2/24/14 | Bring on the Thunder

Hey family! This week has been one of my best weeks, even though our numbers weren't too good we had a lot of fun, and we are still trying to innovate ways to do the work, we haven't had a lot of opportunity since we haven't had anyone to teach, but this week that will change!

Elder Whitney and I have been getting along super well so there has been a lot of unity between us which has made the work so much more enjoyable.  I have learned so much in the past week.  After studying my notes from Zone conference and then applying what I learned in Zone training, everything went a lot better.  One thing I found that I was struggling with was having charity.  Elder Whitney has helped me a lot and I have applied the things that Elder Whitney has told me to do to be more loving especially during Harvesting.  As I applied these things I found a love for Southern Florida, specifically for Jupiter, that I didn't have before, so it has been amazing!

This last week we worked hard and did our best to apply what we've learned, but our area is still struggling to get up and running.  I was feeling pretty discouraged because of the numbers we had, but Elder Whitney taught me something, he said that as long as we are improving each day and doing our best, then we are successful.  That really helped me.  Earlier I made a promise to talk with EVERYONE, so far I have been doing my best to keep that promise. 

 Late one night on our way out of the neighborhood we saw a guy jogging, and we stopped him to talk with him.  As we were talking the guy opened up and told us his life story of how drugs and bad friends have been a part of his whole life and how he is now going through rehab and getting rid of these bad things.  He was talking about how he doubted in Jesus Christ because of his bad luck and he didn't think that all of his sins could be washed away and he wasn't too interested.  We testified that through Jesus Christ all of his sins and mistakes could be washed away and that Jesus loves him more than he could fathom.  We said a prayer with him and invited him to be baptized, he said he wasn't too interested but he would take a card. After that he left.  2 days later we get a text from the other Elder's in our ward saying they just helped a man on the side of the road fix his car, turns out it was the man we talked to on the street and that he had checked out the website and was interested in us coming by.  We are still trying to get in contact with him, but he is busy, but we will see him, this week!

I was reading in Alma about Captain Moroni and how he displayed charity.  He had the gift of charity.  He loved his country and his people and his religion so much that he was willing to lay down his own life for them.  He mourned when his fellow brethren were wicked and wanted to do his best to lead his people to Christ.  I have been trying to apply that into my life this week and it's been going well.  I am starting to really love the work and the people of Southern Florida! This week will be the week! 

I love you guys and hope you all have a great week! I just read Alyssa's email, wow isn't she the best missionary ever?  Keep on keepin' sis!  

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

2/18/14 | Street ball with a flame shooting lawn-mower

Hey Family!

Elder Kopishcke(?) came and spoke to us on Thursday at our Zone Conference and he is amazing.  He winged it for 6 hours straight, yeah, it was really long.  He didn't come in with any plan at all but to talk with us for a bit and then go by the Spirit.  He had us all write down a question(s) we had and he promised that by the end of the 6 hours every question we had would be answered.  He was right! It was amazing! Every person there had there answers questions by the Spirit so it was pretty cool. 

 Last week we spent a lot of time driving between District training, zone conference, a gig down in Wellington, and an exchange with a zone leader.  So we only worked for about 3-4 hours a day in between all this madness.  But it was all good.  Elder Kopishke talked a lot about using our talents to proselyte.  We as missionaries have a box to stay in, but within that box there are a lot of possibilities of what we can do.  We don't have to be rote missionary robots, we can be ourselves and still be just as effective.  I noticed that last week, I was not having fun at all, we were doing the same thing every day all day.  I hate repetition, I need to mix things up a bit or else I get really bored and a wee bit cranky.  So after Elder Kopishke spoke to us and told us that I was so excited to innovate new ideas of how to do things while staying within the rules.

  Elder Whitney and I made a list of our strengths and how to use them while proselyting.  We are now stopping at every game of street ball we see and are playing with them, it is so fun! and we found out that 10 people were baptized in our zone because the missionaries played street ball with them.  After we play with them we gather them all up and say a prayer and invite them to Church and teach them a mini lesson, well, we've actually only done this once, but this week we will be on the look out for street ball games.  Speaking of which we saw these black guys playing in their driveway and we asked if we could play.  they were pretty good and thought we couldn't play because we were white, haha, they were short, so my team mate kept passing it so they couldn't reach it, then I'd shoot over their head and their outstretched arm that was meant to block me, so it was pretty fun and we gained their respect:)  Then they were very willing to listen to us and hear what we had to say.  They will come to church sometime in the future:) And the whole time we were playing there was a lawn mower across the street that was shooting out smoke like crazy, the whole neighborhood was hazy and smoky and yet the guy kept mowing his lawn . . . crazy Haitians.

Here are the miracles that happened this past week, these are excerpts from my email to President:

It was Saturday night and we had about an hour to go out and finish the day strong.  We decided to go see a less active, but our car was having issues so we decided to bike there.  Because we were biking we left our apartment complex out the back way instead of the usual way.  As we were biking we saw a man fixing his bike on the side of the street, so we decided to talk to him.  He was very drunk and smoking a cigarette, and we asked him if we could say a prayer with him.  He said that would be wonderful!  After the prayer we invited him to be baptized and he said that he would.  Then the Spirit prompted us to start teaching right there.  We started teaching about the Atonement and about Jesus Christ and we talked about the Plan of Salvation, as his mom had just passed away, and we even talked about the Word of Wisdom.  The Spirit prompted me to ask him if he would give me the pack of cigarettes in his pocket.  He really wanted to stop smoking and we explained that by taking this first step of faith by giving away that pack of cigarettes it would be way easier to not smoke in the future.  He fought himself for a few minutes then handed over the pack of cigarettes and said that he felt better.  It was getting late so we offered to walk him home since he seemed kind of lost, as we were walking we answered some really good sincere questions he had and by the end he was in tears and was feeling really good.  The Spirit was with us the entire time leading us.

On Sunday night we were just finishing harvesting and we were walking back to our bikes.  My companion turned to me and asked if I felt like there was something else we needed to do, instantly we felt very strongly about this one house on the corner.  We knocked and a husband answered the door and we asked if we could come inside and bless his home.  He brought us inside and showed us to his family consisting of his wife and 3 boys, 2 of which are baptismal age.  We left the blessing and invited them to be baptized and they said they both really wanted to and felt it was right!  We met with them last night and they are elect, they are both still preparing to be baptized on March 2nd!

So that's what's happening up in Jupiter, it's amazing here!  Austin you would love it here, this is where a lot of those shows you watch on Animal planet are filmed, or so I think, don't quote me on that:)  And Randon how was your bday? I heard it was great!  Well I love you guys a lot, and now that we are innovating new ideas for missionary work, I'll have a lot of cool experiences to share next week:)  I love you!

Elder Spencer Bailey

2/10/14 | Gone Fishin'

Hey Family!  This week has been so slow work wise.  We have been working very hard though, so we feel successful.  This week though will be a miracle week.  We have just a few hours each day to work since we have a crazy week this week. I just realized I'm getting pretty bored of writing this so I'll get on to a story now.

Last night we were walking down the street and we see this kid walking casually towards us, then he see's us and tries to escape our destined confrontation by slipping into a person's backyard.  We holler after him (in a nice way) and he decides to talk with us.  We get to know him a bit and it turns out his dad died last August and he just got back from a week-long camp to help him overcome his grief.  Last week he grew a lot closer to God and we saw that he has been prepared by God.  We have been praying a lot to find the people that God is preparing for us to run into.  We said a prayer with him and invited him to be baptized and he hastily agreed!  We promptly bore testimony of baptism and the plan of salvation and promised him blessings and set up a return appt to meet with his mom and sister tonight!  It was pretty awesome!

Now another pretty cool story.  We brought out a member and his son last night to meet with our 1 and only investigator (Jason) (as for now, it'll be a lot higher next week).  We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about the Stripling Warriors and about their obedience and the protection they received from it.  We applied that to his life and he really enjoyed it.  then the member bore taught about repentance (he's a seminary teacher so Elder Whitney and I were blown away by his teaching power) and Jason really felt the Spirit.  We invited him to be baptized on the 23rd (now this is about the 5-6th time we have invited him) and he accepted full-heartedly this time!  Before he was very hesitant and wasn't solid.  My testimony grew in the power of members. 

Here's a quick update to answer some questions dad had.  Elder Whitney live in our own apt in Palm Beach and Elder Mendenhall and Elder Melander (who was in my MTC district so we are pretty good friends) live in a little house in Jupiter.  Our ward is so big we have two giant areas within one ward.  

Austin and Dad, you will be so jealous after this story.  This morning a member took us out to go fishing at this inlet by the ocean.  We were fishing with squid as bait on these docks.  Elder Melander caught a huge 20-30 pound fish of some sorts, it had a dorsel fin and everything, but it broke the line right as it got to the surface.  Then I got something on my line and I start reeling it up.  You'll never guess what was on the other end. . . it was a sting ray!!! what?!?  It was crazy!  I never thought I would ever catch one, in fact it never crossed my mind for some reason;)  then we caught some other little sea creatures it was awesome!  I'll send some pics in a second.  

well that's about all that has happened this week.  Oh yeah, Elder Whitney and I and 2 other sisters are singing in Zone Conference which Elder Kopishke is coming to! I'm so nervous, so pray that I won't pass out!  and happy birthday to Randonon Saturday, get excited for the bday card I'm sending you, but don't get your hopes too high so that you won't be disappointed;) and Austin I keep meaning to email you back, but time is short, I'll try to email you back today:)

I love you all have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Spencer Bailey

2/3/14 | Jupiter

Hola familia! (yes, I finally have a Spanish companion, so I've been refreshing those 4 years of Spanish I took)

I was transferred:( But it was an awesome transfer!  My last transfer ended perfectly.  We had that baptism that I wrote about last week, and an update to that, my recent convert Nate was the one who performed the baptism.  It was one, if not the, happiest moments of my life.  the Spirit was tangible during the ordinance of baptism.  It was amazing to see and I will always cherish that moment.  

I love my new area, it is amazing!  I am in Jupiter South in the Stuart Zone, so I'm up north in my mission.  It looks like I stepped into Jurassic Park, so don't be surprised if I get seriously maimed by a velociraptor.  I have a new found love for Florida that I didn't think I would get especially after biking through "freezing" rain all of Thursday with the Zone leader, but besides that I would contemplate living here in Jupiter if there weren't any better options in Utah, California, Washington or Arizona first.

My new comp is excellent, he epitomizes the 4th missionary (Mike, can I use epitomizes in that sentence like that?)  And he is a giant among men... in spirit, he's 5'6!  I love it! He has been awesome to work with this past week and I have grown and learned the most in just these 5 days!  He has a legit tenor voice and not to brag, but my bass is alright, so we sang before weekly planning which got us pumped up to plan! And just a bonus, he is the district leader, so he is always on top of things (not literally though). He's from Logan, Utah.

  I am out of the ghetto now, which is good because I was letting the ghetto influence me too much, but my ghetto self is back in Coconut Creek, and now I'm a missionary, not a ghetto missionary which is good.  

This past week was a blur.  We had transfers, then we went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders, then I was back in my area for 2 days, so not anything big happened.  I'm so lost though, it's like day 1 all over again, except i'm not green anymore.  I have no idea which way is North or South, I'm so lost and confused, but that'll wear off in a week or two, hopefully:) 

President Anderson always shows that miracles happen on transfer week.  some big, some small.  This week we had a miracle.  On Wednesday as we were traveling back to Jupiter from Plantation in a tiny truck, we received 3 media referrals by text, then on Thursday we received 3 more we got 6 in 2 days!! that doesn't happen, well it does on miracle week but that's besides the point, the point is it was a miracle and now we have a teaching pool, a tiny one, but at least we have people to teach:) 

This past week I studied Alma the Younger's conversion story in Mosiah 27 and Alma 36.  I felt a lot like Alma because I introspected and saw how much of the ghetto life I allowed to come into me.  And I got an awesome letter from Alyssa which gave me the kick start I needed to get the ghetto out of me.  So I prayed a lot and saw the miraculous change that happened with Alma and I found that, that can happen to anyone if we let God shape us and mold us into the person he wants us to be.  I have tried to allow myself to put myself into the hands of the master potter and let Him shape and mold me into who he wants me to be. I would exhort anyone who reads this to introspect and see what you could do to improve, and bring those before the Lord and allow him to change you and fix the problems that you have.

And Randon good job on your grades, straight A's (minus that one B;)  Austin, what about your grades?  And Alyssa I got you package finally, the mission decided to hold on to it for a couple of weeks, but I got it:)  I especially love the buffalo tie:)  

Well, I love you guys!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey