8/17/15 | Allow God to keep His Promises

Hey Family

This week was amazing! I can definitely see the hard work, obedience and diligence of the past 2 years paying off this past week.  We had 5 investigators at sacrament and 7 dates set, 5 of which are going to be baptized in the month of August, it's going to be awesome!!!  Elder Kama and I got along a lot better this past week, and I've been praying super hard for the gift of charity and the other night I felt the Spirit very strongly when praying and I've felt so much more love for others ever since then, it truly is a gift from God to have charity.  Corey sadly wasn't baptized over the weekend, but he'll be baptized this Saturday for sure!

We saw a huge miracle last week as we followed the Spirit.  We felt prompted last saturday to go stop by some former investigators.  We followed the prompting and went and visitied them, Shirlene and her daughter Jae'mitria, and they still really wanted to be baptized and to come to church. We had just lost contact with them and they were wondering when we would come back.  We got them committed to come to church and they came yesterday and loved the service!  We taught them the Resto yesterday after church and they are so committed to be baptized on the 29th!  I'm not even going to be here to see them baptized but I'm going to do whatever possible to ensure that they'll be baptized on that day.

I heard a quote this week from one of the church videos that goes something like this, "Do whatever it takes to allow God to keep His promises."  God wants to bless us and help us out.  He's promised that He will always be there for us and help us make it through anything as we keep His commandments.  For God to keep His promises, we need to "believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your [heart], might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul." (2 nephi 25:29) If we do this then God can keep His promises and help us "prosper in the land", we've seen this in our area this past week as we strived to become better missionaries and work diligently to the end.  We applied a lot more faith and even though we got rejected hundreds of times last week, we didn't let our faith die down, because of that we'll be baptizing 5 souls in the month of August and help them prepare to live with God again, it's been such a blessing to help God's children out.

I'm loving the work, crazy that I only have 1 week left, but I'm going to give it my all!  I gave my final training last week on the law of sacrifice and how God asks us to sacrifice our all. In the Old Testament he asked for animal sacrifices as a similitude of Christ's Atoning Sacrifice. Now he asks us to give of ourselves. We made a list of things that were impure about ourselves that were holding us back to put on the "altar of sacrifice".  our district has done really well at sacrificing those things that were holding us back from progressing.  This final week will be great, we'll finish strong by baptizing Corey this Saturday, very excited about that!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

snagged a pic of this sunset last night right off of the Caloosahatchee river

we found a pier last night and went out to it and took this pic

8/10/15 | Everything always works out

Dear Family!!

Man, I'm exhausted! This past week was crazy, started off when my comp ran away while we were playing a game of knock out with the zone on pday.  He got mad and left the chapel without anyone knowing.  We found him a while later and  he was extremely mad, so the Zl's took him and I stayed with another set of elders for the rest of the day.  The ZL's got him calmed down and we've gotten along all week, he just had a random explosion of anger. 

also President almost transferred me to finish training someone for my last 2 weeks, there was a problem with the other companionship, but they got it sorted out, so I got to stay here, thank goodness.  

Everything fell apart this week, all of our investigators dropped and we lost contact with our most solid one, Corey.  But then on Friday afternoonwe ran into Corey's wife, who is a member, and she said that he was still reading the BofM and they couldn't visit with us because they had an emergency with her pregnancy.  Everything worked out and Corey is still planning on being baptized this weekend, such a miracle!

I learned this week the importance of faith and the power that comes when we exercise it. I was reading in Alma and read these verses in Chapter 44 when Capt. Moroni is fighting Zerahemna 

" ye are angry with us because of our religion.

 3 But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith.

 4 Now ye see that this is the true faith of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith."

No matter what other people say or do they cannot destroy our faith.  Satan can't even destroy our faith.  The only thing that destroys our faith is when we fall into transgression, which weakens our faith.  The way to strengthen faith and to ensure that your faith doesn't dwindle is by doing the basics, 1. reading scriptures daily 2. praying daily 3. attending church weekly and repenting frequently.  We shared this with a LA we found this week and she came to church on Sunday, met with the Bishop and started on the repentance process so that she can be worthy to partake of the Sacrament. 

I also had my final interview with President on Thursday, it was really good! Gave me a lot of good advice and we talked about my mission and the things I learned and how to adjust to normal life in a couple of weeks. 

all in all, it was a crazy week, but I learned a lot and everything worked out in the end, so can't complain about that:)

Love you!

Elder Spencer Bailey

8/3/15 | Living it up in Paradise

Heyo Family!!

This week is my final week to find people to baptize before I depart, the pressure is on!  We have quite the line up of people being baptized in the next couple of weeks, so we are excited about that.  Yesterday we had a very interesting testimony mtg, we had 2 older black women get up and bear their testimony and they both had Baptist backgrounds.  It felt like we were at a Baptist church listening to preachers, it was one of the best testimony mtgs i've witnessed!

 we also had a miracle at church! Our investigator Michael came and after sacrament we were walking out of the chapel and this lady flags us down.  It took a second to recognize her but she was  a lady that we had prayed with the night before! (Her name is Beverly) She was completely not interested when we prayed with her, but she said she woke up and felt like she needed to come visit the church. (We had left a church invite with her)  I had the opportunity to bear my testimony last and I bore it simply on the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  Beverly asked if we could stop by and talk more about Joseph Smith and the BofM, she was really interested!  It was awesome!  I learned a couple of lessons from this experience. 

1."the worth of every soul is great in the eyes of God." If we hadn't given Beverly every opportunity to accept the Gospel Saturday night she wouldn't have come to church.  I learned that it is essential to give it all you got at every door approach, we're planting seeds with everyone we talk to.

2. Bear your testimony whenever possible.  Beverly was so interested in Joseph Smith and the BofM simply because of the testimony I shared during Sacrament mtg. which allowed to Spirit to touch her heart and spark the interest.   I learned that there is power in bearing testimony.

Nothing too interesting happened this past week, just another week!

Love you!

Elder Spencer Bailey

7/27/15 | Fried Chicken & Ice Cream calm the soul

Dear Family!

This week was pretty good! Elder Kamalamalama and I are continuing to get along and progress as missionaries.  We committed to work harder, be more obedient, be more consecrated and to be nicer.  Elder Kama has been making a lot of progress over the last 6+ weeks. We've been studying PMG daily and role-playing A LOT!!  Both of our teaching skills has improved and our investigators have felt the Spirit very strongly as we teach.  The members that come out with us also notice and feel the power and spirit as we teach and have enjoyed coming out with us, so the work in Ft Myers is rolling right along!

We had a miraculous Sunday yesterday. We had 3 of our investigators show up to church, very excited about that!  They all enjoyed the service and are set to be baptized in the upcoming weeks!  Their names are Russ, Corey and Darrell. 

My good friend Elder Hayward went AP last week, very excited about that. And an Elder Johns in now in my district.  We went to BYU summer semester together and lived in the same hall and shared a lot of the same friends, so it's been good and weird serving around him. We have to keep catching ourselves and not call each other by our first names. small world!

Last week I was on exchanges with my ZL friend Elder Fisher, and we got a call from a companionship in my district saying they had reached the end of their rope and were about to kill each other. That's not a very good call to receive.  So we called the AP's and got permission for them to sleep over at our place so we could help administer and minister to them.  We asked them if we could do anything to immediately help them and they wanted strawberry ice cream... so we went and got some ice cream and fried chicken from the store and had a good chat with them while eating.  Thankfully our chat worked and their getting along great now, at least we think they are, their both still alive  so thats  a good sign:)

It's also been raining non-stop for 3 days now, there's water every where!!

That's about all that happened this week! we're going to finish strong and baptize many people in August!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

pic 1 - us at chick fil a for cow day

7/21/15 | 1 more transfer in Paradise

Dear Family!

What a week!!! First off I'd like to share an experience that happened about a week and a half ago. I got a call from President randomly one night and he asked if I would like to go to the Temple with the departing missionaries tomorrow and have dinner at his house with them.  He offered it to me since I leave a week early and won't have the opportunity later.  The catch was that he would have to transfer me to another area so I was closer to the mission home and I would finish my mission there most like as a senior comp.  He gave me the option to choose which I preferred.  I asked if I could have some time to think about it, he said yes.  I prayed and asked God what to do and I felt very strongly about staying in Ft Myers.  This was kind of against my own desires since I really wanted to go to the Temple with a lot of my friends and finish in another area, especially since we had just dropped all of our investigators and prospects were looking grim. But God had answered my prayer so I decided to act in faith on that prompting.  I called president and let him know that I would like to stay and finish my mission here because there is still a lot of work to be done.  He was very pleased with my decision.  

I'm so glad I chose to stay here in Ft. Myers instead of choosing to go to the Temple and be transferred elsewhere. I can definitely see why God wanted me to stay here.  We have seen so many miracles over the last couple of days, I don't even know which one to share.  The beginning of the week was kind of slow I was questioning if maybe I should have decided to be transferred elsewhere, but by the end of the week we whipped ourselves back into shape and committed to be exactly obedient and to be willing to do whatever it takes to achieve the goals we set.  As we applied that on Sunday and Monday we found 10 NI to teach and to help prepare for baptism in August!

My favorite miracle that occurred was on Sunday. We went out with high faith expecting to see miracles and to find the elect.  After knocking doors for a couple of hours and finding a few elect people to teach we knocked into Priscilla. After praying with her and inviting her to be baptized she informed us that she and her family had been baptized in Massachusetts 20 years ago (she's 28 now) but shortly after moved to Tennessee and couldn't find a church near them so they fell into inactivity.  She and her husband Corey had been talking about finding a church to attend and getting their kids raised in a church just last week. Then on Sunday we show up! Huge miracle!!  Yesterday we brought over our Jewish convert friend, Brother Shoham, and had a lesson with them.  We taught the Restoration and invited Corey to be baptized on August 8th.  He gladly accepted the invite and shared with us that he felt really good as we shared the message and that he believed this is the Church of Jesus Christ.  It was an amazing lesson, especially to feel the Spirit working through Elder Kama and I.  I love teaching the restored gospel.

also a member, Isabella, brought her boyfriend Russ to church. He has been dating her for a year and was interested in checking out the church sometime.  He wanted us to come over yesterday and talk about the church and being baptized into it!  We went over yesterday and had a really good lesson with him, he accepted to be baptized on the 8th of august!

I read the other day in Alma 16:16which reads, "the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word."  We have been praying long and hard that God would be pour out His spirit to prepare the people in Ft. Myers to receive the gospel.  As we prayed in faith and as we went out and worked in faith we saw God's hand in the work.  The people we found over the last week have truly been prepared by God to receive His gospel, it's been awesome witnessing scripture come to pass.

Also earlier this week we did a service project with a family.  They took us out to chick-fil-a for dinner after and it happened to be on July 14th. thats when they give you a free meal if you dress up like a cow.  So this member made us dress up like cows so we could get a free meal.  I'll send a pic next week. thankfully we were wearing gym clothes so we didn't stick out too much:) 

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey

I didnt know that floridians use the word rubbish

7/13/15 | IHOP

Dear Family!

Wow, I can't believe another week has flown by!  This week was a difficult one but a good learning experience.  We didn't find as many people because of a lack of planning on our part and a lack of relying on God, so to make sure this upcoming week isn't bad we'll rely on God and do what He wants us to do and go where He needs us to go.  We've taught the Restoration about 50 times in the last few weeks, but the people we've taught haven't been the most elect, so we need to let God send us to find the elect.

The biggest miracle we saw last week was yesterday when we tried to follow up with a potential investigator.  She was lame so we were walking away when a random lady stopped us and said, "I need Jesus, could you say a prayer with me?" We said a prayer with her and found her to be elect, so we taught the Restoration and committed her to be baptized on the 1st.  It was a nice miracle to have because right before we had met her we dropped some investigators.  

I was studying this week on trials and was reminded of some of my favorite scriptures in D&C.  First one is in section 122:7-9 "... above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

 8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

 9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever."

In life we will go through a lot of trials, it may feel like the all the powers of hell are working against us, but God has told us that Christ has descended below it all, He knows how to help us through the trials we pass through. 

I love the rallying cry from Joseph Smith in Section 128:22, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!"

Whenever faced with trials, remember the calling God has given us as His children. He will always be with us to give us the boost to take courage and to move forward!

It's been extremely hot and humid this past week!! It's been fun getting soaked with sweat:)  Earlier this week we got to do some yard work for an elderly sister.  We worked from 7-10 am and then she gave us 60$ to go eat b-fast:)  So we went to I-hop and each ordered 2 meals because we were starving.  The server mocked us and doubted we could eat that much.  So the challenge was on! sooner than later we had a nice stack of dishes on the table and the satisfaction of seeing the shock on the servers face when she came back:)

Also we went to see a LA on Thursday.  We walked into his house and their was bird poop every where! I was so confused on why there was a ton of crap inside his house until I looked up and saw 10 birds chilling in the living room.  Floridians are weird...  As we sat on the couch to share a message I strategically chose a spot not covered in bird poop, Elder Kama wasn't so observant so he sat in a huge pile of it.   hahaha, he didn't know until I told him after we left.  So we had to go home and get him a new set of pants to wear. 

I love you!

-Elder Spencer Bailey

p.s I hope you all went to 7-eleven on saturday to get a free slurpee:)

pic 1 happy america day! found these shades so we couldn't resist taking a pic with them

pic 2- our barbershop

7/6/15 | Lightning

Dear Family!!!

I just love how simple the gospel really is.  We did  a district training on teaching simply and practiced teaching as simple as possible while touching up on what the investigator really needs to hear.  It was great! The Spirit was strong because that is how He teaches, very simple.  It's been great seeing the District apply it and how their investigators understand the Gospel.  We are teaching a family of 4 (single mom, 3 daughters), they all came to Church yesterday and afterwards in our lesson the daughters, (11 years and younger) taught us the Restoration, PofS and the commandments, it was awesome to see how well they understood it.  That's how it's supposed to be, we need to teach that even children can understand and know our messages to be true. There's a quote by President Taylor that I love,   “It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it.”

On Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Miller, he's 6'8 so we got a lot of comments as we walked down the street, and I had been praying all week for us to have a miracle exchange so that he could take what he learned about receiving miracles and take it into his area.  We were knocking doors in the projects, and were looking for a family that could benefit from receiving the gospel to help take the ghetto out of them.  Towards the end of our finding session we found Lakisha and her family! She is a single mom with 3 daughters and has been looking for a home church and wants a place where her daughters can learn good principals to keep them on the right path.  We prayed with them and tied all their desires into coming to church and being baptized in a couple of weeks, they accepted and said they were willing to do that to receive the blessings.  We taught the Restoration simply and they understood it.  We lost contact with them all saturday and sunday morning, but during Sacrament meeting we looked around and saw them sitting in the pews!! They came without us getting a hold of them!! so elect!!  Ashley and her family were also there, so it was fun to get 7 people to all the different classes:) 

We've seen so many miracles in this area in the last month.  This area used to be one of the worst areas! Whenever someone in our zone has a miracle occur, they send out a text to share it with others, helps build the faith that miracles are happening even if you don't see them in your area.  We had some sisters come up to us yesterday and ask how we have been receiving so many miracles this past month.  I replied it was just from us exercising faith and expecting miracles to occur.  They took the advice and sure enough that evening we got a miracle text from them stating that they miracle occurred because they had faith and expected it to happen.  God only works by faith, so if you need a blessing, ask in faith and expect it to come. God always wants to bless us!

Also there's been a ton of lightning storms, I've never seen so much lightning!!  Had a strike hit about 10 yards from us yesterday, crazy cool to see!

Love,

Elder Spencer Bailey