5/27/14 | Haircuts...you gotta love them

This week was crazy, started out with a  lizard running around our apt, I was finally able to catch it and release it back into the wild.  Florida... I love it!  Then it ended with me having a 3-day exchange with Elder Edwards, which was the best 3 days of my life this last 12 weeks (besides conference and the Temple dedication of course)  It was just like hanging out with my friend Nate Quist, because he is just like Elder Edwards, so it was so much fun, I found joy in missionary work again.  To say the least these past 12 weeks have been the hardest and longest 12 weeks of my life, but I can say like paul "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Now on to the next challenge!  

I just had the random thought the other day that missionary work is really crazy, it all relies on 18-21 year olds living on their own, expected to preach the gospel unceasingly and to be obedient.  It's so crazy it works!  Just another example of how true this church is.

Had an amazing miracle this week.  We tracked down a media referral and visited with them.  Turns out they had been in Texas for the last 8 months for cancer treatments.  While there they were introduced to the church and they were taught everything and went to church.  They then just moved back to Florida last week and want to be baptized.  Only problem is that the wife cannot yet since she is not allowed to be in public while her immune system is this low.  But we will continue to work with her, they are so elect!!!! 

Also got the transfer call last night and found out that I am transferring and so is Elder Rodgers! They are white washing the area!  So now on to the next adventure that my mission has to offer.  

But my pday just ended, so I will have to wrap this up!  I love you guys and hope you have a great week!  oh yeah, and I gave myself a haircut the other day..... I leave it at that, I send some pics of myself in a few months when it grows back;)

Love Elder Spencer Bailey 

5/19/14 | Frogs

Hello Family!

What a fast week!  I was out of my area more than I was in my area all week.  But during the time that I was there, a huge miracle occurred.

We went to see an investigator of ours and felt prompted to ask our ward mission leader to come out with us.  We weren't certain if he would really connect with her, but we called him and he was really excited to come.  We taught our investigator the Word of Wisdom and asked our WML to bear his testimony about how the Word of Wisdom has helped him.  Turns out he was actually an alcoholic while serving in the Navy many years ago.  He shared his conversion story and his story on how he accepted the Word of Wisdom and lived it and how it blessed him.  His testimony was amazing! We couldn't have had a better member out with us that day.  Our investigator listened very intently and after our WML finished his testimony, my companion and I bore our testimonies about the WoW and asked if she would live it and stop drinking and smoking.  She agreed and we asked if she had any alcohol or cigarettes she would throw away.  She went into the fridge and pulled out a 6-pack and got a pack of cigarettes from the cupboard and she threw them away right there and we took it out to the trash.  it was an amazing spiritual lesson!  We were so thankful we felt prompted to bring out our WML because his testimony is what she needed to hear, and he invited the Spirit very well which helped her make that step to live the WoW.  

Also the other day we were knocking this apartment complex and were weren't finding too many people who would pray with us.  But on the last hallway with just a few doors left we knocked into this mother and son.  they were very happy to have us pray with them and accepted the invitation to baptism without hesitation.  The mom said that she had been wanting to go back to Church and increase in her relationship with God.  I felt prompted to say, "But why do you really want to be baptized?"  She replied that she wanted to lead the rest of her family by being an example and by taking that step of faith.  We have been really working on getting desires from our investigators this week and that question allowed us to get that desire that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.  The Spirit is awesome!

Oh yeah, a few days ago we walked into the church and heard this high pitched screech which sounds like a cat in distress.  So we went around looking for a kitten and were led to one of the hurricane shutters outside.  We thought "there's no way a cat could be smashed in there and still be meowing!" then we saw the eyes of a frog bulging out of the shutters, it got stuck in there, so we reached out to adjust the shutters to free the frog and then this big black thing slithered out! I've never heard grown men scream that loud! It was a huge snake eating the frog!!  So we ran inside and grabbed some brooms then started poking the snake to get it away from the frog, the the snake turned on us and was coming after us, so we started whomping on it with the brooms until it was dead.  that's my crazy Florida story for the week

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

{Elder Bailey and another Elder from his district}
Thanks to a random lady vacationing in Florida! She and her family were in Spencer's ward yesterday and said that 2 cute missionaries came up to them and introduced themselves. She took a pic and sent it to mom. 

5/12/14 | Tribute to Mom

Hey Family!

First off, happy mothers day to the best mom in the world!!!!!  It was super good to talk with you and to remember all the great things you've done for me over my whole life. I echo the words of the man on the penny "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."  So thanks mom for being the best mom in the world!  I really appreciate all that you've done for me and I love you lots:)

What a week! Time flies by so fast now!  It's hard to remember everything that has happened this past week.  Standard for our mission is to have 8 blessings by wednesday.  Just a refresher of what Harvesting is, We knock on the door and tell the people that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and that He sent us to leave His peace and Blessing.  We then ask what they need from Jesus or what we can pray for.  We say the prayer and leave the Savior's Peace and Blessing with them.  We ask them how they feel and we recognize it as the Spirit and the God truly did send us, we then invite them to be baptized on whatever the sunday is that's 2 weeks away.  If they accept we ask when we could come by and share the message of the restored gospel. If they don't we invite them to church or to visit Mormon.org.  Now this is just the layout we follow, we make sure we don't get rote. 

A miracle that occurred this week was more of a indirect blessing.  We were harvesting on wednesday and we only had a total of 7 for the week.  We were determined to get 8 and time was running out. We said a prayer and asked that we would be able to achieve our goal of 8 by wednesday.  Shortly after the prayer we felt super prompted to knock on this one house, we knew that they would answer and we would be able to leave the Savior's peace and blessing with them.  We knocked and a person answered and was definitely not interested. As we were walking away I wondered, "why did I feel so prompted to knock there if they weren't interested? Was my faith not sufficient? or Was it just my own thought and not the Spirit?" 

After pondering on these questions I knew for sure that the Spirit prompted me to knock on that door and that we did have the faith.  Then why were they not interested? As I thought about this the story of Abraham and Isaac came to my mind.  Abraham didn't know why he needed to sacrifice his son, but he willingly followed the command from God and showed God that he would listen and do as God directs, he would act on those promptings he would receive. By doing this Abraham showed God that he would be obedient and therefore God's trust in Abraham went up and Abraham was blessed forever after.  I thought about the experience that just happened and felt good about the whole experience.  I had showed God that I would follow the promptings of the Spirit and therefore God's trust in me went up.  It was a really big learning experience for me and I know that blessings will now come in the future because I was willing to listen and to act.

I was studying in the Book of Mormon and today while reading in Alma 53 I wanted to study on the doctrine of repentance.  While studying I found 3 different types of people in 3 different stages of repentance.  In verse 9 it talks about the iniquitous Nephites and how the Lamanites gained power over them because of their iniquities. They had given into temptation and therefore they were destroyed.  In verse 14 we see the Ammonites and how they are tempted to take up arms in defense of their people and break the covenants they made.  Helaman and others persuade them to stay strong and not to break their covenants.  In verse 20 we see the Stripling warriors and "they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted." They didn't give into temptation and they were firm to keep the commandments and didn't waver.  I was trying to think of how this has anything to do with repentance.  these verses show 3 groups of people, all sons and daughters of God who were tempted.  We see those who fall, those who falter but get back up, and those who stay true.  Everyone of these groups needs the Atonement and repentance in their lives.  Everyday we come across people who are deep in sin and those who live pretty good lives, but everyone needs to repent and be change to live in accordance to God's laws.  I applied this to how I will fulfill my calling, to declare repentance to all of God's children, and help them make those steps so they can live with God forever.

Also just a cool side note.  Elder Holland made a surprise visit to the youth a couple of weeks ago and met with our mission Pres., President Anderson, while visiting with him, he grabbed him by the face (literally, he showed us a picture of it) and he exclaimed, "President, your mission is legendary!"  When I heard that I felt like there was more responsibility and expectations to live up being in the "legendary mission", I will do my best to live up the expectations placed before me.  

I love you guys and it was so good to talk to you all yesterday:) I love you lots and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

Apartment pics:

5/5/14 | Blizzard in Florida?

Hey family!

The Temple dedication was amazing!  We got to go to the cultural celebration on Saturday and we got to sing a couple of songs in front of Pres. Uchtdorf and others.  It was really good!  Then on Sunday we went to the Temple dedication at our chapel and we got to see the cornerstone ceremony in the first session.  Then the power shut off during some of it so we got permission from President to go to the 3 o clock session as well:)  It was amazing!  Their was a significant change in the Spirit after he dedicated the Temple.  Now we should get a schedule to go somewhat regularly as missionaries, what a blessing it is to have a Temple now!  

On the way to the Temple we got hit by a Florida summer rain.  The best way to describe it is, it's like a white out during a blizzard.  You can't see but 10 yards in front of you and it comes down so hard! the streets were instantly flooded.  Then it goes away and the sun comes back out and it gets to be 110% humidity.  And it's only May, so we will see what the rest of summer has to bring.  

On Monday we were harvesting an apartment complex and knocked the entire thing without any interest.  So we were walking back through the parking lot and we felt prompted to talk to this lady moving some stuff into her car.  We called after her right before she went inside her house and asked if we could help with anything.  She said, "yes! I have a washer for you to move!"...perfect.  We went and helped her load her car and then talked with her and her family for a while and said a prayer with them and left the Savior's peace and blessing.  They loved it!  They felt the Spirit very strongly.  They weren't too interested except for the lady we helped move.  She wanted us to come back and to teach her more, but she just moved outside of our borders, so we had to pass her.  But I realized that service was the reason we were able to pray with her and help her find the truth.  Just doing a little act of Christlike service goes a long ways.

Other than that the week has flown by super fast.  Somewhere in all of this we painted a members house, spent a day in Fort Lauderdale for doctors appointments, and I stayed a day or two with Elder Millet, who is in my district, he is really sick so we take turns staying with him.  Missionary apartments are the most boring missionaries in the world.  But I did get to update the area book and call almost every media referral and watch almost every church video we have, and the apartment is really clean now:)  

Here are some pics from the top of the Jupiter lighthouse from a couple of weeks ago.

I love you guys and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

The temple cultural celebration