Well let’s just get into the week! Last Tuesday night we went and contacted a referral we received from a member of another ward here in Casper. The man was so happy to see us! He is in a wheel chair due to a disorder, and has become interested in learning more again about our church! He has been making some business deals with members of the church from Utah, and he was so amazed and impressed with how honest they all were, so he felt inspired to reach out to his member friend to send us over! We talked with him, set up a time to meet, and he asked us if he could have a copy of The Book of Mormon! Of course we handed one to him, and we invited him to read from it and pray to ask God to know if it is true. He said he would! He pushed our lesson back to yesterday. We showed up at his house and he didn’t answer! Too bad, but we’ll get him this week! I love meeting elect people who are ready to listen and learn!
Speaking of elect people, Ken is honestly the most elect person to enter into my life as a missionary, no joke! We taught him last Tuesday, Sunday, and Monday, three times in a week! Wow! He is the man who moved from technically Las Vegas, but pretty much Missoula. (Long story! So I can’t fit it all in here :). We hadn’t received his record yet from the sisters in Vegas, so we just decided to go over all the lessons anyways. We taught him The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ over the course of those three lessons! We tied in a couple commandments while we taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that was good too! During our first lesson last Tuesday, Ken had mentioned how he wanted Elder Godfrey and I to teach him everything, and work with him up to his baptism. Ken has previously studied with missionaries since February of this year, so he knows all of the lessons. We were expecting his record to be full of lessons, but when we finally got it he had only been taught The Restoration (according to the missionaries records, which may be a bit spotty......). We think Ken was taught more, but they forgot to record it. Anyways, we decided and agreed to teach him all of the lessons anyways! Sounds like the other missionaries couldn’t meet up with them too often, because Ken knows a ton, but never got baptized. Since he had met with missionaries, he has had a few spiritual experiences, including one incredible answer to a prayer! Another cool long story, but it is all summed up with Ken knows the church is true now, and he wants to be baptized! In our lesson on Sunday, we taught him and invited him to be baptized on September 13th! (He has Thursday’s off from work, and it worked out so Elder Godfrey and I can both be at his baptism! Amazing!). He accepted, and we shared a plan with him to help him be ready by then! He had so many questions that we were able to answer as well. He has been reading The Book of Mormon a bunch, studied and prayed over all of the Pamphlets, and has kept all the commitments we’ve given him! He is incredible! The third lesson went so well! We had a young man who is leaving on his mission in October as a member present! Ken understands the gospel, and is so intelligent, it is amazing! At the end of this lesson, Ken and his wife Nicole, thanked us. It was one of the most sincere appreciative comments I’ve ever received. It has been a special experience teaching Ken so far, and we can’t wait to continue to help him on his path to conversion! What a miracle!
Last Wednesday we had a priest, who is starting his senior year of high school, come with us for the day! His name is Devan. Devan recently joined the church about a year ago. He joined on his own, his parents aren’t even members! How amazing is that!? We picked him up at 8:15, and we had him for his “Micro Mission” as we called it, and it went amazing! We had great studies, good insights, great practice and role plays, and a great time doing the work! We had lunch with Scott, the recent covert, and we taught him another after baptism lesson. The most special experience we had was while we were Tracting. We decided to tract in a trailer park near our apartment, and Elder Godfrey and I went first so that we could show Devan how we approach doors. On his first door he ever knocked on, the lady was busy, but wanted us to come back! She asked for a copy of The Book of Mormon, and Devan gladly gave it to her! He was so happy! And excited because Elder Godfrey and I had both gotten rejected pretty hard, haha! After another couple times of us all being rejected, and after some time of Tracting, on the last door we planned to knock that day, it was again Devan’s turn to knock, a native women answered, she said “oh look, it’s the cute Mormon boys!” She was slightly drunk, but not horribly drunk. We talked with her, and she wasn’t open at all. After we testified to her about The Book of Mormon, she asked us why bad stuff happens to good people. Elder Godfrey pulled out Alma 14, and talked about how God has given us all agency, and sometimes good people are hurt due to bad peoples decisions. She started to cry, and later asked us for a blessing (her grandparents are members.). So we gave her a blessing, and Devan was able to give her a copy of The Book of Mormon and we testified that as she read she would feel peace, comfort, and hope! She said she would read and pray. Devan was absolutely stoked! The rest of our day went well, and he told us and a member family we stopped by for some water, that he did have a stronger desire to serve a mission now! I surely hope that us being with him helped him! Elder Godfrey and I fasted and prayed that we would see some amazing experiences, we know God answers our prayers! :)
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Petersen this past week. He is a good guy, this is his first transfer as a missionary! We had a great time! We Tracted (of course:), worked with members, gave a blessing to a Sister missionary who asked for one, set up appointments to work with more members, and had a great lesson with Mark and Debbie! It was a great day! I was surprised we didn’t get any comments in our companionship for the day. Elder Petersen is about 5’ 1”, so it was a good difference between us! Haha.
We had our Car Fast/No Drive Day this past Saturday, and we had Mark, the person we are teaching, give us a ride to the other side of town so we could do work in the Casper 9th Ward area. We visited a bunch of members, and had a lot of success! We inactive man told us his wife wasn’t ready yet, but when she is he would call us to come and teach his whole family. We gave him our number, and he was so grateful we had stopped by! Hope that benefits the work here in the future! This random guy we talked to on the street, after he rejected us and we asked him if he knew anyone we could reach out to, pointed towards his neighbors house and told us to try them. We did, and as we introduced ourselves, the lady told us that they were members! We had missed them on our area book map! We scheduled a return appointment with them next week! These exact Members turns out to be someone who the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric, my cousin Brother Whitlock, asked us to go try sometime! Miracle! So amazing the guy guided us to them, even if he didn’t mean to, the Spirit was definitely guiding him! Super cool! We also had some born again Christians poke their head outside of their door and asked why we skipped their house. They invited us in, and we had a semi friendly conversation about what we believe, and we answered a bunch of their questions! They didn’t agree with a few things, but we left them with a copy of The Book of Mormon to read and pray about. They said they’d give it a try, so hopefully they check it out! That was a first on my mission, to get called into someone’s house to teach them, and it wasn’t contentious! Haha, amazing!
Sunday was amazing! It was a great opportunity because we got to bear our testimonies two times because we are covering two wards. What a blessing! The Casper 6th Ward has struggled with supporting us as missionaries, but lately since we started to focus on working with individual families, it has gotten a lot better! Anyways, we had President Davies, the 2nd Counselor in our mission presidency, attend our Fast and Testimony Meeting. We did not see him until he got up to bear his testimony. When we saw him, I quickly went up so I could be right after him! He said some very nice things about us, and testified a strong testimony about missionary work! After I shared mine, Elder Godfrey shared his. Then one by one missionaries from the crowd started to come up to share amazing testimonies about missionary work! Some senior missionaries serving in Martin’s cove, a couple who happened to be attending our sacrament meeting in their way from the MTC to their mission in Minnesota, a couple kids with mission calls, some service missionaries, and some random visitors who had served missions recently. The Spirit was so strong, it was amazing! Then a member of the ward council, who we had shared a message with last Wednesday, got up and bore his testimony about how the message we were sharing was amazing, and that if their were any families who hadn’t had us over to share it, they should! It was such an amazing meeting, and we’ve never felt so much love before in this ward! Truly a neat experience! Hopefully this helps the ward in the future, we know it will! The rest of our meetings were amazing, but that one trumped it all! I love feeling the spirit! :) I honestly couldn’t stop smiling after that meeting!
In my studies this past week, and Mormon 3:22 stood out to me. It states,
Speaking of elect people, Ken is honestly the most elect person to enter into my life as a missionary, no joke! We taught him last Tuesday, Sunday, and Monday, three times in a week! Wow! He is the man who moved from technically Las Vegas, but pretty much Missoula. (Long story! So I can’t fit it all in here :). We hadn’t received his record yet from the sisters in Vegas, so we just decided to go over all the lessons anyways. We taught him The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ over the course of those three lessons! We tied in a couple commandments while we taught The Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that was good too! During our first lesson last Tuesday, Ken had mentioned how he wanted Elder Godfrey and I to teach him everything, and work with him up to his baptism. Ken has previously studied with missionaries since February of this year, so he knows all of the lessons. We were expecting his record to be full of lessons, but when we finally got it he had only been taught The Restoration (according to the missionaries records, which may be a bit spotty......). We think Ken was taught more, but they forgot to record it. Anyways, we decided and agreed to teach him all of the lessons anyways! Sounds like the other missionaries couldn’t meet up with them too often, because Ken knows a ton, but never got baptized. Since he had met with missionaries, he has had a few spiritual experiences, including one incredible answer to a prayer! Another cool long story, but it is all summed up with Ken knows the church is true now, and he wants to be baptized! In our lesson on Sunday, we taught him and invited him to be baptized on September 13th! (He has Thursday’s off from work, and it worked out so Elder Godfrey and I can both be at his baptism! Amazing!). He accepted, and we shared a plan with him to help him be ready by then! He had so many questions that we were able to answer as well. He has been reading The Book of Mormon a bunch, studied and prayed over all of the Pamphlets, and has kept all the commitments we’ve given him! He is incredible! The third lesson went so well! We had a young man who is leaving on his mission in October as a member present! Ken understands the gospel, and is so intelligent, it is amazing! At the end of this lesson, Ken and his wife Nicole, thanked us. It was one of the most sincere appreciative comments I’ve ever received. It has been a special experience teaching Ken so far, and we can’t wait to continue to help him on his path to conversion! What a miracle!
Last Wednesday we had a priest, who is starting his senior year of high school, come with us for the day! His name is Devan. Devan recently joined the church about a year ago. He joined on his own, his parents aren’t even members! How amazing is that!? We picked him up at 8:15, and we had him for his “Micro Mission” as we called it, and it went amazing! We had great studies, good insights, great practice and role plays, and a great time doing the work! We had lunch with Scott, the recent covert, and we taught him another after baptism lesson. The most special experience we had was while we were Tracting. We decided to tract in a trailer park near our apartment, and Elder Godfrey and I went first so that we could show Devan how we approach doors. On his first door he ever knocked on, the lady was busy, but wanted us to come back! She asked for a copy of The Book of Mormon, and Devan gladly gave it to her! He was so happy! And excited because Elder Godfrey and I had both gotten rejected pretty hard, haha! After another couple times of us all being rejected, and after some time of Tracting, on the last door we planned to knock that day, it was again Devan’s turn to knock, a native women answered, she said “oh look, it’s the cute Mormon boys!” She was slightly drunk, but not horribly drunk. We talked with her, and she wasn’t open at all. After we testified to her about The Book of Mormon, she asked us why bad stuff happens to good people. Elder Godfrey pulled out Alma 14, and talked about how God has given us all agency, and sometimes good people are hurt due to bad peoples decisions. She started to cry, and later asked us for a blessing (her grandparents are members.). So we gave her a blessing, and Devan was able to give her a copy of The Book of Mormon and we testified that as she read she would feel peace, comfort, and hope! She said she would read and pray. Devan was absolutely stoked! The rest of our day went well, and he told us and a member family we stopped by for some water, that he did have a stronger desire to serve a mission now! I surely hope that us being with him helped him! Elder Godfrey and I fasted and prayed that we would see some amazing experiences, we know God answers our prayers! :)
I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Petersen this past week. He is a good guy, this is his first transfer as a missionary! We had a great time! We Tracted (of course:), worked with members, gave a blessing to a Sister missionary who asked for one, set up appointments to work with more members, and had a great lesson with Mark and Debbie! It was a great day! I was surprised we didn’t get any comments in our companionship for the day. Elder Petersen is about 5’ 1”, so it was a good difference between us! Haha.
We had our Car Fast/No Drive Day this past Saturday, and we had Mark, the person we are teaching, give us a ride to the other side of town so we could do work in the Casper 9th Ward area. We visited a bunch of members, and had a lot of success! We inactive man told us his wife wasn’t ready yet, but when she is he would call us to come and teach his whole family. We gave him our number, and he was so grateful we had stopped by! Hope that benefits the work here in the future! This random guy we talked to on the street, after he rejected us and we asked him if he knew anyone we could reach out to, pointed towards his neighbors house and told us to try them. We did, and as we introduced ourselves, the lady told us that they were members! We had missed them on our area book map! We scheduled a return appointment with them next week! These exact Members turns out to be someone who the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric, my cousin Brother Whitlock, asked us to go try sometime! Miracle! So amazing the guy guided us to them, even if he didn’t mean to, the Spirit was definitely guiding him! Super cool! We also had some born again Christians poke their head outside of their door and asked why we skipped their house. They invited us in, and we had a semi friendly conversation about what we believe, and we answered a bunch of their questions! They didn’t agree with a few things, but we left them with a copy of The Book of Mormon to read and pray about. They said they’d give it a try, so hopefully they check it out! That was a first on my mission, to get called into someone’s house to teach them, and it wasn’t contentious! Haha, amazing!
Sunday was amazing! It was a great opportunity because we got to bear our testimonies two times because we are covering two wards. What a blessing! The Casper 6th Ward has struggled with supporting us as missionaries, but lately since we started to focus on working with individual families, it has gotten a lot better! Anyways, we had President Davies, the 2nd Counselor in our mission presidency, attend our Fast and Testimony Meeting. We did not see him until he got up to bear his testimony. When we saw him, I quickly went up so I could be right after him! He said some very nice things about us, and testified a strong testimony about missionary work! After I shared mine, Elder Godfrey shared his. Then one by one missionaries from the crowd started to come up to share amazing testimonies about missionary work! Some senior missionaries serving in Martin’s cove, a couple who happened to be attending our sacrament meeting in their way from the MTC to their mission in Minnesota, a couple kids with mission calls, some service missionaries, and some random visitors who had served missions recently. The Spirit was so strong, it was amazing! Then a member of the ward council, who we had shared a message with last Wednesday, got up and bore his testimony about how the message we were sharing was amazing, and that if their were any families who hadn’t had us over to share it, they should! It was such an amazing meeting, and we’ve never felt so much love before in this ward! Truly a neat experience! Hopefully this helps the ward in the future, we know it will! The rest of our meetings were amazing, but that one trumped it all! I love feeling the spirit! :) I honestly couldn’t stop smiling after that meeting!
In my studies this past week, and Mormon 3:22 stood out to me. It states,
22 And I would that I could persuade all ye ends of the earth to repent and prepare to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.
Now is the time to prepare! We must do the small things daily and weekly, read our scriptures, pray, Attend Church (partake of the sacrament). All of these things help us to prepare, and endure to the end! I hope you all are having a great time feeling the Spirit in your lives! We can always feel the spirit, especially when we have the Gift of the Holy Ghost! Do what is necessary to invite the Spirit daily! Hope you all have a fantastic week! Good luck Jenna and Mike! The new baby coming will be so fun!!!! Can’t wait to see pictures of little tiny Emma! :)
Love,
Elder Bailey
Pics:
1. President and Sister Davies at church! :)
2. Pretty Wyoming sunset!
3. District Preparation Day today! Elder Fronk and I won the big prizes because we were 1st and 2nd in bowling! Wooo!
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