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