Another great week serving in the Colorado Fort Collins Mission! We had Zone Conference this past week in Greeley, and it was amazing! In preparation for Zone Conference, President and Sister McMurray asked us to read “A Consecrated Missionary” Talk by Elder Callister. Man what an amazing talk! After I read that talk, I was inspired and found out I need to improve on many different levels to truly become a consecrated missionary! I have a lot to improve on, but I’m not getting discouraged! The Zone Conference was focused on Faith in Jesus Christ. Here are a couple of thoughts that President McMurray shared. He told us that Faith requires Action! He shared with us a BYU Devotional by President Kevin J. Worthen. It was titled something like “Fear Not, A Great Commandment”. It was given last year at the beginning of the school year. Wow what a talk! In this talk he states that the kind of fear he is talking about means this, False Evidence Appearing Real. He said there are four steps to help us Fear Not. 1. Recognize and Remember that this comes from satan. 2. Serve Others more to increase Faith, and decrease Fear. 3. Faith is a decision and a choice! And 4. Do not Doubt! Choose to have Faith! As missionaries, satan tries to make us have this fear. The be afraid to talk with everyone is one of the biggest! President McMurray told us this later in the conference, “If you want to Baptize more people, know more people, talk with more people, seek referrals from everyone! (There always has to be someone they know!) and Ask for introductions.” Elder Gordon and I are taking this to heart! We have committed to talk with everyone we can, so we can Baptize more here in Wellington! Our hard work is paying off thus far, but it is only going to get better from here! Wellington was considered a “dead area” when Elder Burke and I first were whitewashed into the area. It has been amazing to see how hard work can transform an area! And I know that as Elder Gordon and I work tirelessly each and every day, and go out of our way to speak with everyone, that we will see more and more miracles and find more and more people to teach! What I’ve learned on my mission is that Hard Work and Obedience are the keys to success! Heavenly Father will magnify you and help you as you do your best and give it your all! After Zone Conference, we had interviews with President McMurray, and man how amazing they were! I don’t know what it is, but every interview I have with President, I always come out so invigorated to do missionary work! He is like the ultimate “Hype!” And man do I love me some Hype!!! He is honestly the greatest Mission President I could have asked for, and I’m still convinced he is #1 worldwide! On our drive home from Zone Conference, Elder Gordon and I set many goals to help us become what Heavenly Father needs us to become, and it has been so awesome! I will continue to let you guys know how that goes, because it has been amazing so far!
From Zone Conference, Elder Gordon and I applied what we learned, and we decided to do something that Elder Tippetts, one of my former companions, had done which brought a bunch of success. We told Heavenly Father that we would be on Main Street in Wellington, walking around, every night, at 8:30-9:00. We know that as we let Him know that we would be there, and as we talked with everyone, He would send someone to us who is ready to learn more! 8:30-9:00 is honestly super unproductive, especially in Wellington. People get mad at us to trying to knock on their doors so late, everyone is sleeping, etc. So we knew that this would help out so much! That first night we were able to put our plan in action, we were able to talk with five people! That was awesome! The next night we talked to more people. Then on the 3rd night of doing this, last Friday, we were able to talk to three teenagers playing basketball. The leader of the trio talked with us, and he said he wasn’t too religious. We told him what we do as missionaries, and how we invite everyone to read from The Book Of Mormon, and pray to ask God to know if it is true. He gladly accepted a copy, and told us he would read it. We got his number to follow up this week with him! What a cool miracle! We call this little finding activity, Miracle on Main Street! And boi have we seen so many miracles so far! We can’t wait to see more in the coming days and weeks we do this!! Heavenly Father wants to bless us, but we have to put forth the effort and ask for His help and guidance. It will come, if we exercise our Faith!
We had a correlation meeting with our Ward Mission Leader, and he told us how the dinner with Paul’s family went, one of our Investigators. He told us that Paul’s family had a blast, and that they were able to meet Paul’s wife and befriend her! This was a crucial step in Paul’s progression, because we know that once his wife see’s the blessings of the gospel and meets amazing families within the ward, she will have a desire to learn more! Another huge miracle for this week!
We had a good lesson with Mike last Saturday, and he narrowed down a Baptismal date in the month of July. He doesn’t know which Saturday yet, but he wants to set that date and that goal to work towards! We read The Book Of Mormon with him, and invited him to again prayerfully set a date that he thinks would be good. You may be thinking that July is kinda far out, which we did too! But he has been meeting with missionaries since 2016, and hasn’t ever come to church. He told us he knows The Book Of Mormon is true, and it is the word of God. We invited him to come to church, and he almost came! He said his puppy is almost old enough to stay by himself. We invited him to start with just coming to Sacrament Meeting, then to work towards going for all three hours. He said that sounds really good! I am confident that Heavenly Father will help us get Mike to church! I know that miracles happen, so we will continue to have Faith and High Expectations. Mike will come, I just know it! We weren’t able to meet with Jeremiah, because his son was sick. And Paul was busy doing a service for a family member, so we couldn’t meet with them either. We will this week though! It should be good!
Paul and his daughter Danika came to church this past Sunday! Danika loved primary once again, and Paul loved church as well. Everyone is so loving toward them, and Paul feels so welcome and loved by the ward! Slowly but surely him and his family are progressing towards the gospel. It will happen! I know it will! Our investigator Scott came to church too! He made it late and attended the City Park Ward, but he still came! How amazing! It was so awesome to have three investigators at church, what a huge blessing.
This past Sunday night we had two people to visit, two less active families. We were able to bring Brother Gann with us! He is a big burly guy, about my height, but was a big football player at CSU. He has a super clean and mean lookin beard as well. He is an awesome guy, and we were glad we could have him with us! The first family didn’t answer, even when we saw them pull up...... awkward. But on the second visit, no one was home either. That was a bummer, so we walked back out to our cars on the street and talked to a little bit about missionary work and the elders Quorum. About five minutes, we saw a car coming up the street, and sure enough it was the people we were going to visit! They stopped and said we could come in, so we had a great contact with them. It was actually a member and his non-member wife. His wife didn’t participate in the conversation, but she was really nice to us. We got to know this member, his name was Chris, and it went very well! He told us about his life, and a main reason why he stopped going to church. We then talked about his mission. He served in the Dominican Republic, and love his experience there! We shared a lesson about Helaman 5:12, and after we taught him a little, he shared with us a really cool miracle he saw on his mission that lead to the person, and her husband, they found to get baptized! As he shared that experience, a sweet Spirit filled the room. After he finished, we testified to him that he could feel that same happiness, joy, and love that he felt on his mission, if he built his foundation upon our Rock, Jesus Christ, and did the small things, like read the Book Of Mormon, pray, and attend church. We invited him to do so, and then closed. The Spirit was so strong, and we could see that he felt it! It was so amazing! Whenever someone talks about their mission, I feel the Spirit. What a strong experience we had. It is amazing how many of these experiences I have seen on my mission, what a blessing that is! We know that Chris will come closer to Jesus Christ, and come back to church! We are hoping to teach his wife too! Amazing!
Elder Gordon and I were able to help clean the Fort Collins Temple yesterday! What an experience! We were in all white scrubs, vacuuming and cleaning each room in the temple. One crazy thing is about the carpets in the temple. We were instructed to vacuum right to left, then we were to use carpet rakes to make sure there were absolutely zero lines left in the carpet. This task was rough, but once we did it, it looks immaculate! We cleaned from 8:00 yesterday morning to noon. It was so cool to be some of the only people in the temple with vacuums, cleaning the Lord’s house! After we finished, the assistant custodial guy gave us an exclusive tour of the temple, it was amazing! What an amazing experience. The peace, love, comfort, hope, and joy that comes from being in the temple is absolutely incredible! I love being in the temple and feeling these feelings. I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much! He want the best for each of us! We should all have that goal of getting to the temple! The temple is truly the House Of The Lord!
This letter is getting a bit long, but I need to share this good scripture with you I read this week! It is very simple and short, but just think about its counsel. It is in Jacob 6:12,
12 O be wise; what can I say more?
If we truly follow Heavenly Fathers council and as we follow The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, we can find that pure joy and see miracles happen in our lives! We need to be wise, and follow these teachings! If we are foolish and don’t follow these teachings, then we won’t see the blessings that come. Let us all be wise, and remember the promises to the faithful from the Lord! I love you guys so much, and hope you have a fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1. I actually got 3rd place in the “Safeguards for Using Technology” quiz! Let’s go!
2. Zone Conference pic
3. After our temple cleaning assignment!
4. Biggest Campbell’s soup in the WORLD!
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