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
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| 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! |
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