12/30/13 | White Christmas (sort of), Back to the Ghetto, Hebrew Israelite's (yuck), and #bikingfordays

This week was fantastic! Skyping my family was the highlight:) Christmas was super weird though, it felt like we were opening presents on a nice summer day, we even roasted marshmallows at the Bishops house that night.  It was basically a Christmas in July party.  But there was a miracle that night, we had a white Christmas. kind of.  It rained all Christmas evening, and we figured that if it were 40 degrees cooler it would be snow, so we took it as a white Christmas:) 

Also there was  huge surprise on Christmas, I had just finished talking with my family and I was minding my own business eating a sandwich at the Bishops and the phone starts ringing.  We look at the area code and it says it's from Philly.  I thought, "Oh no, alyssa is calling me and that's not allowed in this mission."  I kept hearing "Be the exactly obedient missionary" and "100% obedient"  well those thought's didn't work, and then I thought, "What if this isn't even alyssa, what if it's a member that just moved from Philly?"  so after this internal struggle, I answered the phone, and I heard Alyssa's voice.  I said, "Alyssa, this is against my mission rules! I can't talk" She came back rather fast as if she had rehearsed this scene in her mind and said, "well my President said I can, so i'm going to talk to you!"  Well, I decided to obey her mission President, so in a sense I was still being obedient:)

This past week Elder Woodard and I have been biking A LOT! (hence the #bikingfordays in the title)  For example on Tuesday we biked for 10 hours straight , with a little lunch break and 1 lesson within that 10 hours, since our area is huge and Elder Wood used up all the miles on our car.  But biking is fun, so I didn't complain, for the most part:)   Biking makes it more adventurous since you never know when you might crash and get some awesome road rash, or get hit by a car, which happens frequently here, since Flo-rida's don't know how to drive.  so biking is awesome!!!

Last week we decided to go back to knocking in the ghetto, since the middle-class area we were knocking hasn't been delivering.  I love the ghetto!  Ever since we went back, success started to happen.  We found an awesome family of 5 kids ranging from ages 14-23.  We went back to teach them and it was going so well, until this Hebrew Israelite came out of nowhere and crashed the lesson.  (Hebrew Israelite's are crazy, they are racist against whites and absolutely hate Mormonism, and Mormon missionaries.) The guy was the kids dad, and when he saw that 2 white, Mormon missionaries were at his home, well to say the least, he flipped out.  So after getting chewed out, threatened and having our belief's bashed upon for 30 minutes, this other guy came out of no where and started fighting with the first guy. Elder Woodard and I took this as our que to get out of there.  After we left we just kind of laughed at the whole situation since it was ridiculous, and super unexpected. 

Since we have been biking so much we see a lot of people on the streets.  Elder Woodard and I committed to talk to EVERYONE we rode past.  So we did and the miracles started coming in.  In one night we got 3 referrals for the Spanish Elder's and 1 appt. for us.  The Lord blesses those who open their mouths.  We are teaching, or trying to teach, this guy named, lets say Tanner.  We saw tanner riding his bike past us and we hurried and stopped him and said a prayer with him right there, he was super receptive to the Spirit and wanted to be baptized and know more, unfortunately we found out later as we tried to visit with him that his dad is Hebrew Israelite.  Oh well, Tanner will receive the Gospel at some point:)  

Well, that's about all that happened this week, since we biked every where we didn't get to see a whole lot of people since our area is huge, but it was still a very good week and we have been blessed a lot this week. Oh yeah I just remembered.  The Creole missionaries who live with us were walking down the street the other night and this guy approached them and said that he was prompted to talk to the 2 guys in white shirts. So he did and he told them that he wanted to be baptized and he would do whatever was necessary to do it.  It's a blessing for us because he doesn't speak Creole so they had to hand him over to us:)   I believe in miracles!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

12/23/13 | Christmas in July, Biking & Sweating in December

What a week!  It was definitely one of those weeks when the Lord wants to try your faith.  First off, I got a new companion, Elder Woodard, who is amazing!!  We get along super well and have a lot of faith in the area.  But it seemed like everything we did was wrong.  All of our appointments the last 4 days fell through and we harvested for 2-3 hours everyday and didn't get one return appointment.  Yesterday after we had been harvesting for 2 hours without being able to say 1 prayer, we knelt in the grass and had an introspection.  We couldn't find anything that was majorly wrong, just some minor disobedience things which we fixed.  After praying and repenting of the disobedience things, we felt much better and thought that, that was the reason we weren't having success.  Yet as we harvested for another hour, we were able to say 4 prayers with people, but we only got 1 return appointment.  Which that was a HUGE upgrade from previously, yet it's not very good.  We decided that the Lord was trying our faith, and there's a scripture in Ether that came to our minds that says something like, after the trial of our faith, miracles happen.  Something like that.  So this week we have a large amount of faith knowing that we've been through the trial of our faith and the blessing will come this Christmas week!

I still can't believe Christmas is in 2 days.  It blows my mind!  Just on Saturday, Elder Woodard and I biked for miles and were soaked in sweat, which was fun because I love biking, but then I realized it was December 21 and it was 90 degrees.  It messes with my mind so much.  It's like i'm trying to get ready to celebrate Christmas in July!  Being a missionary in Christmas time is definitely a new experience.  You focus more on the birth of our Savior and on getting people baptized.  Not on the presents, which had taken most of my focus for the last 18 years.  It's been a very good experience, I have been studying more on Christ and on His birth, and I appreciate Christmas so much more than before!  And you realize how much you really do love your family, since all of my Christmas'  thus far have been with family. But I love it out here! I decided last week that it was better to be sweaty and hot, than be trudging through snow all winter.  I have a new found love for Florida now, that I never thought I would get:)

We had one amazing miracle occur this week.  We had been harvesting this neighborhood for hours and had 0 success.  We were biking out of the hood and felt like going down a different road than the one we came in on.  As we were biking some lady called after us, so we biked back and started talking to her.  It was a lady I had harvested 2 weeks ago!! In a completely different neighborhood!!  No coincidence there!  We were able to get her number since previously she was supposed to move to Miami, so we didn't get her number.  And we will be in touch with her this week!  Amazing, I believe in miracles!!

Other than that not much happened this week.  Except on Saturday we had  a Christmas party and we dressed up as Shepherds, we looked legit. And on Sunday we sang in Church, which was pretty good, hopefully:)  Well I love you guys a lot and miss you! Have a Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

12/17/12 | Smash Face, Charm City, and Music leader

Wow, 1 year ago today I was flying to Florida for a bball tournament!  How time flies.  I remember thinking, "Man, I hope I don't go on a mission in Florida, this totally kills the Christmas spirit."  haha, I've changed my mind since then.  And i've been realizing more and more the true meaning of Christmas and the true spirit of Christmas.  Especially after reading Elder Hollands talk in Dec. 2012 Ensign (you should read it) As I've been hearing about the freezing temperatures around the whole U.S. (except this little patch of Heaven)  I've grown to love the warmer winter weather.  I can handle nice 70 degree days in December:)  And I've realized that it's a lot better than having to trudge through snow all day as a missionary, so yes, I am learning to love Florida, slowly but surely!  

I was introduced to a new game called smash face last p-day.  It's basically like dodgeball, but then again, it's nothing like dodgeball.  You partition off half of the gym in the church, and you have a volleyball or a soccer ball and another ball, usually one of those mini basketballs.  You start out by kicking the balls into the air, and then it turns into free-for-all dodgeball.  It's super fun, until the next day when you have bruises and welts all over your body from repeated blows from the soccer ball.  Super fun game, I would recommend that the Priests and Teachers play it, but then again, I don't know how well some of the parents would like their son playing it.  

This past week was interesting,  my comp started getting transfer trunky, and he goes home in 1 transfer, and he had in mind that he would be transferring, so not much got done last week.  But on the upside we ate at some of the best restaurants in southern Florida.  The best one was called Charm City burgers in Deerfield Beach.  It puts 5 guys to shame (sorry Austin and Dad, but it's true:)  A member took us to that one, then thought it was a good idea to drive us by the beach, during Christmas Break, when all the college students are here.  To say the least I had a good time enjoying the distant ocean and the sky, since I avoided the scantily clad women on the beach.  The member was less active so he didn't think that it wasn't the best idea to drive missionaries next to the beach.  

On Sunday our investigator Derek came to church.  He is awesome and most likely not completely sane in the head.  He said some random things, but hey, he is still a child of God and we love him.  I've invited him to be baptized about 6 times or so now, and he still is hesitant, and each time I keep getting bolder, for example, on Sunday he kept saying that he wanted to join the Church.  To join the Church you need to be baptized, which I had explained to him many times before.  After Elder Wood and I taught Gospel Principles (the lesson was on the Life of Christ and it was a really powerful, spiritual lesson)  I went up to Derek and asked, "Derek, do you want to live with God again?" He said "Yes, of course I do."  I said, "To live with God again, we need to be baptized, (then I quoted John 3:5, which says it all).  So Derek, Will you be baptized on Christmas?"  He was still hesitant!  Come on Derek, you just have to say yes! We've taught you everything and the Spirit has testified the truth of it unto you.  But we all have free agency so we will continue working with him and the Spirit will convert him in due time:)  

Also for the last few weeks I have been chosen to lead the music in Priesthood opening exercises, since somehow no one knows how to in the ward.  All that practice since I was 12 has payed off.  It reminds me of old times when Karl and I would lead and play piano almost every Sunday.  So thanks Karl for making me lead while you played, it's really helped me out here:)  

I learned the power of opening your mouth this week.  Last week, we were harvesting this street and we saw a woman, and we both felt prompted to go up and talk to her.  As we approached she (let's call her Monika) acted like she knew us.  We prayed with her and she knew that we were sent down this street for a reason.  She had been planning to go on a walk and she heard a voice telling her to walk down this specific street, then she saw these two lanky, tall white boys and she knew that she needed to talk to us.  the Spirit is amazing!  She accepted to be baptized but unfortunately she has fallen off the map, we have not been able to make contact with Monika for a week now, but we will keep trying!

Second cool experience,  we were trying to meet some investigators but no one was home.  We were walking back to the car fighting off discouraging thoughts and trying to keep our heads up, and I saw a guy sitting on a curb.  My first thought was, "Wow that guy is pretty big, he could break my like a toothpick." I let fear fill my thoughts, and I kept walking.  Then I felt like I got punched in the face, but it was a spiritual punch and next thing I knew I was walking the opposite direction I had been before and I was headed straight for the big man.  I thought, "Well, the Spirit must really want me to talk to this guy, so here goes nothing."  I asked if we could say a prayer with him and he got super excited.  He (lets call him Karl, Karl is pretty popular in this letter;)  So karl starts telling us how bad he needs a prayer in his life and how bad his life has been the last few months.  Karl basically lost everything, his apartment, his church, his girlfriend.  All he had was his family and his car, I don't know how he kept the car when basically everything else he had was gone.  Anyways, we said the prayer with him and he was very thankful and knew that we were sent from Jesus Christ.  He accepted baptism and is super awesome!  Unfortunately again, we haven't been able to get in contact with him again.  He fell off the map too.  But we will find Karl and baptize him!  With the help of the Spirit of course, without the Spirit we cannot do anything as missionaries.  

Oh yeah I almost forgot, we may or may not have accidentally created a poisonous gas in our apartment by mixing cleaning supplies, on accident, while cleaning our apartment a couple of weeks ago.  We all have been getting bad headaches and chills and light headedness, but we thought we were all fighting off a flu of sorts.  But a couple of nights ago we came into our apartment and were overwhelmed by the smell of bleach, we felt like something was wrong so we called Sister Sommerfeldt, the awesome mission nurse, and she said to hurry and open all the windows and let the apartment air out.  So for the last few days we've been sleeping with the windows open and luckily Florida decided to be cool and dry these past few days, which was a miracle, or else our apartment would have become super humid and everything would have molded even faster than it usually does.  And none of us died, so the gas must not have been too poisonous:) but we got it all sorted out so don't worry mom:)  

Well that's about it for this week, one other thing I've learned is the importance of family.  You don't realize how good you have it until it's gone.  Especially around Christmas time when all you really want is to be with family.  But as I heard a quote sometime ago, I'm out here away from my family so that others can be with theirs for eternity.  It's all worth it:)  

Also thank you Uncle Stu for all of the emails and the pics.  I really enjoy getting them each week and I am very thankful for the love, advice and support you've given me:)

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Love, Elder Spencer Bailey  

This is Nate, my recent convert!  So proud of him, he went to visit his girlfriend and her grandpa unleashed a ton of anti on him, yet he still held true to his beliefs.  Solid!

12/9/13 | Eternal Summer, Lactose-intolerance, and Miracles

I have finally come to the realization that it will always be warm and summer-like in Florida, especially after seeing the license plate that says, "Florida: Land of Eternal Summer"  So if you forget the fact that it's December and Christmas is right around the corner, and think that it is August, than the weather is great! It's a nice 85-90 degrees right now, with a slight ocean breeze, it's pretty nice:)  

Also, I have come to the knowledge of a depressing fact, I am lactose-intolerant, at least I think so, I have been sick the last couple of weeks and I narrowed it down to dairy that might have been making me sick.  So now I get to drink almond milk, yum, it's actually pretty tasty:)  

This past weekend was a miracle weekend! On Friday, Elder wood and I got some bug, so we were feeling really sick.  But we decided to go out and work through it and that if we did the Lord would bless us.  And the Lord did bless us that day, we had 4 excellent lessons, and got 4 New Investigators, and we had 0 previously for the entire week, and our of the 5 Harvest Blessings we left, we got 3 return appointments!  So we were greatly blessed! And the Lord blessed us with the strength to go out and work that day because as soon as we walked in the door of our apartment we had no strength left, we were exhausted, that's when we realized how sick we really were, but we've recovered since so no need to worry about us:)

And on Sunday another miracle occurred.  We were on our way to a lunch appointment and some missionaries called us with a referral for a guy who was in our area. They said to call him up right away because he sounded legit.  So I called him (let's call him Derek) and he answered and was super excited that we had called.  He said he had been watching BYU-TV for a number of years and had watched almost all of the LDS Movies, such as "Emma Smith: My Story", "The Best two Years", "A Good Man" and he's been watching some documentaries on Doctrine and Covenants and he watched a documentary about Brigham Young and said that he was his hero.  My jaw dropped while he was talking, I couldn't believe it!!  Derek also said that he was dying to get his hands on a Book of Mormon so that he could read it, this guy is golden!!!!  Elder wood wasn't sold, he thought it might be a member pulling a prank on us because Derek was too good to be true.  Later that night we went over and he was watching General Conference on BYU-TV! Elder Wood was sold after that.  We taught him the Restoration since he knew a lot of history about the church, but not a whole lot of doctrine.  He was very receptive and can't wait to come to Church on Sunday!  One problem though, he got caught up on baptism when we asked him if he would be baptized.  He had been baptized as a kid, so he was confused on why he needed it again.  We explained the Priesthood again and testified of the importance of baptism and that helped a little, but we will work on him and get him baptized in no time!!!

I learned this week that when the Spirit prompts you to say something, no matter what it my be, just say it.  We were harvesting and found a really cool lady, she had already been baptized and was wondering why she needed to be baptized again, and if her baptism was valid. I was prompted to just open my mouth and start talking and this is what came out, "Well, to be blunt and plain, your baptism really wasn't valid unless done by the proper authority, and this is the only true church and we have that Priesthood authority to baptize you again."  Oh man, I was scared for a second, I thought, "What did I just say?"  then she was silent for a second and then accepted to be baptized again!  The Spirit knows what the person needs to hear, if I would have said that for some of the people we've prayed with I probably would have been punched in the face.  So the Spirit is awesome!

Well that's all the time I have for today! I love you guys and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

12/2/13 | What a week

N___ got confirmed yesterday! That was a really cool experience!  The Spirit emanated off of N___ after he was confirmed, it was really cool!

First off, not much happened this week.  It was just "one of those weeks" that happens periodically.  We struggled to find people to teach, and their have been disagreements between my comp and I, so the Spirit hasn't been with us this past week.  This week we are going to white wash our teaching pool and start over and do our best to invite the Spirit into our lives so that we can find people to share the Gospel with.  

On a positive note, Thanksgiving was amazing!!!  It cooled off to a nice 65 degrees and was rainy.  Great weather!!  The Bishop invited over to his home for dinner and it was super good.  The Bishops family has become a family away from home, they have us over every Sunday so that "We can have an edible"non-haitian meal as the Bishops wife would say. So they are very nice people:)"

Also for most of all last week Elder V W (lives in the apt.) and I were sick with some bug we picked up.  I lost all of the hard earned weight I gained at the MTC!  But I'll be able to put it all back on due to the amounts of leftovers we have from Thanksgiving:)  For once we have a surplus of food! It's amazing!!!  

The weather has been awesome this week! It's been super rainy even though rainy season ended a couple weeks ago, and I love rainy weather so it's been good.  Yesterday it rained all day, and it was Sunday so we wear our suits all day.  Turns out suits provide a little water protection. . . until it soaks through the suit and then your'e thoroughly soaked.  But that all adds to the fun moments of being a missionary:)  

Man this week flew by, I even took down notes to remember what happened this week, but not much did happen.  I just remembered this story.  A midst all of this the Lord was still merciful and blessed us with some miracles.  Wednesday  I was on an exchange with Elder T.  We had just tried one of our investigators, and she wasn't home but her sister was, so we said a prayer with her and she was interested in hearing the gospel too! After that, we were walking away and Elder T suggested that we say a prayer of gratitude and thank God for giving us this blessing.  We said the prayer and then went harvesting, which was a really good harvest session.  We harvested for an hour and followed the Spirit on where to go and were able to pray with 9 people! We usually only say about 4-6 prayers in an hour.  That prayer of gratitude really helped.  President Anderson's weekly email was all about saying prayers of gratitude, and that was after this occurred that he sent that.  Thanking our Heavenly Father for the things that we do have and for the blessings he gives us helps us focus on the positives of life and it also allows God to bless us more when we are thankful.  So make this week a week of gratitude!

I love you!! :)

Love Elder Spencer Bailey