Week 39

This week was full of ups and downs. But hey, that’s the mission for ya.

On Tuesday Kevin and Guadalupe’s mom invited us over for dinner. (Kevin and Guadalupe are some of our recent converts). It was super cool considering we almost never get invited to dinner. When we got to their house, their mom had prepared a big feast of one of my favorite Peruvian foods: Anticuchos (cow heart). It sounds really weird but it’s pretty good. It was super fun to sit down with Kevin, Guadelupe, and their mom, Luz, and eat dinner and have a good time with them. It’s been so cool to see their progress in the gospel and the changes it has brought in their lives. Those two are such studs.

Thursday was the multi-zone training for this transfer. President Rasmussen talked about the role of the spirit in missionary work. It was super good and I learned a lot. The spirit really does miracles out here. There has been countless times on my mission where after the first lesson investigators have said things like “I don’t know why, but I just feel really good right now”, or “To me this just feels right”. It’s amazing to see and experience the role of the spirit in the conversion. It is what truly teaches people, not us.

Friday was honestly one of the toughest days of my mission. For one, we probably had a record amount of doors shut in our faces. Usually the people here will listen to what you have to say for a minute or two, but they were NOT feeling it. It was kind of a tough day knocking, but we tried to keep our heads up as we walked over to our main man Javier (our golden investigator). When we got to his house, we peeked inside his window to find him on his couch watching some TV. We were happy to see him there in his house, as the past few days we weren’t able to find him. However, when we knocked on his door, he didn’t come out. After a few minutes of knocking and waiting, his sister finally came out and told us something that made our hearts drop. She said, “Sorry but Javier is traveling back to Venezuela. He’s already bought a bus ticket.” We are absolutely stunned. When we first started teaching him, Javier told us that he had been working in Venezuela, but came back to Peru with all the crazy stuff happening in Venezuela right now, So apparently he’s heading back there now. The weirdest part about all of this is that when we asked his sister if we could talk to him for a little (to maybe send his info to some other missionaries) she said he didn’t want to talk to us. I just want to know what’s happening with him and why he’s going back to Venezuela or why he doesn’t even want to talk to us. It’s just so sad. He was literally a perfect investigator, and was going to be baptized next week. I guess things just happen that are out of your control. It just hurst a little. Me and Elder Randall said it feels like we just had a breakup with a girlfriend, haha. It’s hard and painful but you can’t do anything but grit your teeth and move on. I have no doubt, however, that he will find some missionaries later on and be baptized. Javier was the man. :( On to the next one!

Our bright spot of this week was that we started teaching our Pensionisa’s cousin, Pool (yes that’s his name). He’s 17 and kind of shy, but he’s super cool. Our pensionista, Sandy, said that he has had a little bit of a rough home life and is going to startling with her and her husband, Roger. Pool is super humble and really open to learning. He accepted a date to be baptized and showed up to church on Sunday with Roger and Sandy. I’m super excited to keep teaching him. I think we can be a really good influence for him in his life. We love to talk some futbol with him. He’s a really good kid.

Well, that’s the quick update for this week. Me and Elder Randall are still working as hard as we did on day 1 together. There isn’t anything that will slow us down. We’re gonna keep grinding no matter what happens. 

I love you all. The work continues.

Avanza Su Verdad! #TakeNote

Elder Bailey

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius

Week 38

¿Comó le va? 

This week absolutely flew by. It feels like I was just barely writing a letter! The past 7 days weren’t too exciting, so I don’t have a lot to report on. We seemed to have a lot of time open this week, so the majority of our time we spent knockin’ and talkin’. It’s what they call “old fashioned missionary work”. But hey, it works. We probably knocked a few hundred houses this week. Sometimes it’s pretty tough going door to door in the heat of the day, but I love the feeling of being diligent in the Lord’s work.  I love having that “I will go and do” attitude (1 Nephi 3:7).  We were blessed for our diligence and were able to snag 12 new investigators.  One thing that we have been trying to do lately is acting super excited about our message with every person we talk to.  A few times this week somebody would open their door and I would quickly ask them, “Hey have you heard the news about the Prophet Joseph Smith??”  Most would look confused and say no, and then I would smile and say, “Well do we have a message for you!!”  As missionaries (and members), we need to get excited about this message.  It really is great news to the world.  The fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth!.  This isn’t something we should take lightly.  We have a message that can truly bless all of mankind.  Considering it hasn’t even been 200 years since the church was established, this is still news!  There are still people out there who have never heard about these things. What a great responsibility we have to take this message to every person.  If we don’t, who will?  My challenge to all of us is that we all take missionary work seriously!  It really is what will save the world.  Let’s all make the effort to be better missionaries and examples to all, so that we can fill the earth with our great message.

However, if there is one thing that I’ve learned about being a missionary, it’s that God will force no man to heaven.  He lets every person freely choose for themselves to either accept or reject our message.  Every time that we are rejected (and we saw it a lot this week), it honestly makes me so sad.  Not for me, but for them.  I have seen my entire life the kind of happiness that this gospel brings.  I have experienced it when I have been living it righteously, and I have also felt the absence of it when I haven’t been fully engaged.  It truly is a message that brings pure happiness, something that no other things can bring.  In this last general conference when the choir sang “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet”, there was a line that they sang that really struck me.  They sang:

“Thus on to Eternal Perfection

The honest and faithful will go

While they who reject this glad message

Shall never such happiness know!”

I can 100% testify that those words are true.  Each person that rejects these things will never know the kind of peace and happiness that the gospel brings.  It is the only way to have lasting peace and joy.

Well, that was my week!  I hope everything is going well back home.  I love and miss you all!  I’ll talk to y’all next week.  The work continues.

Avanza Su Verdad!  (P.S. Yesterday Elder Randall found another 20 soles in the dirt — Unbelievable)

Elder Bailey

Mosiah 2:41 "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.”

2 Nephi 5:27 “And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.”

Week 37

Hola!

This week we looked really hard to find some new investigators that really are interested in what we have to share. We have been finding lots of “new" investigators in the past few weeks, but none of them really have been progressing or look like potential baptisms (except Javier). So, we were pretty desperate to find some new gems. Our work paid off, as we ere led to the Diaz family. When we first taught them on Tuesday, it was a little bit hard to tell if Karla, the mom, and her two daughters, Valerie (16) and Cielo (14), were interested in the message that we were teaching, or just interested in us. Karla was constantly trying to practice her English that she knew with us, and her two daughters were constantly staring into our light gringo eyes and asking if we were allowed to have girlfriends on the mission, haha. Eventually we got through the lesson, and asked if we could come back another day to teach them more. Before I could finish the question, they all smiled and said, “Si!”. When we came back on Friday, we showed them the video of Joseph Smith and and the first vision, and they absolutely loved it. They said they felt something super special about it, and the three of them accepted dates to be baptized for the 12th of May. After that second visit, we were little more convinced that they are actually interested in the message, and not just the two young guys teaching it. I’m grateful that the Lord was able to answer our prayers and guide is to them. We will see how they progress.

This week I was able to interview two more people for baptism in our district. Interviewing for baptisms is easily one of the coolest things about the mission. I look forward to it every time. It’s so cool to see the change of the converts and to hear their conversion stories. It’s always such a great testimony builder to me that this is the work of the Lord. 

This week we worked a lot with Javier! Once again, I want to say that there truly can’t be an investigator as prepared as Javier. Literally every single thing we give him to read or study he just eats up. Every time we show up to teach him, he brings up about ten questions about things in the Book of Mormon or about the doctrine we last taught. It’s the coolest thing ever. The best part too is that he showed up at church on Sunday! It was such a cool sight to see him walk up to the church building with his slacks and white shirt with his Book of Mormon in hand. It’s been amazing to see his progress so far. The Lord truly has people in His hands who are 100% ready to hear and accept His gospel. Our job as missionaries is to find ‘em!

On Sunday we had about an hour lesson with a man named Paul. We taught him on his porch about the restoration of the gospel of Christ and how we have and are led by prophets on earth today. He told us that he had already researched a lot about the Mormon Church and has a really hard time believing that God would call another prophet. We testified of the power of the Book of Mormon and told him that his answer lies inside the book. After teaching (and a little arguing) for about an hour, he finally accepted the book and said he would read it and pray to see if it is true. When we asked when we could come back to talk more, he surprised us and told us that he was only visiting his kids here in Piura, and live about 15 hours away. We were pretty bummed that we wouldn’t be able to teach him again but as we walked away we were content with what we had done. On a mission there are a lot of things that what are called in sports as “things that don’t show up on a stat sheet”. These are little things that don’t show up on paper as “points” or “goals” scored in a game. It may be a cool hustle play or a smart decision in a critical time in the game. In the same way, there are a lot things that don’t show up on a “weekly numbers” report in the mission. These are the things that separate the good missionaries from the great ones. It may be always smiling and saying hi to everyone, or giving pass-along cards to everyone you pass. These are the things that make the difference. I like to think that the hour we spent with Paul wasn’t wasted time, just because he will never be a “new investigator”, “church attendance”, or “baptism” for us. We truly taught and testified of the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the gospel to him, and he committed to read to find out for himself. Who knows, we may have planted a seed for some other missionaries down the road. No effort is wasted as a missionary, even when it doesn’t show up on your weekly numbers report.

Well, I’m out of time! I hope you are all doing well! I’ll talk to you all next week. The work continues. 

“I never lose, I either win or I learn.” - Nelson Mandela

Elder Bailey

Avanza su Verdad!

#Somos El Norte

#Take Note

Week 36

So this week was a good one!  This week we worked a lot with an investigator named Javier.  We found him last week and have taught him 3 lessons since.  He is definitely what you would call a “golden” investigator.  He’s about 70 years old and is pretty tall (by Peruvian standards) and is such a humble guy.  After we taught him our first lesson on the Restoration, he accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 28th!  He understood everything extremely well and we were really exited to come back to teach him again.  When we returned, he showed us that he had read chapters of the Book of Mormon, and written notes down about what he like and leaned.  We noticed that he had also gone through the pamphlet we had given him on the restoration and had marked and highlighted it. He even went to the back of the pamphlet and had filled out parts of the section that says “additional study”, which parts that I have to admit I have never really studied thoroughly myself.  It’s amazing to find people like Javier who have been prepared by the Lord. I know that this is His work and that he guides us each day that we are willing to be obedient and diligent servants.  I’m especially grateful to have found Javier in a time that we’ve been struggling to find new investigators.  Hopefully he can continue to progress towards his baptism. If you’d like, say a prayer for him!

So something funny that I have learned about Elder Randall after being with him 24/7 for 6 weeks, is that when it comes to money, he truly is Mr. Krabs from Spongebob.  He is constantly saving his money, lookin for the absolute cheapest buy, or stretching one 3-pack of milk to last him a month.  It’s a good habit to have, but if you ask me it’s a little extreme sometimes, ha ha.  However, something crazy has been occurring for the past few weeks.  Elder Randall is literally FINDING money everywhere.  Everywhere we go, he’ll suddenly stop and pick up coins of 2 or 5 Peruvian Soles straight off the ground.  I honestly don’t know how it happens, but he’s found like a month’s worth of moto-taxi money straight from the sandy ground.  On Thursday, it got even weirder.  As we were walking in between appointments, Elder Randall runs over to the side of the road and picks up a 10 sole bill.  I couldn’t believe it.  Before he was finding coins of 2 or 5 soles, but now the man was finding bills.  Jokingly I said, “What’s next, a 20 bill?”  We laughed and kept going, and literally 20 minutes later while knocking doors, Elder Randall runs over to a pile of trash in a corner and pulls out a 20 bill.  I was BEYOND stunned.  I really don’t have any explanation.  I guess the lesson is if you are good to your money, money will come to you.  I am still blown away.

Saturday and Sunday was conference!  I don’t know if you all heard but . . . there’s going to be a temple in L-town!!!  It was the coolest feeling in the world to be in a foreign country thousands of miles away, and to hear from the prophet of the Lord that there is going to be a House of the Lord in the place where you grew up and love so much.  What a blessing it will be to have a temple there.  I can’t wait to see it!!  Aside from that, what an amazing conference it was.  After it was over and we were walking out, I told Elder Randall that I had never been more proud to be a member of the Lord’s church.  And it’s true.  How blessed we are to live in a time where we have a living prophet.  I love President Nelson and 100% sustain him and his counselors.  After hearing them speak, my testimony that they are prophets, seers, and revelators was reassured.  How blessed we are!  I can’t wait to study the messages of this conference and to learn from them.  I invite you all to do the same.

Well, I’m sorry this was a little bit shorter of a letter.  I’ll try to throw in some more experiences next week.  It’s just so hard to capture everything that happens out here!  I hope you are all doing well back home.  I’ll talk to you next week!  The work continues.

(P.S.  Me and Elder Randall have another 6-week L-town transfer together!!!  We are pretty pumped for that.  The L-town boys are staying together one more.)

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey

#Behold The Man

#Small And Simple Things

#OneMoreDay

#Meekness