10/27/14

Hey family!!

Had another excellent week this past week!  We worked hard each day and we saw the Lord's hand in the work once more!  

The biggest miracle we saw this week was during Stake Conference yesterday when President Acevedo came up to us and said there was a guy in the very back and it was his first time coming here.  So we went back and introduced ourselves, found out his name is Steve, turns out he was running late to Calvary Chapel and saw all these cars coming into our parking lot so he thought he'd come check it out.  He asked a lot of really good questions during the conference and he was also sitting next to Sister Gardner who gave him a Book of Mormon during the conference.  He started reading it and flipped to passages that the speakers were quoting. He found it very intriguing and wanted to know more.  We talked with him after and shared a message right there in the gym and found more of his desires.  He wants to make a bigger change in the life of his daughter and wife because they aren't very interested in religion.  We invited him to be baptized and testified that by being baptized he would be able to be that example to his family.  He was really interested then to be baptized even though we were "Mormons", at Calvary they have anti-Mormon sermons once a month, but they always respect that we love everyone and work hard and dedicate our lives to God.  Steve said that after witnessing the conference his false ideas of who we are were gone and that he was genuinely interested in learning more. We set a return appt with him and will help him prepare to be baptized on the 9th!

On Saturday my hair was getting too long and we had stake conference on Sunday, and my zone leader friend elder mendenhall was on exchanges with the other elders in our apartment.  So he said he could cut my hair in a few minutes since he was in a hurry and he promised to do a good job... yeah, it all went well until he got the wrong length and also buzzed a good 1 square inch off right behind my ear by "accident". it was probably the worst haircut i've ever received but hey, it'll grow back.  Luckily i'm tall enough that people won't notice the patch thats missing:)

Also we have these annoying monitors on the car that check our speed and give us warnings when we turn to sharply or are speeding and they are really annoying!  The one in our car has been malfunctioning so we took it to the mission office to have it checked and Elder Houskeeper (the driving coordinator) just took it out because he likes us and then said he needed a ride to an auto repair shop to pick up his car.  So I had to drive the vehicle coordinator!!!  That was the scariest driving experience of my life, it was worse than the road test back home!!! Hopefully I never have to do that again.  

One more story.  On Friday we were harvesting and knocked into a guy named Tino.  We said a prayer with him and invited him to be baptized and he said "yes, I've never been baptized before." so we set up a return appt and continued.  We didn't make it 10 steps when the Spirit hit me and told me to go back and teach him the restoration.  I thought, "well, this is going to be awkward, but what do we have to lose?"  I told my companion the impression I received and he said it was crazy but we should do it if the Spirit told me to.  So we went back and talked with Tino again, he was surprised to see us, go figure.  and we explained how the Spirit told us to come back and share this message with him. That caught his attention and he listened intently the entire time.  At the end we gave him a BofM and testified of it.  He thought it was awesome and immediately asked which section he wanted us to have him read. It was awesome!!  I learned that no matter what the Spirit tells you to do, just do it!

Well, I love you lots and hope you have  a great week!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey 

oh yeah, we also washed a members car in proselyting clothes, interesting experience:)  

a sweet cloud with sunbeams we saw the other day

saw these the other night, I love Florida! 

10/20/14 | Faith is the Key!

Heyo Family!!

What a week this has been!  We got so close to standards again and I can honestly say we gave our all last week.  We did everything within our control to reach standards and circumstances, such as our investigator getting hungover (we need to go over the WofW), and other investigators getting called into work last minute or a grandson getting terribly sick or sleeping through the alarm, prevented them from coming to church.  But we were able to visit with them and things will work out right this week!  We also had interviews with President Richardson, I look up to him a lot! It took me a little while to switch over from President Anderson to him since they are so different, but I really like President Richardson, he gave me a ton of tips on how to continue helping Elder Garrett, he said he was glad he was with me so we could get him sorted out this transfer so he can progress and not be depressed.  It was a very awesome interview! I could talk about it for a long time, so i'll end it here and get to the miracles.  

The biggest miracle we saw this week was while we were biking to our harvesting spot wednesday afternoon.  We biked past this neighborhood and the Spirit prompted us very strongly to stop and harvest there.  So we did and at first I didn't have much faith.  The thoughts, "we're going to knock for an hour and not find anyone", "this neighborhood doesn't look too great", were going through my mind.  That was the natural man speaking within me.  Then the spiritual side spoke up and said, "of course you won't find anyone if you dont believe you will, change your attitude and believe that you will find someone."  It was as if a light switched in my head and I recalled all of the many studies I've done about how faith precedes miracles and how for any miracle to occur you HAVE to have faith.  So I shut down my natural man thoughts and truly believed that we would find someone in that harvesting time we had.  I instantly became happier and more optimistic and knew that we were going to find elect souls, for God had led us to this spot, so there must be people that He was preparing.  Within a few doors we found Brandon and he was partially elect, so I won't focus on him, but it increased my faith more that there were people in this neighborhood.  We came to the point where we had time to knock one more door, half-way up the drive way to the house we were at, the Spirit again stopped us and without thinking I looked to the left and saw 4 doors down a house with a red car and the Spirit told us we needed to knock that door.  We knocked it and found Terri and Joan.  We said a prayer with them, got to know them and the Spirit told us to share the message of the PofS with them, so we did and they loved it!  They wanted to be baptized again, even though they were Catholic, and wanted us to come back.  I knew that that was why God had sent us to that neighborhood and If we hadn't have had the faith, we would've missed the spiritual prompting to knock on their door. 

This past week I was studying in Alma and the stories of Ammon.  He had prayed the God would pour out his spirit upon the Lamanites and soften their hearts so they would hear the message Ammon and his brethren had to share.  At the end of their mission, Ammon looks back and marvels at the goodness of God, he states that God truly had poured His Spirit upon the land and prepared the Lamanites to hear the Gospel.  That strengthened my faith that God will do the same if we pray with faith.  As we saw from our miracle this week, God does prepare His children to receive His Gospel, that's why we must always heed to the promptings of the Spirit.

Elder Garrett is doing much better.  We've found that work is the secret, just as it says in PMG, to overcome any problem.  We've worked so hard this week, we didn't allow any time for Elder Garrett to be depressed or anxious.  We've really been working at teaching and working in unity, we get along great, we just work and teach at much different levels.  Sometimes it feels like 2 oxen pulling a wagon and one of the oxen decides to unhitch and get up in the wagon and let the other oxen pull the team.  Its been exhausting, so last night I shared the scripture in Alma when he had just finished preaching to the Ammonihahites and they were about to throw him into prison, that's when Amulek speaks up and testifies and "the people were astonished" that there was 2 people testifying of the same thing.  He stressed his concern that he was afraid he would start teaching and go off on a tangent that didn't pertain to the lesson, I told him if he listened to  and followed the Spirit it wouldn't be possible to teach contrary to what needed to be taught.  We read teaching with the spirit and teaching with your comp in unity in PMG and had a really good chat.  We made plans to role-play how to switch of frequently and how to build off what the previous comp had said.  I also gave him the talk, "the Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" by Elder Bednar and had him study it this morning, it seems to have helped a lot.  (thanks Alyssa for sending me that talk:)   I'm very thankful for this opportunity though, its taught me a lot and has helped me grow alot, I've seen the growth in Elder Garrett too.  This week is going to be great and we will hit standards!

also random story: we've been driving to our area then biking to preserve miles. We started doing this on Wednesday and while biking Elder Garrett realized he hadn't pumped up his tires for 4 months (yes, he hasn't had to use his bike in 4 months)  so he was going antagonizingly slow because he barely had any air and no offense he's a wee bit out of shape from not exercising, so we switched bikes and I rode his bike the rest of the day, what a ride that was!  the tire finally gave out as we got back to the car as the stem valve snapped, thankfully the spokes didn't break or bend.  So we learned our lesson to always check the tire pressure, kind of like the 10 virgins with the oil lamps and how 5 were prepared and 5 weren't, from now on we want to be apart of the prepared group:)

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

love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

10/14/14 | Delightfully Exhausted

Dear Family!

First off, Happy Birthday to the best mom in the world!!!!! I hope you have a fantastic day!

What a turn around week this has been!  I've never felt so much faith and encouragement as we went out and worked this week.  God truly does answer prayers.  We were greatly blessed with success this past week, the most success I've ever seen here in Davie!  It was amazing!  We had so many miracles as we were exactly obedient and worked really, really hard!  We hit standards in every KI except I@s, Dates and Progressing investigators.  soooo close!! But this week we will reach standards!

The best miracle we saw this week was when we met Stacy.  Actually we first met Stacy's sister, Teresa, who was a long-time LA and isn't interested, but she told us to go try her sister Stacy who lived across the street. We went over and met with Stacy and offered to say a prayer with her, she loved it!  She has a son in prison and another son who is always in trouble with the law and she said we were truly sent from God to help her at this time.  We testified that God had sent us and we shared the message of the Plan of Salvation because that's what the Spirit told us to do.  We got to the part of the Spirit world and the Spirit again prompted us to wait and finish the message later.  Stacy was on the edge of her seat, she loved the message, so when I said, "well, Stacy, we would love to come back tomorrow to finish this message and to continue to help you prepare for baptism so that you can be an even greater example to your sons."  Before I could ask for a return visit, she said, "I would love that!!! come back at 6 tomorrow! I want to be baptized and I want my sons to be baptized too!"  The Spirit was sooo strong!!  We left a copy of the BofM and had her read Alma 36 and see the great change that had come upon Alma and a lot of it is contributed to the prayers of his father.  So we told her to keep praying for her son because the power of prayer goes a long ways.  

This week I was studying in Alma and my mind was blown!  I was really having troubles focusing at the beginning of the week but I kept praying that I would be able to focus and learn what God would have me learn.  The last few days have been amazing! The scriptures are awesome!  Today something in particular stuck out to me, it's in Alma 17:11, God tells Ammon and his brethren to be patient in all afflictions and long-suffering and to be a good example to those around them and God would then make them instruments in His hands to bring the Lamanites to the truth.  Also that He pours out His Spirit to prepare the hearts of His children to receive the Gospel.  The Scriptures are AWESOME!!! If you aren't reading them everyday, then get into the habit of reading everyday, they literally blow my mind everyday during studies.  I've lost track of how many times i've read through the BofM, but I've been through it at least 5 times since starting my mission and each time I read it, I find something new in every chapter. I love the scriptures!

Quick funny story:  This actually happened 2 weeks ago, but the member just reminded me last night.  Elder D'Addabbo and I were knocking doors and we had been rained on earlier in the day, then the sun came out and the humidity went up to 110% (don't think that's possible, but it felt like it) so we were soaked while knocking doors.  We knocked on one door and a lady answered and so I said, "Hey, how are you today ma'am?"  and she said, "Ma'am!?!  who are you calling ma'am?!"  I thought, "crap, what'd I say wrong?"  My comp looked like a deer in headlights, he's never seen someone react like that either.  Then she said "I'm sister Kennington, elders!"  ooohhh, that's why she reacted that way.  Then she invited us in and we chatted with her and her husband. On our defense she had been pregnant and wasn't at church the entire time I've been in this area, so I didn't recognize her.  We had FHE at their house last night and she brought it up again just to make fun of us:)  Shes full of a lot of sass.

This week was a really good week though, we worked so hard and are so delightfully exhausted!  It's been great though.

I love you guys lots!

Elder Spencer Bailey

home-made pumpkin cookies as my bedtime snack thanks to mom:)

pic of what happens when we get member meals to go, pic is blurry cause my comp doesnt know how to function a camera

10/6/14 | "When your'e going through [heck], keep going!"-Winston Churchill

Dear Family!

Wow, this week put me through the ringers!  But I've come out of this past week changed and I've learned a lot, it was a miracle to watch conference at the end of this past week.  I don't know why but earlier this week I just got hit with depression and discouragement like I've never felt in my entire life.  Taking over the area plus taking over the rest of Davie was a huge test for me this past week.  When I was at my lowest I called the Zone leaders, which are 2 of my really good friends, and they gave me excellent advice! I prayed a lot and got a blessing and everything turned around from there.  It still wasn't easy but I felt the support form God until I got my feet firmly planted on the ground again.  Thankfully God helped me get through this week and the work is now continuing to go forth!

I got a new companion, his name is Elder Garrett and he's an interesting fellow. He's from Portland, Oregon and has been out for 4.5 months. It's been really hard to get to know him, it's been like trying to get to know a wall... But it'll be a good transfer!  Also at transfers they were going through the areas and I realized they didn't call out a Davie South, and I realized that we would be taking over the entire ward which covers 4 cities!  It's one of the largest areas in the mission, so this is going to be fun.  

Conference weekend was amazing! I loved the talks especially Elder Robbins talk on Saturday, it was super direct, to the point and bold. also I got to go to a different chapel for conference since where we were working was closer to the Hollywood chapel than driving all the way back up to Plantation.  So I got to be with a lot of my really good missionary friends so conference weekend was really good!

We also saw some miracles this past week.

The first miracle we saw was after I received a blessing from Elder Madson and we went out and harvested in the new area we acquired.  While harvesting we both felt great faith and determination to find someone who was willing to receive the gospel.  After knocking for quite some time we found Eric.  After we said the harvest blessing with Eric we invited him to be baptized and he said, "Yes, why not?"  I love hearing that question!  He went on to say that his family was looking for a church and he and his wife were looking to be baptized again!  So we testified that Jesus had truly sent us to him and shared a simple restoration lesson and bore testimony.  He wanted us to come back to help him and his family prepare for baptism, we will be seeing them tonight.

Another miracle was with our long-time investigator, Judith, who is still waiting to receive answers through prayer on some questions she's had.  We invited her to write down her questions and bring them to conference and we promised that God would answer her questions through the Spirit and through the words of the Prophets.  She was unable to come to the Church due to her work schedule, but she watched it from her house and recorded the sessions she missed and watched them later.  I loved how in conference they talked so much about Prophets and Joseph Smith and receiving revelation because she had huge questions on each of those points.  She texted us later and said "[conference] was very very nice. No real hard questions. Many positive comments. It was nice."  

Well, that's about all that happened this past week, it was a really trying week, but I'm glad I experienced it so that I can learn and grow.  Also with the new area came a brand new 2015 Toyota Corolla:)  There are perks to living right next to the mission office and becoming really good friends with the senior couples:)

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

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey