiritual or temporal questions, but as you prayerfully think of  a few questions, I know that you can receive answers as you diligently seek them!  Those who are speaking to us in this upcoming General Conference have been prayerfully seeking revelation on what will touch the one.  I can promise that if you go with questions that you have prayerfully considered, you will receive an answer.  These answers may be directly from the talks given, or they may be promptings and thoughts given to you as you listen.  Heavenly Father wants to help us all we can, but we have to ask!  I hope you each enjoy General Conference.  I am so excited to hear these inspired men and women of God!
    I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary.  It is the best thing I’ve ever decided to do.  Everyone who serves a mission with a willing heart and who wants to be better can see obvious changes in their lives!  Serving a mission is changing me, and I know it is for the better.  I love you guys, and hope you have a fantastic week!


Love,
Elder Bailey


Pics:
1. Member had this Brickem Young missionary LEGO guy

2.  Nice Colorado sunset! 

3/20/18 | Rainy Dayz

  It was a pretty good week this week!  We had a bunch of rain this past week, so that was a blessing for Colorado!  Thanks for the St. Patrick’s Day pizza and cookies mom and dad an Family!  I appreciate it!  Let me tell you how our week went :)       We went on exchanges this past week with our Zone Leaders, Elder Hatch and Elder Johnson, and I was able to go with Elder Johnson!  He is from Monticello, Utah, and we had a great exchange!  We wanted to work on talking with everyone, so we committed to talk with everyone that day, and we saw miracles because of it!  We were driving to go visit a less active member in their ward, and we drove past an older lady and older man.  As soon as I saw them, I knew we needed to talk with them.  The interesting part was as soon as I thought that, negative thoughts instantly filled my mind.  Thoughts like, “their old and set in their ways, they won’t accept your message.” And “their going to be mean to us.” Etc.  Those thoughts made me not want to talk with them, so we just parked and knocked on the less active person’s door.  As we were waiting at the door, I was thinking about those thoughts, and I realized that those weren’t from Heavenly Father but they were from the adversary.  How bad could it be to talk with more of God’s children?  I told Elder Johnson about how we definitely need to go talk to those people, so we walked down the street and talked with them.  Turns out that the lady had talked with missionaries back in Connecticut, and she has attended church.  She accepted a copy of The Book Of Mormon and she told us she would read it.  She wants Elder Johnson and Elder Hatch to come back and see her in a week or so.  How amazing!  I’m grateful that we committed to talk with everyone at the beginning of the day!  Setting Goals makes miracles come forth!

       We did service at the Wellington Food Bank this last Thursday, and there were a bunch of college kids that were helping out there (which never really happens) so we were a little surprised!  We got talking with some of the college kids, and we found out they were from the University of Miami and the University of Iowa.  We were a little shocked because up in Wellington we really don’t run into many college kids, let alone college kids from Florida and Iowa!  As we set up the food we talked to a group of them and we found out they were spending their spring break doing service at a drug rehab farm place up here in Wellington, so that was pretty cool!  We talked with kids mostly from Miami, and I mentioned how my Brother served his mission there in the Fort Lauderdale Florida Mission and it turned out that one of them was from there!  It was a pretty cool connection to have with those college kids, thanks for serving your mission there Spencer!  The group ended up almost leaving the service early, but I said a silent prayer that we would have an opportunity to share the gospel with them.  My prayers were answered!!!  The group came back near us and they started asking questions about what we do as missionaries.  It led to us explaining to them what we believe, and they had a bunch of questions.  They told us they had seen The Book Of Mormon musical, and we had a conversation about that.  We ended up giving them pass along cards and inviting them to order a free Book of Mormon to find out from the source if it is true.  They all accepted a pass along card, so that was awesome!  We pray they will have the interest to order a copy and have the missionaries hand deliver them.  It was a pretty cool experience!  

       We had a lesson with Mike this past week, and that lesson went well!  We read Mosiah 6 and talked about what he had read previously read.  It ended up being a pretty good lesson.  We invited him to continue to read, and that we would still send him reminders to read!  We also invited him to ask his neighbors to babysit his dog so he can come to church.  So we hope he will do what we ask of him!  We also had a lesson with Curly, and we read with him in Alma 2.  We invited him to continue to read.  He is struggling a little bit with having the desire to progress.... but we are working with him.  We had our last lesson with the Mondragon’s, and they hadn’t read so we told them we couldn’t come by anymore...... kinda sad, but we know in the future they may be interested in learning more!  We weren’t able to teach Paul this past week, he was busy celebrating his birthday...... so we will see him this upcoming week!  

       In my studies this past week, I read Enos.  One thing that stood out to me as Enos prayed was that he had so much patience!  In Enos 1:1-4 it states,

1 Behold, it came to pass that I, Enos, knowing my father that he was a just man--for he taught me in his language, and also in the nurture and admonition of the Lord--and blessed be the name of my God for it--

2 And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.

3 Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart.

4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

        As Enos prayed with patience and diligence, it later lead to him having an overwhelming amount of charity towards his fellow men and the Lamanites.  I know that as we pray mightily, with patience and diligence, we will have a strong charity and love towards others.  I also studied a talk called “The War Goes On” by Elder Larry R. Lawrence.  (I think Brother Ballif gave it to me before I left!). He talked about Satan’s strategies, and how to avoid them.  They are Temptation, lies and Deception, contention, and Discouragement.  I learned so much from this talk, and I know it will benefit you if you read it!  I would invite you all to do so!  I hope you guys have a great week!  I’m grateful I have the chance to be a missionary here.  What a blessing it is to represent not only my family name, but my Savior’s name, Jesus Christ, and His Restored church!  I hope to never take that for granted.  I love you all, and I know God Loves you too! :)

Love,

Elder Bailey 

Pics:

1. View from the Mountains in our area. (While visiting some less Actives). 

2. We wrapped up a triple combination for our investigator Paul, because it was his birthday this past Saturday!  (Our ward mission leaders wife wrapped it for us!)

 

3/13/18 | "Am I looking beyond the mark?"

  This week’s weather has been ABSOLUTELY beautiful!  Colorado weather is pretty nice, Utah’s is still more beautiful I think..... but I’m grateful that I’m in such a beautiful place!  We are hoping for some rain out here, but the Lord will provide!

       Beautiful weather as a missionary = More Tracting!  We actually did a lot Tracting this past week, and we were able to see some good success!  We ran into this lady named Katie, and she said has talked with missionaries before.  She accepted a copy of The Book Of Mormon, and told us that she’d love to have us come back!  She seems super promising, so we’re excited!  We were Tracting yesterday, and we picked a place where we thought it would be good, and right as we parked and finished praying, we got out of the car and a guy pulled into his driveway.  We went up and talked with him, and found out his name was Nick.  Nick told us that he had missionaries come over to his house when he lived in Severance, Colorado.  He said he would love to have us come over to his house after he finishes his basement in three weeks!  How cool is that?  It is amazing to see when Heavenly Father places people into our path who are ready to accept the Gospel!  I love seeing these divine instances as a missionary.  We also handed out four copies of the Book Of Mormon this week while Tracting, so we were stoked about that!  We were so grateful that the Lord blessed us enough to reach out to these certain people, can’t wait to see more this week!  

       We had Zone Conference this past week, and it was awesome!  The theme was “The Book Of Mormon”.  We heard a lot of good training from President and Sister McMurray, they are the greatest!!  One thing I loved was when a Training was given by the Assistants, about applying certain verses from The Book Of Mormon to people we meet.  They had some missionaries role play different scenarios, and it was cool to see how many different verses applied to every single situation.  It is something that I want to apply to the work, and also we made it a goal as a companionship to include The Book Of Mormon in every contact.  We had been pretty good at it, but we are making an extra effort to testify of its truthfulness, it should be good!  We had interviews with President McMurray afterwards, and they were amazing as usual!  President is so loving, and truly wants the best for all of us, it is amazing to see his Christlike love he has for each of the missionaries in our mission, what a blessing it is to have him as my Mission President!  

       We were able to teach Paul last Saturday, and it was an amazing lesson!  We finished up teaching the end of The Plan of Salvation, and the Spirit was so strong as we taught.  We had our ward mission leader, Brother Whittier, with us again.  He had great input about how Heavenly Father’s Plan for us, and how it has affected him as a father.  Paul really loved all of his comments, and it was cool to see Paul ask all of his questions he had about it.  We helped him understand all of his questions, and he loved it!  We invited him to pray directly and ask God if Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and if the Plan of Salvation and The Book Of Mormon are true.  He said he would, and the Spirit was so powerful!  After we closed with a prayer, he opened up to us about some personal stuff that may hinder his church attendance.  We said we would be praying for him and his family to have a desire to learn more too.  He is progressing so well, it is amazing!  I’m grateful that Heavenly Father sent us to him in January as we went Tracting, what a miracle it has been to teach him!  Can’t wait to continue to teach him!  

        Our two other investigators we meet with regularly, Mike and Bird, weren’t home when we had set appointments..... so that was a bummer.  But we will meet with them this upcoming week!  We have a bunch of potential investigators we’ve met Tracting that are so promising!  We can’t wait to see if we can teach them more!  If not, planting seeds is an amazing thing too.  But we hope we can begin their conversion and learning process!! 

        During my studies this past week, I had some amazing scriptures I read that I wanted to share!  In Jacob 4:13-17 it states (it is a little long, but really good!),

13 Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old.

14 But behold, the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble.

15 And now I, Jacob, am led on by the Spirit unto prophesying; for I perceive by the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that by the stumbling of the Jews they will reject the stone upon which they might build and have safe foundation.

16 But behold, according to the scriptures, this stone shall become the great, and the last, and the only sure foundation, upon which the Jews can build.

17 And now, my beloved, how is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?

       I asked this question to myself, “Am I looking beyond the mark?”  I would invite each of you to think of this question, “Am I looking beyond the mark?”  The mark being our Savior Jesus Christ.  It is only through Him that we can receive redemption from our sins and life with Heavenly Father again!  He is the mark.  He literally has marks in His hands, in His feet, and in His side, that testify of Him being The One and Only Mark!  How amazing is this?  We need to keep our focus, our testimonies, and our lives focused on the Savior.  Jesus Christ needs to be our rock or our stone for a mighty foundation.  Without Him we are nothing, but with Him we can have Eternal Life with our families.  I’m grateful for my Savior, for all He has done for me, and for all He has done for every living thing that has ever been created.  

        I’m grateful for you guys!  Thanks for everything you do for me.  Without my family, I don’t know where I would be........ thanks for being the greatest!  Hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bailey 

Pics:

1-3: a member in our ward had us over for dinner...... they had some nice stuff!  

4: Zone Conference 

3/6/18 | Incredible week!

  Another amazing week here in Wellington!  First off,  I wanted to wish Alyssa and Dad both a happy birthday this upcoming week!  I’m grateful for both of you, thanks for being so amazing!  Be looking forward to the nice card coming in the mail :). I also heard LP Basketball won the State Championship, let’s gooo!  

       We’ve seen a ton of miracles this past week!  I love seeing our work pay off!  Last Wednesday we were Tracting, and we tracted into a lady named Kristi.  She ended up accepting a copy of The Book Of Mormon, and told us that her grandpa was a member of the church but he left the church so the whole family stopped going.  She said she doesn’t remember much about what we believe, and she would love to talk with us!  We are visiting her this upcoming week, so that should be awesome!  We love being able to help others come closer to Jesus Christ and His Restored Gospel!  

       Our District this past week in District Meeting all committed to become more consecrated as missionaries, and to have an amazing Miracle filled March!  We set appropriate goals, and are all on the same page.  Since we got all of the missionaries in our District on board, we’ve seen so many miracles!  Later that same day we were walking into the T-Bar Inn restaurant in Wellington (a member owns it and wants to feed us for free once a week, so awesome!) and a lady pulled up in her car.  She asked us if we were the missionaries, and we said yes.  She said that she had met with missionaries before and wants to take the lessons again and get baptized, what a miracle!  We gave her our number and she said she was going to contact us to set up a time that we could meet with her!  We ended up not even eating at the T-Bar because the Member wasn’t there, but we know that Heavenly Father put us in that exact place, at that exact moment when that lady would be driving by to talk with us.  It has been amazing to see a little how the Lord works while I’ve been a missionary.  I love being “On the Lord’s Errand,” it is such an amazing feeling to know that you are helping further the work!  

       The very next day right as we started Tracting, a random lady walked up to us and said she knew us.  She came up to us and said that she saw the white shirts but didn’t have her contacts in so she thought we were the same missionaries that had tracted unto her awhile back.  She told us that when the missionaries had talked with her, it was really cold and she couldn’t stand out on the porch and learn more about The Book Of Mormon.  She said she wanted us to come by another day, when it was warm again, and teach her more about The Book Of Mormon and what we believe!  How amazing is that!  This was another miracle!  I know that Heavenly Father put her into our path so she could speak with us!  Later that day, we were coming in for the night and saw our neighbors outside smoking.  We saw they had a little dog, and thought that would be a great conversation starter.  We asked if they had gotten a new dog, and they said yes!  We started petting the dogs, and talked with them for a bit.  We talked about their work, they asked where we were from, and talked more about their dogs.  It was a good friendship starter!  Next time we run into them, we are planning on sharing the gospel with them.  We’re excited to see how receptive they are, they seemed really nice!  Another cool little miracle that we witnessed, being able to run into them right as we came home!  Another God inspired contact!

       We had our car fast last Saturday, and it was awesome!  It was actually really hot all day, in the 70’s!  Which was really nice as we walked around.  At the end of the day we ended up handing our four copies of the Book Of Mormon, which is super good for this area!   We talked with a teenage guy outside of Ridleys and he accepted a copy, we talked to two guys in the parking lot of Ridleys and they accepted a copy, a guy name Hector we found while walking by Family Dollar, and another guy named Isaac on the street in front of Family Dollar too!  We were able to get Isaac’s address and we are visiting him next week, and also Hector’s as well.  It will be awesome to see these people come closer to Jesus Christ and their Heavenly Father if they end up reading!  We also got to talk with a lady who was walking her dog.  She told us she already has a copy of The Book Of Mormon and loves Jesus Christ!  We wrote down Helaman 5:12 and invited her to read it.  We knew that if she love Jesus Christ, then she would love this verse too!  We gave her our number and told her to call us if she had any questions. How amazing!  The day was super tiring, and I slept so good that night, but it was worth it.  Cant wait to continue to see more and more miracles! 

       On Saturday Paul called us and had to cancel our lesson due to family stuff going on.  He told us he played with the ward basketball team this past Thursday and loved it!  He met a bunch of the men from the ward, and he also said he planned on attending church this Sunday!  We were excited to see him and church, and when Sunday rolled around he came with his daughter Danika!  It had some interesting testimonies, but it was good overall!  His daughter acted not too happy when she first got their, but after she attended primary she loved it!  At the end of church after Sunday school and priesthood classes for out.  We went with Paul to find his daughter.  When she was walking out, she was going around and hugging all the other little kids that were in her primary class, it was so awesome!  She loved it!  Paul didn’t tell us how he liked it yet, but we will ask him when we meet with him in Saturday.  Another Miracle that he came to church!  How amazing!  Man do I love Miracles!!

        In read a bunch of chapters out of 2 Nephi this week, but a couple stood out to me!  I wish I could share all the insights that I learn each week, but I thought this one would be a good one to share! In 2 Nephi 25:28-29 it says,

28 And now behold, my people, ye are a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any man the right way; for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him ye also deny the prophets and the law.

29 And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.

       

       It is comforting to know that the “right way” is to believe in Christ, how comforting is that!?  Having a firm testimony of our Savior, what he has done for us, and that through Him we can have eternal life is so comforting!  I know that as you study from the Book Of Mormon, that you will strengthen your personal testimony of your Savior Jesus Christ.  I’m grateful for each of you, and I hope you all have a great week this week!  Love you!

Love,

Elder Bailey

Pics:

-Elder Burke found his elementary school mascot here in Wellington.  (Sorry this is literally the only pic we took last week..... more next week I promise!).