Tuesday, July 31, 2018

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. :)



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