What a great week! As you can tell by the title of my email, Casper has been super smokey, especially the last couple of days! It has been super weird, sad to think how many fires are happening around. Hope they get put out soon! Other than the smoke and some rain, it has been a great week! Like I mentioned last week, I had the opportunity to perform another Baptismal interview for man named Eric. It was so amazing to hear Eric’s testimony and how he found out for himself that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, Joseph Smith and Russell M. Nelson are prophets of God, and that this is Jesus Christ’s church on the earth today! What an amazing thing to hear someone bear testimony about! I love it! Every time I hear someone’s testimony, it strengthens and reaffirms my own, because of the strong spirit that it invites! I love this gospel, I love my Savior, and I am grateful for my opportunity to be a full time missionary!
The second counselor in the bishopric in the Casper 9th Ward, Brother Whitlock, brought us with him to share a message with two people last Wednesday. It was awesome to be out with a member to visit those in need. With one of the people we visited, we were able to share a brief message about our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement! Truly amazing! The other individual we visited we did not have time to share a message, but we listened intently to what she had to say, and administered the sacrament to her because she cannot attend church regularly. It was very neat to visit these people! Brother Whitlock brought us out to lunch afterwards, so that was so nice of him to do! I love the members here, they are awesome!
We were Tracting this past week, and decided to use the last five minutes until we had to head to dinner to walk down a street and talk to anyone who was outside. We met this man, and he let us talk with him a little about the Restoration. He listened, but politely told us that he was not interested. We asked him if he knew of anyone that could use an uplifting message or who was going through a rough time that we could reach out to? He thought for a second, and said that there was someone from work. He told us he didn’t know his address, but that he would text it to us. So we gave him our number. Honestly, we did not expect him to text us. We hoped he did, but usually when people have taken our number in the past, they don’t call us or text us. The next day however, we got a call! We had no idea who it was, then he said “I’m the guy you talked to yesterday on the street!” We were a little shocked, but glad he called! He told us that he got the address and would text it to us. But he said it was funny that the guy was already Mormon, but would love to have us stop by! Crazy right?! Turns out he is in another ward, so we told the missionaries to go visit him. He is an inactive member who has a desire to come back. So amazing that we were guided to that guy to get in contact with this member! Cool little miracle!
We received a referral for an inactive lady in our ward who wanted us to stop by. She had recently left her place and is staying in a motel in a sketchy part of town until she find a permanent residence within our ward again. We met her at the motel, and there were a ton of very interesting people there! When we got there, a lady’s car had died. So we helped her push her dead car into a parking spot. We met on the balcony of the motel and read Alma 7:10-13 with the inactive lady and talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement with her. She expressed a great desire to attend church and start to come back to church! How amazing! We have another lesson with her this Thursday, so we are excited to meet with her again! That same night we taught Jerri and Brother Thomas. Jerri is not a member. Her and Brother Thomas have been best friends for years, and we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants with them! We had another great lesson with them, and they came to church again for the third week in a row! We truly know that our visits are helping them continue to progress in the gospel! I love it. We met with them every Thursday night, so that will be another great lesson again this week!
After those lessons that night, we went out to contact some of the people with interest we are working with, and we set up many return appointments and talked to a man in a trailer park who accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon! We actually met all of our daily finding goals after dinner, so that was a huge blessing and miracle! It is amazing how the Lord provides the people and a way to further his work on His timetable, that is an amazing thing to witness daily!
The second counselor in the bishopric in the Casper 9th Ward, Brother Whitlock, brought us with him to share a message with two people last Wednesday. It was awesome to be out with a member to visit those in need. With one of the people we visited, we were able to share a brief message about our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement! Truly amazing! The other individual we visited we did not have time to share a message, but we listened intently to what she had to say, and administered the sacrament to her because she cannot attend church regularly. It was very neat to visit these people! Brother Whitlock brought us out to lunch afterwards, so that was so nice of him to do! I love the members here, they are awesome!
We were Tracting this past week, and decided to use the last five minutes until we had to head to dinner to walk down a street and talk to anyone who was outside. We met this man, and he let us talk with him a little about the Restoration. He listened, but politely told us that he was not interested. We asked him if he knew of anyone that could use an uplifting message or who was going through a rough time that we could reach out to? He thought for a second, and said that there was someone from work. He told us he didn’t know his address, but that he would text it to us. So we gave him our number. Honestly, we did not expect him to text us. We hoped he did, but usually when people have taken our number in the past, they don’t call us or text us. The next day however, we got a call! We had no idea who it was, then he said “I’m the guy you talked to yesterday on the street!” We were a little shocked, but glad he called! He told us that he got the address and would text it to us. But he said it was funny that the guy was already Mormon, but would love to have us stop by! Crazy right?! Turns out he is in another ward, so we told the missionaries to go visit him. He is an inactive member who has a desire to come back. So amazing that we were guided to that guy to get in contact with this member! Cool little miracle!
We received a referral for an inactive lady in our ward who wanted us to stop by. She had recently left her place and is staying in a motel in a sketchy part of town until she find a permanent residence within our ward again. We met her at the motel, and there were a ton of very interesting people there! When we got there, a lady’s car had died. So we helped her push her dead car into a parking spot. We met on the balcony of the motel and read Alma 7:10-13 with the inactive lady and talked about Jesus Christ and His Atonement with her. She expressed a great desire to attend church and start to come back to church! How amazing! We have another lesson with her this Thursday, so we are excited to meet with her again! That same night we taught Jerri and Brother Thomas. Jerri is not a member. Her and Brother Thomas have been best friends for years, and we are reading the Doctrine and Covenants with them! We had another great lesson with them, and they came to church again for the third week in a row! We truly know that our visits are helping them continue to progress in the gospel! I love it. We met with them every Thursday night, so that will be another great lesson again this week!
After those lessons that night, we went out to contact some of the people with interest we are working with, and we set up many return appointments and talked to a man in a trailer park who accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon! We actually met all of our daily finding goals after dinner, so that was a huge blessing and miracle! It is amazing how the Lord provides the people and a way to further his work on His timetable, that is an amazing thing to witness daily!
On Saturday we had a lesson with the recent convert in our ward, Scott! He took ur to eat lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then we had a lesson at his apartment afterwards. He just received his patriarchal blessing last Sunday, and he loves it! He has now received new guidance and instruction on how he will go forth and serve God for the rest of his life. It was amazing to hear his thoughts about his blessing and answer any questions he had about it. Patriarchal blessings are truly amazing! I would encourage and invite you guys to take it out and study it this week. I have been studying mine a lot recently, and have found new knowledge and guidance as I’ve prayed and studied about it. Patriarchal blessings are incredible! I love them! If you haven’t received one yet, talk to your bishop about it and work towards receiving your own! It will change your life and your perspective! I have felt a tremendous amount of God’s love for me as I’ve studied mine! You will too I promise!
That night we had a “drop/stop teaching” party! (Wasn’t really a party, it was kind of sad, but this helped us be happy about it!). We tried visiting a lot of people with interest, and they were not interested anymore. They will be someday, and we hope and pray that they will remember their interaction with us! God will provide another chance for them to receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ again! All on the Lord’s timetable!
This past Sunday, we had two people being taught attend sacrament meeting! After the Casper 9th wards sacrament meeting, our Bishop came up to us and introduced us to two random people we haven’t ever met before. He told us that they wanted to meet with us. We got talking with them, and they have just moved to Casper within the past week, and Ken is not a member of the church! His wife is a returning active member, and Ken wants to be taught and be baptized! Amazing! Heavenly Father has blessed us with an elect person to teach! We have a lesson with Ken and his wife tonight at 7, we can’t wait to teach him! It will be a fantastic lesson! Wahoo! I love these small but incredible miracles!!!
Yesterday, we had four lessons set up, and they were all pretty solid lessons we had set a few days prior. Throughout the whole day, everything went wrong...... all four lessons ended up cancelling, and it was a bit sad, but just a normal day as a missionary! We pressed forward and made the best of it. We hope we can meet with those four people latter this or next week. Crazy how sometimes our days just don’t go according to plan, but God is still mindful of each of us. He knew those lessons were going to cancel, but we still had a good day through all the cancellations. I love this work!
I was reading in 3 Nephi this past week. I wanted to share these scriptures. 3 Nephi 14: 7-8, 13-14,
7 Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
8 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat;
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
These are truly amazing! I love that promise, that as we ask, seek, and knock, we will receive answers to our prayers! Interesting thing is, what do all three of these words require? Action!! It needs to be our choice to act, choose to pray and utilize the gift of prayer in our lives! Those last two verses are very profound as well. It is easy to be disobedient, and follow the path to destruction, but it is hard to follow the narrow path to eternal life! As we choose to act and pray to our Heavenly Father fervently, and do all that is necessary to stay obedient and keep our testimonies strong, we will be able to stay on that narrow strait path to eternal life! I know that Jesus Christ is at the helm of The Church, I am grateful for this Gospel that has been provided for each of us. I hope you all have a great week, love you! Thanks for all the support!
Love,
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1: found this bird in the middle of the road while we were walking, he didn’t move so I thought it’d be a NICE pic with him, haha (he may have been sick with something, so I kept my distance!)
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