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!)