7/31/18 | Can't Believe July is GONE!

Another great week being a missionary here in Casper!  Did I ever mention how much I love being a missionary??!  It is truly the most amazing experience I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m so grateful I have had the chance to serve.  :)

   Last Tuesday after Preparation Day ended, we were checking in with some potentials near our apartment and we saw this man sitting out in front of his apartment.  We went and spoke with him, and found out his name was Trey.  We asked Trey if he was religious or had a belief in God or Jesus Christ.  He told us he didn’t really have a belief in either, so we were able to teach him and testify to him about how The Book of Mormon is, and how it testified about our Savior Jesus Christ!  We explained how we come to know who our Savior is, and that He has suffered for all of our sins, pains, afflictions, and sorrows because He loves us!  We offered him a copy of a The Book of Mormon and he accepted it.  We invited him to read from it and pray to asked God to know if it is true, and he told us he would.  We asked if there was a time we could stop by again and talk more about what we believe, and he told us we could!  We are looking forward to stopping by this week, what a blessing God directed us towards him!  I love how He helps us find the ones who are ready to receive the Restored Gospel!

   I was able to go on exchanges with one of my friends, Elder Littlewood, last Wednesday!  We had a great time, and a quite busy day.  He is going home this upcoming Saturday, and we were able to talk about the struggles he is having with that, and how he wants to continue to finish strong.  I invited him to continue to do so.  It was fun being able to do the work with a good friend, glad he is serving near me for his last transfer!
   It has been so rainy here in Casper, it has been so weird!  Every afternoon a huge rainstorm comes through and hits us super hard, but every day it seems like we always happen to be inside somewhere with cover right when it gets super bad.  We were stopping by the post office to ask them a questions the other day, and the clouds were looking pretty mean in the sky.  Honestly about two minutes after we went in, there was a massive hail storm with hail the size of large peas and grapes, it was nuts!  We just watched it for the whole craziness, and then headed out right after.  But apparently there was a tornado that was just north of Casper, so that is a bit crazy haha.  Who knew in Wyoming I’d see the worst hail and worst rain I’ve ever seen in my life!  And have tornados be so close..... but it we are all safe up here don’t worry :).
    We had a lesson with some returning active members this past week, and we read the introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants.  We ran into them about two weeks ago and they said we could come back and teach them, and that they wanted to learn more about The Doctrine and Covenants, so we came back to have that lesson this past week.  It was a great lesson!  We explained what the Doctrine and Covenants was, and helped them understand a little better about it.  We invited them to read the first two chapters before this next Thursday lesson, so we are hoping to help them know and gain a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith.  I love Joseph Smith so much!  Since my lil bro Randon has been in Nauvoo for the past couple of weeks, from reading the introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants, and from Pioneer Day last week, I have been reminded of how grateful I am for the sacrifice that early saints and for the sacrifice of Joseph Smith.  I know that he is a prophet of God, and that Jesus Christ’s original true Church has been restored through him!  It is truly an amazing thing to know that Heavenly Father loves us enough to give us this gospel, what a blessing!  I hope we all can remember the sacrifice of the early saints, and the prophet Joseph Smith.  It is because of them that we have the blessing we have today!
    Our lesson fell through with our new person being taught, Angel.  She is so amazing!  She came to church with a member family again this week, and absolutely loved it!  We rescheduled our lesson for this upcoming Wednesday, and we will be bringing her fellow shipping family, who gives her rides to church, and we will be teaching The Plan of Salvation, so we can’t wait!  It should be amazing!  We are so grateful that Heavenly Father has placed Angel into our lives so that we can teach her, we can’t wait to continue to see her progress!
     We had the opportunity to go to the Fort Collins Temple today with a recent convert to do proxy baptisms, it was amazing!  Scott is his name, and he was the man who I had the opportunity to interview for baptism last transfer, and now I’m serving in his ward!  He is such an amazing guy, and we are so grateful we could participate in these ordinances with him!  I had the opportunity to baptize another Elder, and then perform confirmations as well, it was such a cool opportunity to have and it was a look on what being a temple worker would be like, so it was a fantastic experience!  Scott was able to perform the baptism of his dad, grandpa, great grandpa, great great grandpa, and so many more ancestors we helped him find!  Truly an amazing thing to witness!  After we were finished, we were waiting around for the other elders to come out, and I felt someone grab my shoulder and say “what’s up big guy!”  I turned around and it was Tom!  Tom was a man that Elder Hatch and I were able to teach when I was back in Greeley Colorado last Christmas time.  He got baptized this past January, and he said he attends the temple twice a week, what a cool thing to see him progressing so well, it is so amazing!  It was definitely not a coincidence that we saw him, what a blessing!  We took a picture outside of the temple really quick before we had to get going.  I’m so grateful that President McMurray let us drive down with Scott to perform these baptisms, what an amazing experience!  I love the temple so much, and it was nice to perform baptisms again!
       I was studying in Helaman, and I came across Helaman 10:4-5, it is such it amazing scripture!  It states,

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

       I was thinking about this, and don’t we all want to be like this particular Nephi?!  He is truly amazing!!  I was thinking of how I want to be able to unwearyingly declaration the word among the people as I go forth and serve the rest of my mission, that is such a huge goal of mine!  I know that we can all be like into this faithful servant, Nephi, as we go forth and become true disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ and His Gospel!  You know what this is called right?  Yes Ministering!  Being an effective minister is being a missionary.  As we all become effective ministers, the missionary force will honestly quadruple in size, as we have full time missionaries and members working effectively together to progress the work of Salvation.  We can all become these effective ministers, as we strive to become more like Him.  I love you all and hope each of you has a wonderful week!  God will always be on our side as we follow His commandments and the example of Jesus Christ! :)

Love,

Elder Bailey

Pics:

1. We saw Tom at the temple!  

2. Scott at the temple!

3. Man do I love the temple. :)

7/24/18 | Happy Pioneer Day!

   Wow!  Another week is gone!  They don’t celebrate the 24th of July much up here, but I’m so grateful for all of the pioneers, especially my direct ancestors, who sacrificed so much for this true gospel!  It is a true testament to me that this gospel is true, they would not have died for it if they did not truly believe! I love them, and it is cool to be serving where they walked up here in Wyoming.  This is truly sacred ground, what a special opportunity! (Well, this may be a little short and rushed today, but hopefully it is still a good email!)  

       Well last Wednesday we had a great lesson with the 9 year old girl we met a week and a half ago.  We brought a member couple with us, and we were able to teach Angel The Restoration!  It was so amazing!  The Spirit was so strong as we taught her, and she seemed so interested and attentive as we taught!  We invited her to read and pray to know if The Book of Mormon is the word of God.  She said she would!  We also invited her to come to church, and the member couple who was with us said they would love to pick her up from her house and bring her to church!  So amazing.  Angel did make it to church this week and stayed for all three hours!  She saw some familiar faces she knew from school, so she felt loved and accepted, what a huge blessing!  We are planning on having another lesson with them this week, and we can’t wait to continue to teach her!
      Last Thursday we had quite the day!  We tracted and walked around the whole day, and didn’t have any luck!  It was hot, we were sweaty, but we kept going!  After dinner we went to a visit with an inactive family that we set up a few days prior.  We were able to meet them, introduce ourselves, and it was a solid visit!  They told us they were very interested in the Doctrine and Covenants, and wanted to read it.  We offered to come by and read it with them, and they said they would love that!  We are going to go over every single Thursday and read with them!  It will be such a good thing to help them feel the spirit!  We can’t wait to help them, and invite the Spirit in their home every week.  We know as we do so, they will strengthen a testimony of Jesus Christ, and that is honestly the greatest feeling in the world!! I love it!
      This past week us and the Casper 9th Elders were able to help out some members with moving some stuff into a new apartment they were moving into.  Right after we finished, the other elders got a text from a non member within their ward boundaries.  He asked us if we could come and help him move items from some storage units to his house.  We went over and helped him, and that took awhile.  It was completely worth it!  These people just moved from Nevada to here, and they had some member friends who sent the missionaries over last week to help them move in.  It was really cool to be able to help this family, and to show Christlike service!  Between the two big trailer loads, this man took us to Burger King to eat lunch, and he paid for us!  When we were heading out, the mom and dad thanked us, and were so grateful for our help.  I know this family saw how loving we were and how willing we were to help.  I hope and pray that they were able to feel the love of Christ as well helped them, and that they may some day have the desire to learn more about His church!  Christlike service opens so many doors!
      Like I said earlier, Angel was able to come to church this past Sunday!  We also have our investigator Gabe there as well.  They both enjoyed church, and stayed for the whole time.  We are hoping to continue to help them come closer to Christ as we teach them about the true gospel!!!
      Yesterday we were able to go on exchanges with our Zone Leaders.  I was with Elder Fronk for the day, he is the man!  He is from Tremonton, Utah.  He was trained by one of my favorite companions Elder Tippetts, so of course this guy is such a stud!  We had a great day together.  We had some cool experiences while we were walking around and talking to people!  By the end of the day, we were able to hand our three copies of The Book of Mormon! (Our Zone honestly has no more commissary, or copies of The Book of Mormon, so that was almost all we had!)  We met some pretty solid people that those guys are going to go and start teaching.  It was truly a day full of miracles!  I’m grateful I was able to serve with him for a day!  Amazing!  

       While I was studying this past week, I came across Helaman 3:35.  It states,

35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

       Isn’t this scripture just incredible!! I was reminded of how vital it is to do the small and simple things like reading our scriptures daily, saying prayers each day, and attending church each Sunday!  These are the things we need to be doing in order to become disciples of our Savior Jesus Christ, and become effective ministers of His everlasting Gospel!  If you feel inadequate (I feel like this on the daily), or feel like our testimonies aren’t as strong as they should be, do these three simple things each day and each week!  You will see a difference as you make them a priority in your life.  I’ve seen these things bless my life, bless my families life growing up, and I’ve seen it change the lives of individuals on my mission!  

       I love this gospel, I’m grateful for the opportunity that I have of being a missionary, and I am so happy to see the Gospel change lives, because it does!  I hope each of you have a wonderful week!  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you!

Love,

Elder Bailey

Pics: 

1-2. District Pday today!  We went bowling! Got myself a new high score!  Let’s goooo!

3-4. Dead Sea Scroll Devotional last Sunday! (This is not a Dead Sea Scroll, but it is a Hebrew Scroll from over 500 years ago!). We had Dr./Professor Parry from BYU come and teach us about the Dead Sea scrolls!  We brought a recent convert, Scott, to it!  

   

7/17/18 | Zone Conference and miracles!

  Many miracles this week!  Wow!  Last Tuesday night after dinner, we were walking around near our apartment, and we saw a young family and another family outside talking together.  We started to speak with them, and the first person to actually speak with us was a 9 year old girl.  She came up to us after we introduced ourselves and said, “I know who you guys are, I’ve always wanted to be baptized but my mom hasn’t let me!”  This was quite the surprise that she had such a great desire to be baptized!  Turns out her mom is an inactive member, I will talk for about them a little later!  The other family started to speak with us, mainly the father, and we had a great conversation!  After about 20 minutes of us talking outside their apartment, he invited us in and we spoke for about an hour and a half!  We mainly listened to him, but every so often we were able to testify of what we know to be true.  When we were leaving, the man told us that him and his wife have truly tried to believe in a God, to believe in a religion, but just haven’t been able to feel what is right.  We read Moroni 10:3-5 with him.  We invited him to give it one more try, and to read The Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and pray to know if it is true with real intent!  The Spirit was testifying to him, we could feel it!  He accepted a copy and said he would try it out!  Can’t wait to check back in with him!
     The very next day we went and checked in with the inactive lady and her daughter.  The day prior the lady had acted very standoffish, but when we talked with her that night she was very open and receptive!  She told us how her life has been a huge struggle the past couple of years, and she has not been to church for quite a while (a few years). We asked her what is keeping her from coming to church, and she said that she feels like she would be judged by others.  We assured her that she would not be judged, people would love her, and that going to church was for her!  She told us she wants to attend.  She then told us that she wants us to come and teach her daughter before she gets baptized, so that will be amazing!  What a huge miracle!  Heavenly Father is mindful of all of His children, and we were able to be instruments in His hands to find and talk to these individuals, how incredible!
     I had the privilege to go on exchanges with Elder Fonotisetele this past week, and it was a great exchange!  He is an awesome Polynesian from the Ogden Utah area.  The main success we were able to see was while we went Tracting.  We first saw a man mowing lawns in the trailer park we were Tracting in, and we walked up and spoke with him.  He was a non-denominational Christian, and we talked with him about our unique message.  He seemed a little standoffish, but then Elder Fonotisetele comes in and pulls out the scriptures!  He read Moroni 10:3-5 with him, and explained how as we heed upon Moroni’s council and truly read with an open heart and pray with real intent, we can know the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon! The man ended up lightening up after Elder Fonotisetele read with him, and accepted a copy!  The scriptures are more powerful than we realize!  Truly a miracle!  We also found a less active YSA age girl who said we could come back and visit her, but we are going to refer her to the YSA Sisters!  Great time Tracting with Elder Fono!  He is truly an amazing missionary!
      I had the privilege of performing another baptismal Interview this past week, and it went pretty well!  It was for a 9 year old girl.  Her grandpa joined us for the interview.  It was a little hard to keep her focused, but it ended up great!  It is always a really cool to see and hear people’s conversion stories.  I think I’ve said this before, but I absolutely LOVE Baptismal interviews!!!!  Glad I was able to perform another one.
      Last Friday we had Zone Conference, what a treat!  We got to hear some great trainings from President and Sister McMurray, and from the Assistants!  It is always amazing to hear from each of them!!!  The main focus of our meeting was from Preach My Gospel Ch.4, “How Do I Recognize and Understand the Spirit?”  What an amazing focus!  This has always been one of my favorite chapters from Preach My Gospel.  I could go on forever talking about all of the things I got out of this meeting, but I will focus on a few things.  President McMurray focused on how we have seen many instances lately about revelation.  The first ones from General Conference this past spring, and the recent updates in Preach My Gospel!  Both are great examples of revelation from God given to His prophets and apostles.  Truly amazing that we have witnessed all of these things!  We also heard from the Casper Stake President, President Smathers!  Wow!  He is an inspired man!  One quote I loved that he said was this, “we have the same privilege as the Savior, to submit our will to Heavenly Father!”  Wow, just think about that!  The Assistants came in after and blew us all away, and invited us to focus up, be missionaries at all times, think about the work first and ourselves after we do the work!  They read D&C 112:28 and Helaman 10:4, and invited us to make a list of how we can purify our lives!  Man I love those guys, they’re awesome!  Well, we also got to hear all of the departing testimonies.  I have quite a few friends leaving us, so that was such a crazy thing!  Overall, it was a great meeting, can’t complain!!
      After Zone Conference, we headed home and set some daily finding goals.  That is one thing that President has been stressing lately, but especially during our meeting.  We set our finding goals for the day at 5:30, and by 8:15 we had met all of our goals we set!!! It was such a testament builder about how important setting goals are!  I’ll share a story about what happened.  We got out of dinner, and it was very close to where the YSA Sisters lived.  We saw they were home, so we went and asked them if they had any neighbors who would be interested in our message, and they pointed to a couple of doors.  We went and knocked, talked with a bunch of people, and a teenage boy accepted a copy to The Book of Mormon, and invited him to read and pray.  We got his number so we can get a hold of him later!  On the last door the sisters told us to knock, we met a man David.  He answered in his full military uniform, and we asked him if we could share a message about Jesus Christ with him.  He told us he would love to hear our message!  We testified to him, read Moroni 10:3-5, and invited him to read and pray to know if it is true!  The Spirit was so strong!  David pulled out his dog tag and had us read it, he turned out to be a Mormon!  He just wanted to hear what we had to say first.  He told us how he hadn’t been to church for a few years, and how his life is going crazy right now.  He is going through a rough divorce, and wants to come back to church!  After listening to him, we invited him to come to church this Sunday, and he said he would love to!  He ended up not being able to make it, but we will get in contact with him this week!  We promised him he would find comfort in the Gospel through these rough times, and I am a firm believer in that!!!
      We had interviews with President the very next day, nice and early in the morning!  I feel Jesus Christ love for me as I talk with President, it is incredible!  I love him and Sister McMurray so much!!  I feel so uplifted, inspired, and loved every interview I have with him.  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has placed President McMurray as my mission president, what a blessing!
      We taught a recent convert lesson to Scott Saulnier this past Sunday with Dallin, a priest from our ward who is preparing to serve his mission in Alabama!  We taught Lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It went so well, and Dallin is such a great teacher!  He will be a great missionary!  Scott is a very committed, solid convert to the church.  It is amazing to see his faith, and continuous conversion happening day by day!  Glad to be able to work with Scott, and teach him more about the gospel!
       The scripture I wanted to share this week is in D&C 9:7-9, it was shared by President McMurray at Zone Conference!  It says,

7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.

       It is amazing to know that we can receive answers to prayers!  Everyone has had prayers that haven’t been answered, but Heavenly Father hears every prayer from each of His children!  I know He does!  To receive answers to our prayers, we may need to heed upon the counsel of this scripture, to “study it out in your mind;” first, then ask God through prayer.  I love how Heavenly Father answers each prayer according to His will and His time.  It is hard not to always receive an immediate answer, but we always need to remain faithful and trust that as we align our will with His, we will receive that answer someday!  I love my Heavenly Father, and I know that He loves each of you!  I hope you have a great week! :)

Love,

Elder Bailey 

Pics:

1-2: Zone Conference!

3-5: saying bye to some of my best friends!

6: some of our friends here in Casper!

7/10/18 | “...they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.”

  It has been a great week up her in Casper!  Last Tuesday night, we were invited to a wedding ceremony.  It was for a non member who Elder Williamson met at Walmart!  He is being taught by some other missionaries in another ward here now, but we still got invited!  It was being held at the 7th and Missouri Building.  Let me tell you, this had to be the strangest thing I’ve ever attended!  It turned out not to be a wedding ceremony.... but a commitment ceremony.  I had no idea that was even a thing!  Haha.  I guess I can summarize the whole ceremony and super strange, but the couple was so happy we could come!  So it was definitely a good experience to be able to support these people who are interested in joining the church!!
 The 4th of July was honestly nothing too special, just another day as a missionary!  One amazing thing that happened was a member from another ward came and installed our window air conditioning unit that we got from our Zone Leaders garage!  This was an amazing blessing because honestly, it has been super hot lately, and we are the top apartment so it would get pretty hot!  We were so grateful this kind member was willing to help install it for us!  He also fixed the window in our study room!  We thanked him so much, especially to come out on the 4th of July!  We asked him if we could do anything for him, to kind of return the favor, but he said that this was just him ministering to us, and that he didn’t need anything in return!  What a Christlike man!  We had a barbecue with the Palepale’s, a member family in our ward, and that was a good time!
 Actually on our way to the barbecue on the 4th of July, we were talking with a lot of people out in their front yards.  Most of them weren’t interested, but we met this lady who was visiting from Lincoln, Nebraska.  She said that she had spoken with somemissionaries before.  We talked to her about what we do as missionaries, how our message we share is centered on Jesus Christ! She really loved how much we talked about Christ as we spoke with her. She told us how impressed she was how young men like us had such a strong belief in Christ!  At the beginning of our conversation she didn’t seem too interested, but at the end she seemed super receptive!
 We told her that we invite everyone to read from The Book of Mormon, and pray to ask God to know if it is true, and we asked if she would like a copy.  She immediately said “yes!”  And was so happy to accept it!  We gave her a pass along card and invited her to go on Mormon.org and request to talk with missionaries in Nebraska if she wanted to hear more about our message.  She thanks us and said she would!  Such an amazing experience!  The Spirit truly softened her heart, and we hope and pray she continues to feel the Holy Ghost as she reads!”
 We were Tracting right before a dinner appointment this past week, and it started to rain.  Honestly, right when it started to rain, we talked to this guy who was about to go into his house, and he immediately told us to come into his home and stay dry!  How nice of him!  We walked into his home, and started talking to him.  We ended up teaching LeRoy The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  He told us how he had a relative that was Mormon, and that she took his copy of The Book of Mormon because it was an old one he found at a garage sale.  We were able to give him another copy, and we invited him to read.  He told us he has already done so, but we invited him to read with an open heart, and truly sincere intent, and to pray and ask God to know if The Book of Mormon is the word of God!  He said he would, so we are praying he does!  Really cool how some rain got us into a door to teach this man, so amazing!  The Lord truly works in mysterious ways!!
  We had a great lesson with Mark and Debbie this past Thursday!  A little background on them, they have been investigating the church for two years!  They are still working through some things, but ever since Elder Williamson got here last transfer, they started making some really great progress!  We were just planning on reading The Book of Mormon with them, but they brought up some concerns they had about priesthood authority, and why it is necessary for baptism!  We were able to talk with them and teach them about that.  They asked how did John the Baptist have the priesthood and we explained to them how he had the priesthood authority to baptize Jesus Christ.  Mark really doesn’t have a problem or concern with any of these things, it is mainly Debbie, but it is good to have Mark explain to her what he believes as well to help her get over these concerns!  Debbie also asked why the church seems like it is “behind the times”.  We talked about how the world is getting further and further away from the truth and what God wants us to do.
    We met a lady while returning to our apartment one night, and she said we could come by the next day to visit her at Lot #7.  So we went by the next day to visit her.  We saw Lot #8, and counted one over to visit what we thought was Lot #7.  We knocked on the door, and a man answered.  We asked for We asked for the lady, but the guy who answered said that whoever that was didn’t live there.  So we talked with him about The Book of Mormon, and it went so well!  He said he was religious in another denomination, predominately in the south.  After our conversation, he accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon!  We invited him to read and pray to know if it was truly the word of God, and he said he would! He said we could come back later this week, how cool!  After we knocked on the door, we were walking away and looked at what Lot number this was, and it was actually #6!  So we weren’t even knocking on the right door!  Heavenly Father truly guided us to this man! Can’t wait to go back and talk to him more! I love feeling “on the Lord’s Errand!
     On Saturday it was our missions “car fast” day once again!  We are always fasting from a car, but we still had an amazing day doing the Lord’s work!  We went out to visit a daughter of a member we ran into the other day for a return appointment, but she didn’t answer.  Elder Williamson had a feeling we should tract out a little bit of a trailer park we live by, so we did just that!  We ran into two solid potential people who showed some good interest!  The first one was a man who said we could come back another day when he wasn’t working, and the second one was a lady with a bunch of kids.  She accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon, and said we could come back as well!  It was very amazing!  We almost got stung by a swarm of wasps, but we were protected so that was a huge blessing too! :)  The rest of our Saturday was very very hot!  We were walking all over our area talking with a ton of people!  None of them were really interested, but three non members offered us bottled water!  Which was a huge blessing!  We drank all of the water very quickly, and it helped us stay hydrated!  That night we had a wonderful lesson with a recent convert, Scott!  He is so amazing!  We had it over at a members home, and had them help teach him!  It is so incredible to see how the Gospel can truly change peoples lives, and help them receive more happiness than ever before!  That is one of my most favorite aspects of missionary life, seeing the Gospel change lives!
      We received a referral this past week for a man who wants to be baptized!  He came to all three hours of church this past week, and we have a lesson set up for this Saturday!  Amazing how elect people come out of nowhere!  Can’t wait to teach him!!
      I read about the 2,000 stripling warriors this past week, and it reaffirmed how much I love them!!  In Alma 53:20-21 it states,

20 And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all--they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

21 Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.

      How amazing are these young men!?  I want to become like they were!  I asked myself, “am I true at all times in whatsoever thing I am entrusted?”  This helped me ponder about some things I need to refine within myself.  I want to invite each of you to think about this, “Am I true at all times in whatsoever thing I am entrusted?” I know that as you reflect upon how to become close to our Savior Jesus Christ, and a more Christlike person, you will be able to refine yourself, and truly become as these young men were!!  I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God!  I feel it every single time I read, and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has provided us with this eternal gospel to follow, and that He has provided a son, Jesus Christ, to make it possible for us to return to His presence!  I hope you all have a wonderful week, God Loves you!

Love,
Elder Bailey


Pics:

1-2: Attending the wedding we were invited to!

3-4: Beautiful sunset after the wedding!

5: We had the privilege of eating at this special table at KFC!

7/3/18 | Can’t believe it is July!!

 This past week was pretty crazy!  We had transfers last Wednesday, and it made a few of our days pretty crazy!  Happy Fourth of July tomorrow!  I’m grateful to not only live in the United States if America, but to be serving as a missionary here too!  Im glad we live in a land where we can practice what we believe, and that has religious freedom.  I’m grateful for our founding fathers who established this land of religious freedom so that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ could restore the true church and priesthood authority back onto the earth!!  Truly amazing!  I’m grateful for all of those who have served, and who are serving in the armed forces so that we could retain this freedom!  God Bless America! 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
     On transfer day, we got a text from our bishop saying that someone needed a blessing at the hospital, so we headed over there and got to give this man a blessing!  Turns out he is from Riverton, and is in the ward where I started my mission, so cool!  His name was James After Buffalo, and he is a Native American.  The blessing was very powerful, and you could definitely feel the spirit as we gave it to him!  I love administering blessings to those in need, it is always a very amazing experience!  I’m grateful that Heavenly Father gave us the gift of the Restoration of the Gospel, which encompasses the Restoration of Priesthood Authority!  It is amazing to see and feel the power of the Priesthood to bless the lives of all of God’s children!  Truly a huge blessing in our lives!!
      Another missionary had to go down with the Zone Leaders to Colorado for MLC for a doctors appointment, so Elder Williamson and I were able to have Elder Littlewood with us from Thursday night through Friday!  I came out with him, so it was really fun to catch up with him, and have a great day!  Our day was mostly filled with finding furniture, lamps, etc for their apartment. (When they got here, there was absolutely nothing in their apartment........ except for two mattresses......). So since the Zone Leaders were gone and couldn’t help, we were able to pack a ton of stuff into our car and get a lot of great stuff for their apartment!  We went to yard sales, got stuff from Facebook marketplace, and we were able to have Gospel conversations with the people we bought or got stuff from!  So cool!  Their apartment is looking a lot more like a home, but if is still a pretty grubby place....... glad we could help them out and find a ton of good stuff!
      So big news in the missionary world, the missionary department updated Preach My Gospel in the past week!  So there are some changes on the Gospel Library version.  I thought I used to know the lessons pretty well, but now this is throwing me three the loop!  I’m definitely going to need to study extra hard to learn the new parts of all the lessons, but that’s kind of crazy!  They also got rid of “New Investigators” and we now call them “New People Being Taught” which encompasses all Progressing, Other, and New Investigators.  Crazy stuff!!  It is so weird that things are changing, but I know that it is all inspired and comes from what the Lord needs us to teach people!  We will definitely try to get the new stuff down so we can teach it effectively!
      In church this past Fast Sunday, I had the opportunity to bear my testimony as my first Sunday in the ward!  It was a great opportunity to introduce myself to the whole ward, and I’m grateful I did so!  I had the strongest feeling I needed to go up, because someone who was visiting needed to talk to me.  So I did, and after sacrament meeting ended, a young girl came up to me and said hi.  She said she saw me get up to share my testimony, and their whole family new who I was, “the tall Elder!”  Haha. Turns out to be a part member family I knew when I served in Cheyenne!  They were so happy to see me and they said they loved hearing my testimony.  Super cool, glad I was able to see them again!
      Yesterday we went Tracting in an apartment complex, and saw some absolutely amazing success!  It took us an hour just to tract one building out at this place, and we found five people to teach!  We were able to give two of them copies of The Book Of Mormon, and we got all of their phone numbers to get in contact with them.  So amazing!  I love being able to reach out to people, and I can’t wait to continue to do that this transfer with Elder Williamson!  It should be an amazing time with him, he is awesome!  We have some return appointments with the people we met for this week, so we are very excited to teach them!!
       While I was studying Preach My Gospel this past week in Ch. 4, I came across a scripture that was referenced, it is Alma 17:3, it states,

3 ​But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and ​​​fasting​; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with ​​​power​ and authority of God.

       This is when Alma see’s his dear friends, the sons of Mosiah, again!  It says that they prayed and fasted a lot, and because of that they received spiritual gifts and taught with the power and authority of God!  I asked myself this question, Don’t we all want the power and authority of God to be with us always?  If we do, we need to be doing these small and simple things each and every day!  I know that as you focus on personal and family scripture study and prayer, you will have the power and authority of God as you do those things necessary to attain it!  I know that it is by these small means, that great things truly come to pass!  I love you guys and hope you all have a fantastic week! :)

Love,

Elder Bailey 

Pics:

1. The puppy we rescued!

2. Saw this incredible doggy backpack! 

3. Some members we said bye to from our last ward!