1/28/14 | Bailey Rd. and Woodard Ln. And Goodbye Coconut Creek

I am in awe right now, this past week the biggest miracle of my mission occurred.  So I'll jump right into it.  So you know that Indian Family I told you about last week that we found Monday night?  This is where the miracles occurred.  First off, they aren't Indian, they are from Trinidad.  Secondly, it's not just them, but they have 2 kids! Thirdly to avoid confusion I will call the couple Austin and Emma.  Elder Woodard and I had been praying specifically for 2 weeks to find a family of 4 and God blessed us and answered our prayers.  Last Saturday Austin and Emma prayed and asked God to send something or someone in their life to show them the path that they should take.  They had been considering baptism for a long while so they asked God about that too.  

On Sunday they went looking for houses (I'll get back to this in a second.)  On Monday Elder Woodard and I knock on their door looking for a less active but turn it into an opportunity to share the gospel by asking if we could pray with them.  Later they told us that they NEVER let anyone into their home but they felt prompted to let us in and pray.  Well you know what happened after that.  On Thursday we meet with them again, and they tell us this story.  On Sunday while looking for houses they prayed to know which streets to go to.  It turns out that in Tamrac there are two roads with the names of Bailey rd. and Woodard ln.  Emma felt prompted to look for houses on those two streets and thought it was interesting because she had NEVER before looked on streets with names, just with numbers.  When we showed up on Monday she noticed are names, Bailey and Woodard, and she knew that God had sent us to them.  

Long story short they came to Stake Conference on Sunday, (speaking of which, Elder Nelson, Elder Gay, Sister McConkie and Elder Kopischke spoke to us) and it was amazing!  Austin is a very spiritual man and was in tears after the conference.  They want to be baptized SO bad but they have to get some things in order before it can happen, so it'll be a while and I'll be long gone but I firmly believe that God is preparing people, the "elect", and he will guide us to them!

Another miracle occurred on Thursday. A member let us know that he found a less active from Utah who was looking for the Church and her son, 10 years old, was not baptized and wanted to be.  We went over Friday and Saturday, and taught the Restoration and the commandments and went through the baptismal questions. Then we called President to see if we could get him baptized without going to Church twice since he had gone to Church his whole life except once they moved out here.  President gave us the OK to get him baptized and well,  WE ARE BAPTIZING HIM TONIGHT!!!  It is the last night of the transfer, last day Elder Woodard and I will be companions and we have been praying for a miracle baptism and we have worked our tails off to get a baptism these last 6 weeks, seriously though, i've never rode my bike so hard, got tangled in so many spider webs or worked so hard in my life!  The Lord has greatly blessed us with this miracle baptism and we are very humbled and grateful that the Lord has blessed us.

Ohhhh yeah, I'm transferring tomorrow! Elder Woodard is staying behind and training!  I'm pretty excited to go somewhere new, yet sad because I loved the Ward here.  And you know how people always say that you find out what you want to do with the rest of your life while on your mission? Well, I found out last week that I'm going to go intern at Nike when I get home and they will like me so much they will give me the company and I will be the owner of Nike.  (Don't worry I've thought this through and it'll happen;)  But stuff like this happens, this guy in the ward worked as a Limo driver for this Limo company and the owner was retiring and liked him so he gave him the company.  Go big or go home right?  Well that's about all that happened this week, it was a super fun week since Elder Woodard and I get along very well and we had a lot of fun!  

Love you all!

Elder Spencer Bailey

1/21/14 | . . . I can't think of anything creative for the title, wait, here we go "Jumped by a spider"

What a week!  Actually it was a pretty rough week number wise, but we worked hard and biked like crazy, so it was a good week.  Also it was my Birthday!  Birthdays are awesome! I got to do 2 of my favorite things 1. ride my bike 2. knock on doors.  So it was a really good bday.  Also I got a cake in the mail from my mommy which was amazing! I think my comp and I ate half of it as soon as we got it:) it was delicious! And then we got another surprise knock on the door at 9:45 and it was the nice papa john pizza delivery man again!  My mom is awesome! and so is my dad!   And i got the coolest presents, so thanks mom and dad:)

Now on to the miracles.  Like I said, last week we struggled number wise, so on Sunday we introspected and found things that were haltering our success.  We repented  and made a commitment to be better this week. And the Lord has already blessed us for our efforts.  Yesterday, after biking all morning and trying to track down Less-Active members, we find this apt. complex where this LA supposedly lives.  As we were biking through this complex I remembered I had been here almost 3 months ago and found that lady who asked if we had a Bible (look at my email sent on Nov. 5 and you'll get her background).  I felt like we should go see her, so we did.  We knocked on her door and she was home and she still wants to be baptized!!!  We set a date for Feb 3 and are meeting with her tonight!

Then right after that we went to try the LA.  We knocked on the door and some Indian couple answered the door.  Turns out the LA had moved a year ago, so we asked the Indian couple if we could bless their home, and they hesitantly agreed.  We left the blessing and afterward the husband broke into tears.  We invited them to be baptized on Feb 3 and he said tearfully, "We have been talking about being baptized and we need to, so yes!"  The Spirit was so strong and I know that we were guided by the Spirit to see that particular LA, because we could've tried LA that lived near us, but the one we were prompted to try  lived at our southern border.  And it was the Spirit that brought back to my remembrance the lady I met 3 months ago.  The Spirit is amazing! and I know that the Lord has blessed us greatly!

This past week we had Zone-Training and President and Sister Anderson showed up!  It was an amazing training.  We talked about something called DPA (Doctrine, Principle, Application)  it is the format of how we should teach.  We find the investigators need and teach accordingly with appropriate goals and commitments that will help them repent and come unto Christ.

Funny story of the week.  We were knocking in this nicer area (yes, not the ghetto:( and we saw 8 bunnies.  Super random but weird, and we had been knocking for quite a while and decided to chase the bunnies and mix things up a bit.  A little side story, there are A LOT of spider webs in Florida.  And most people aren't taller than 6'0.  So spider webs above 6'0 go untouched. . . until I come into the neighborhood and they all end up wrapped around my head somehow.  So as we were trying to catch these bunnies, I ran face first into a Banana spider's web.   Banana spider's on average are about the size of a man's palm, and they can get really big.  As I'm trying to get untangled from this web, my Comp looks up and sees this huge banana spider creeping toward me, so he says "Elder, you'd better run."  I look up and I look face-to-face with this humongous spider!  To say the least I was terrified, because I've had some run-ins with spiders the last couple of weeks and I hate spiders.  So that's my story of the week.

Well, that's all I've got for this week:)  Also look up 3 Nephi 12:10-12, it's another great missionary scripture.  Also, hi Nick Gubler! It sounds like you were an amazing missionary!  Thanks for being a great example to me!

Have a great week, I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Spencer Bailey

btw, I'll probably be transferred next week since I've been here for over 4 months now.  So if any of you send mail send it to the mission address not my apt address or else I won't get it for months:) thanks!

1/13/14 | Cold weather...what?, the effects of Benadryl on an already exhausted missionary

This week was crazy! It got down to 50 degrees on Wednesday and got up to the low 70's the rest of the week! I heard that this week it's supposed to drop into the 30's-40's!!!  We don't have any warm clothing, so Elder Woodard and I made a run to the thrift shop and bought sweaters and ties, which were only 99 cents:) I never thought I would have to wear warm clothing for 2 years!  

The biggest thing I learned this week was that there is power in bearing testimony, not only for the person listening but for the person bearing it.  We street contacted this lady the other night and talked for about 30 min, well she talked on and on, we just listened:)  We realized that she was trying to make us not believe in our beliefs.  haha, nice try lady.  It's not that easy to sway a missionary in their beliefs.  The conversation was going no where, she was just showing how our doctrine was "not correct".  We decided to just bear simple testimony, and WHAM, the Spirit hit so hard, we could see that she felt it super strong and she didn't know what to say, she was stunned.  So we handed her a picture of Jesus and said "have a good night!" and she just smiled and said "night!" and walked off.  The Spirit is so awesome:)

That family that we have been teaching didn't show up for Church yesterday, but we will keep on working with them since they are progressing.  We taught them the Law of Chastity the other night...that was interesting since none of them follow it.  We told them what it was, and the first thing they said was, "haha, well it's too late for that, we already broke the Law of Chastity!"  They all felt guilty for breaking it so we explained the power of repentance and how you can be forgiven of your mistakes and sins and the feelings of guilt can be washed away.  It was an amazing moment, they were dead silent.  Then one of them spoke up and said, "can I really be forgiven for my sins?"  We testified that she could and she was so happy and relieved!  So we will keep on working with them and baptize them!

Earlier this week I got a gnarly spider bite, it was legit.  My whole knee swelled up and it wouldn't bend properly, so Sis. Sommerfeldt told me to take a lot of Benadryl...  that stuff almost knocked me out!  To counteract that we went and bought a big Dr. Pepper (don't worry caffeine is allowed on my mission, since Pres. Anderson likes Dr. Pepper so he allows it:)  The caffeine didn't do anything to counteract it except make me even more tired later in the day.  That was probably the most tired I've been in my whole life, thankfullly the Spirit made me awake and alert during lessons and then I would crash right after, so it was an interesting day:)

I also learned why diligence is so important.  The other night we had 20 minutes left to work before we had to get home.  We debated whether or not we should head home or try one more investigator.  We both felt impressed to try this investigator we had in mind.  The investigator was home and it turned out that his older sister, and two cousins who live there were home too!  We found a family that we didn't even know about!  We taught them a super quick and powerful lesson on the Book of Mormon, and the Spirit told me to invite them to be baptized.  They said yes! It was an amazing miracle because we went out and finished strong to the end of the day!  

So that was my week in a nutshell, weeks fly past so fast now! I just realized I've been out for 4 months and it has flown by! Everyone says after 6 months it starts going fast, but it's already going!  Florida is crazy, and the people are even more so, but it is an awesome place to work in, especially the ghetto:)  

Love, 

Elder Spencer Bailey

1/6/14 | Miracles upon Miracles

Wow, this past week was amazing! Elder Woodard and I have been working on being the best missionaries we can be by applying the things we have been learning.  The Lord has blessed us wonderfully for it.  We had been praying for many days to find a family and we worked diligently to find one. Just the other night the Creole elders knocked into a family.  It turns out I had taught one of the sons 3 months ago!  The mom saw the Book of Mormon lying around and became really interested.  She desired for the whole family to be baptized!  Elder Woodard and I have gone back 3 times now with our recent convert and they are amazing and so elect!  They want to be baptized so bad! We had them set for this weekend but they missed the ordinance of the Sacrament, so we had to move them one more week to the 19th, but that was a miracle in and of itself, because some of the family wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but they will come this week.  So now the whole family will be baptized on the 19th!! It is a miracle!

Elder Woodard was inspired to start working with part member families this past week.  We met with one family, son (member) and mother (non-member), and we brought with us a member.  He started talking to the mom about Joseph Smith and she became really interested.  We left a blessing on the home and she loved the feeling that she felt.  We left a Restoration DVD and scheduled a return appt.  We came back the following day and she had tried to watch the DVD but it didn't work, so we watched it with her.  The whole time she kept saying, "wow, I am in awe right now!" the part that touched her most was the fact that Heavenly Father himself appeared unto Joseph.  She realized the significance of this experience because Heavenly Father has only shown himself to a few of His children.  This was the chance to invite her to be baptized, but we didn't know how to go about asking her because we were afraid to offend her or her son by asking.  Thankfully the Spirit was super strong in that lesson and she broke the silence by asking, "Are you trying to ask me if I'll join this Mormon faith?"  We replied, "well. . . yes, yes that is what we are trying to ask."  She accepted and said that the Mormons believe the same stuff that she believes.  Her son invited her to be baptized and she agreed full-heartedly!! She will be baptized on the 19th as well!!  Working with part-member families truly does work!

This past week was also New Years.  And that means that people get drunk and drive like maniacs.  So President said we had to come home at 8 in order to stay alive and not be a statistic of those killed my drunk drivers.  There's not a whole lot to do inside missionary apartments, so after we did nightly planning and accounted and wrote in journals etc., we didn't know what to.  Then we remembered that there was one thing we could do... go race R/C cars that Brother Oaks sent me for Christmas! (thanks again!)  So we went out to the parking lot and raced these cars until we had to go back in again and go to bed at 10:30.  So that was my New Year's eve party:)

This week I was studying Alma 36 and 26 as well as the Atonement and repentance.  Alma 36 is AMAZING and I learned so much from reading it. Alma 26 is AMAZING  as well.  Ammon is a boss!  I also studied a packet called "Becoming a Sacred Missionary" and I have been applying the things from that packet into my life to become a Sacred Missionary.  I have seen a change in myself and in my companionship and in the success in the area, all from studying this packet and applying the things that I've learned into my daily life.

Well that's all I have time for today, I love you guys and keep you in my prayers! also a shout out to Matt Pettit who recieved his call to the wonderful South Korea!!

Love ya!

Elder Spencer Bailey