9/30/14 | Rattlesnake Joe

Hey Family!

This week was another trial of our faith, but we endured faithfully and worked diligently each and everyday to strive to reach standards.  We saw one amazing miracle this week.  We were biking on Sunday and we had a jam packed schedule.  Our investigator, Judith, had to postpone our lesson for an hour which made our schedule even tighter and we didn't think we would be able to get everything we had planned done.  But the Lord had different plans then the ones we had made.  Since we had another hour at the fore-front of our evening we felt like we should keep harvesting.  Elder D'Addabbo had never heard of flow finding before so I explained it and we decided to try it out.  We were led to knock on this door and after we knocked twice we were walking away when a lady, Elisa, answered the door.  She was very interested in the prayer after our intro and we've been really working on being real and getting to know the people we come in contact with.  We really got to know Elisa which made saying the harvest blessing so much more heartfelt and meaningful.  After the blessing she exclaimed how awesome she felt and as we invited her to be baptized she hastily agreed and said that's what she wants to do.  The Spirit was really strong and prompted us to teach the Restoration, so we just started teaching and taught the Restoration and afterwards asked Elisa if she believed the message to be true.  She said it made perfect sense to her and that she believes this is the Church of Jesus Christ.  It was AMAZING!!!  

Then yesterday we went over and taught the Plan of Salvation and used the Book of Mormon to back up our teaching.  After the lesson we asked if she had any questions or comments, she said again that the Plan of Salvation made perfect sense to her especially because of the passages we used from the Book of Mormon.  She is going to be baptized on October 19th!  She is super elect!

Also I'll be praying for Bro Hilmo, send them some love for me! I agree with Karl, he's played a huge role in my life being in the young mens program with him and he helped me a lot at the beginning of my mission, so I hope everything works out well.  

We also got to go to an amazing member meal, they took us to a sushi buffet, and my comp had never had sushi, so the member didn't even give my comp the option to get sushi, had him get something else, not sure why but hey, more sushi for me!  That was my attitude at the beginning, but then she kept ordering more and more rolls of sushi to the point where I lost track of how much sushi I had eaten, then it was my comps turn to laugh at me after the meal when I felt super sick for eating so much sushi, but it was still delicious:)

We've been knocking a lot in our new area and it's really rundown.  a huge contrast from the rest of my area which is all really nice and upperclass.  The new area weve been in is white ghetto, way sketchier than most ghettos because there are a lot of psycho white people who live in these types of areas.  We were knocking and met this guy who said he was a baptist snake wrestler from Alabama.  He didn't give us a name so I thought the name Rattlesnake Joe would be fitting.  He asked if we had the power of God with us and we said, "yeah, were Representatives of Jesus Christ." He said, "well I believe that if youve got the power of God, you cant be bit by snakes, I've never been bit my whole professional career because I've got that power in me."  Then he invited us to put that power to the test and stick our hands in a container that had a rattlesnake in it.  We said, "nah, not today, we'll pass on that offer, thanks though!"  

That's just a little example of the strange south Floridians we run into on a daily basis.

We've also seen huge miracles in finding LA's.  We've really struggled to meet with them previously because the ward doesn't have a list of whos LA. So we've been going around meeting members and figuring out who's active and whos not and as weve increased our relations with the members, we've been knocking into LA's while harvesting! It's been amazing! Last week we met 4 LA's just while knocking doors, and yesterday we met 1.  The Lord blesses us in mysterious ways.  

That's all I have for this week, I love you lots and hope you have a fantastic week!

Also I'm staying in Davie and Elder D'Addabbo is transferring.

Love you all!

Elder Spencer Bailey


Heres some pics of my Zone from zone training a couple of weeks ago, I love them lots!  If you'll look on the far right, that sister is sister McGrath, I went to high school with her, she just got here 6 weeks ago, small world.

9/22/14 | Giving it all

Hey Family!

This week has been an amazing week!  We had been planning to wait and strive to hit standards this week, but then we thought, "why wait a week? why not do it this week?"  So starting Thursday we went out hard and worked super hard to reach standards.  We worked extra hard to work with members because that's where we had been lacking previously, and as we did members starting reaching out to us! It was amazing!  I never thought member work would progress so well here in Davie, all it took was effort and diligence in meeting with members, and of course help from God.  

We put a lot of effort into member work, so we slacked in finding, so this week we will create a better balance and achieve standards.  We got so close to hitting standards it was painful!

A miracle we saw this week was while we were biking from one end of our area to the other, we felt prompted to take a different route than the one we had planned and in so doing we ran into one of our RC, Kattie, who was walking on the side of the road.  We stopped and started talking to her and she explained that she was on her way to El Pollo Tropical to meet with her boyfriend who has been having a really hard time lately.  He's had some hard feelings against the church previously, but Kattie was in the hospital last week and he saw how the Church reached out to her and was always there to lend a hand, after he saw that his heart was softened and was more interested.  So we walked over with her and had a lesson about the Sabbath Day and how Church can bring peace and blessings and how it gives us the strength we need to endure trials.  He was really interested and loved how everyone in the Church is so caring and how they become our "family".  We invited him to attend Church with us and he accepted.  Yesterday he came and was pretty interested!  We will continue to work with him this week.

Also Judith came to church on Sunday.  She is still struggling to know if she should be baptized, so last week we came up with the game plan to continue reading from the BofM and help her gain that testimony.  Well, we also went over to the Kings house the other day to leave a missionary blessing on their home, and guess who was there? Yep, President Anderson!  Like I was saying last week, Sister Anderson told us that if we ever got thirsty again, this week would be a good time to come over because President may be there.  So we scheduled to do a member blessing and went over and got to chat with President for a while, he is an amazing man! Even though he was just in regular clothes and not in his usual suit, you could feel the spiritual power emanating from him.  We brought up Judith and told him our game plan and he added some more insight, he said, "I had a similar experience with some past missionaries and I had the opportunity to meet with their investigator.  She had a list of questions about the BofM, so I took the list folded it up and just testified that it all came down to whether or not the Book was true, if it was the Church was true too."  So he told us to just testify that it all comes down to the BofM and he was confident we could help her gain that testimony.  Yesterday we brought a RM with us to teach Judith and bore solid testimony of the BofM.  She still isn't sure, but the Spirit will hit her one of these days!

That's about it, I'm really tired right now, so I don't remember much else that happened:)  Well I love you guys and hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Spencer Bailey

9/15/14 | "Don't Count the Cost"

Hey Family!!

First off, super excited that Jenna is having another girl! Congrats sis! and she will be old enough to do stuff with by the time I get back;) And I got the best packages in the world the last couple of weeks!  It was the best coming home every night and having home-made chocolate chip cookies:) the Elders that I live with also send you a lot of thanks for the cookies, they want the recipe really bad.  And thanks so much for the gift cards dad, I'll put them to good use:)  And Alyssa sent me a sweet mission birthday package, speaking of which, I can't believe it's already been over a year since I left!  It's flown by so fast! But now I finally have the hang of things and understand missionary work so this next year will be much better than the last.  

This week was amazing after we received an enlightening training at zone training. It was on how as a mission we have progressively gotten worse.  We have a monthly goal of 175 baptisms and we used to get really close to that, but then we lost faith and we struggle to reach 100 every month now.  so they trained us on how to become better and to improve so that we can reach that goal of 175 baptisms.  It all starts with personal choices we make each day, so Elder D'Addabbo and myself made goals on how we can change and improve to be able to reach the goals that we, the district, the zone and God had set.  We went out Tuesday immediately after the zone training and put our changes into play and we saw a lot of miracles!

On Tuesday we went out with faith that we would reach our goals with God's help as we applied the things we learned.  We felt prompted to go harvest in the new area we acquired.  During that harvesting session we reached ALL of our goals and went above and beyond the goals that we set, it was amazing!  We found 3 people who immediately accepted to be baptized and we have been trying to help them progress this week.  We were richly blessed because of the desires we had to become better and because of our willingness to turn our desires and wills over to God.  

I was studying in 2 Nephi 2 this morning and had an enlightening study.  Lehi is talking to his son Jacob and explains the importance of "opposition in all things" and that we were created "to act and not be acted upon".  Our personal happiness and growth depends on the choices we make each and every day and like in 2 Nephi 2:27 the choices are black and white.  In the long run we either choose freedom and eternal life by making good choices or captivity and death by making poor choices.  There is no gray area, we either follow God or we don't, be obedient or disobedient, and God gave us the choice to act on which way we will follow.  Also in that chapter in verse 21 I believe, it says that God prolonged the days of man so it became a probationary state and a time to repent and prepare to meet God.  Now I was also reading in Genesis this morning and people back then lived FOREVER, Adam was 900+ years old and most of his lineage lived that long too.  They had centuries to prepare to meet God.  Today the lifespan is 70ish years so God has really hastened His plan and His work.  He expects much more of us in these latter days, He has been raising the bar for centuries and now its up to us to make those correct choices to help us meet the demands He has set and to clear the bar of standards that He has set.  So it was a really good study today:)

Also I got to drive the mission van (it's a huge 12 seater chevy van) because we were helping the senior couples move around so it would have killed our miles on our vehicle, so we asked Elder Houskeeper (the vehicle coordinator) if we could have more miles, he replied no, then paused and said "but you can drive the mission van."  Alright, that's fine with me!  We also helped a family move in from Jacksonville, they are non-members and we got a phone call from sister missionaries explaining that they were moving down and needed help in 2 days.  Not a whole lot of time to get a lazy Elder's quorum to get out and help us, so my comp and I moved them in for about 6 hours, it was lots of fun:)

Oh yeah, President and Sister Anderson's (my previous mission president) daughter and son-in-law live in our ward and they had a baby last week.  We stop by on occasion to get a drink of water and we stopped by on Saturday an Sister Anderson opened the door!! She had just come into town and so she got us some water and home-made banana nut bread (which was delicious) and talked with us for about 10-15 minutes about missionary work.  She also said, "President flies into town on Monday so if you happen to get thirsty and need a drink you may want to stop by here sometime, just sayin"  so we will probably get to see president this week as well!  We love them lots so it was really good to see sis anderson again.

Well, that was my week in a nutshell, it's been a really good, fast week!

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

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

9/8/14 | Sweaty Messes

Dear Family!

Wow, this week flew by super fast!  Can't believe I'm at my year mark already!  At the beginning of the week we struggled a bit with positivity and unity, but we worked on it through out the week and by the end of the week we were very positive and unified again, so the work progressed a lot this past weekend!

We came in contact with a former investigator and she has been reading from the BOM and still wants to continue to prepare to be baptized, she still has issues with the Word of Wisdom and it will be a long road to baptism, but we are going to be there every step of the way to help her no matter how long it takes her to prepare.

We had a miracle occur the last night, we needed 2 NI to reach our weekly goal.  We had just over an hour to harvest so we made an "If..Then.." statement that if we shared a passage from the BOM with every contact we had, then we will find 2 NI.  We kept knocking and weren't finding anyone, got help up in a conversation with a 7th day Adventist for 30 minutes, so our time was short.  We saw a guy doing landscaping and offered to help him out, he wouldn't let us since we were dressed up and didn't want us to get dirty (which we could care less since these are our work clothes:)  so we introduced ourselves and offered to say a prayer with him, he accepted and while talking his wife came out to chat with us too.  We said the prayer and invited them to be baptized, they said they already have been so we taught a mini Restoration lesson and shared some scriptures and testified of the message we shared and that God sent us to them to help them prepare for this baptism.  The wife, Robin, said "I'm so down to be baptized again! I believe you guys and why not be baptized again?"  The husband, Heyron, wasn't as certain.  He argued a little bit about the authority aspect and that the authority has always been on the earth and that he didn't need to be baptized again.  We exhorted him to pray and ask God, since God is the source of truth and will answer any question, and ask him if he should be baptized again and that if the message we shared is true.  He accepted and said he would trust any answer God gave him.  It was an amazing miracle, we reached our weekly investigator goal and God answered our "If...Then..." statement!   We will be seeing them again on Tuesday.

Our other investigator, Judith, has read almost all of 1 Nephi and believes completely in the BOM and is slowly preparing for baptism.  She is waiting on a confirmation from the Spirit that this is what God wants her to do.  And the LA/PM family we found last week, Rueban and Madga, were unable to meet with us because of an unexpected trip, but we will be seeing them this week and will let you know what happens! 

I finished the BOM this past week and Moroni chapter 7 really stuck out to me.  In the beginning verses it talks about how if a man prays without real intent, it profits him nothing, its as if he hadn't prayed at all.  That really opened my eyes and made me think if I pray with real intent.  That is something I will work on this week is praying with real intent and not losing focus or getting distracted while praying.  

Also summer is wrapping up and the locals say this is most humid time of the year...I testify to that!  Whenever we bike we get drenched with sweat and because of the humidity we don't dry out! I've lost count of how many people have given us towels and offered us a change of clothes because we look so wet, literally like we just jumped out of the shower.  But it's been good, it's really helped me appreciate AC.  

I love you guys lots and hope you have a fantastic week! also randon congrats again on making the bball team!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

p.s heres a pic of a cool cloud we saw the other day

9/2/14 | Cabin Fever

Hey Family!!

Well this past week was pretty interesting. Elder D'Addabbo got the flu on Wednesday, so we were stuck at home fromWednesday to Sunday.  On Thurdsday we were able to work out a member split where one of the elders we live with went out with a member and I went with a member and the other elder stayed home with Elder D'Addabbo, so we got one day of work done.  Missionary apartments are super boring!  And our whole week fell apart, Christina decided to wait and be baptized later when she moves to Maine and all our other investigators disappeared and we cant find them.  But we were able to remain positive and faithful.  and Elder D'Addabbo is better now and we were able to get back to work yesterday and we saw an amazing miracle!

We were knocking doors in a complex we've felt like knocking for quite some time now, but we were just finally able to get over there.  We knocked on this one door and a lady answered and after the introduction she said that she was an inactive Mormon.  She had been sealed in the Los Angeles Temple many years ago and was in the Relief Society presidency, but since then she divorced her husband (who is still active in California) and moved to Florida where shortly after she moved in with a boyfriend and has been living with him for 22 years.  We politely asked why she had stopped coming to church and she just explained that she disagreed with some points, but she still knew it was true, she just didn't want to be active.  She invited us inside to talk with her non-member boyfriend who had been to the Temple open house and loved the feeling he felt there.  So we talked about Temples for a bit and offered to bless their home.  They loved the blessing and said they felt the same way they felt when they walked through the Temple.  We invited the boyfriend, Rueban to be baptized and he said that he had been seriously considering it lately especially being baptized in the LDS Church because of it's family standards.  So we testified that Jesus had sent us to him and asked if we could come by on Wednesday to help him prepare to be baptized.  They agreed and we left them a Book of Mormon and a section to read before we go back.  It was an amazing miracle, I've never seen a miracle quite like this the entire time I've been out!

I was reading a talk by President Packer called "washed clean" and it talks about the power of the Atonement and how to become spiritually clean.  He quoted many scriptures of the blessings of becoming clean through Jesus Christ and the good feelings you have when you repent.  I decided that I need to repent more often and constantly be striving to change and become better.  Elder D'Addabbo and I came up with a list of 10 things that we want to be more obedient on every day as a companionship and we each come up with 5 things that we individually want to be more obedient on, we are hanging the lists on the wall so that we remember and we are accountable to one another on how we are doing.  President Packer also shared the quote, "the study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than talking about behavior will improve behavior." I've decided that I will study a specific doctrine each day during personal study to improve my overall behavior. 

Not much else happened this past week, it was just super nice to be outside again after being stuck in an apt for 4 days:)  We also have  a pond behind our apartment with a lot of fish in it, so after a few days of being super bored I called the Zone Leaders and asked if I was allowed to go fishing if Elder D was outside feeding ducks next to me.  They said that we could. I caught the biggest snapper turtle, it broke my line but I got a picture of it before that happened.  It was about 2 feet long, so that was the highlight of last week while being stuck at home:)

I love you guys!

Elder Spencer Bailey