Apart from the rabbit redemption, I also received some AWESOME news this week. I got word that one of my most special converts from the beginning of my mission, Mercedes, has received her mission call to serve in the Guatemala Coban mission! She is honestly so special to me and will be a great missionary without doubt. I am so lucky to have knocked on her door and to have helped play a small part in her conversion to the Lord. It is crazy for me to think that just about a year ago she had never really even heard of the church, and now she is preparing to carry the Lord’s gospel into Guatemala to change the lives of the people there. I knew from the second that I met her that she was someone highly prepared and ready to receive the gospel. She had her door knocked on, was taught the gospel, was converted and baptized, and received a mission call to serve all in a span of a year’s time. What a conversion story. ¡¡Felicitaciones Mercedes!!
On Thursday we headed out to my old stomping grounds in La Cruz to visit the other district’s meeting. We taught a class on how we can better follow the impressions of the spirit when we teach, and to stay away from robot-like teaching. We always have to remember that we teach people, not lessons. After the meeting, we went to visit my old pensionista, Jenny, and her family. It was really good to see them again. I promised her husband, Jim, awhile back that we would meet up and go to the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, so he was sure to remind me of my promise. They are awesome people.
On Friday I had a nice little work visit with one of my good pals, Elder Thiel. We visited a few of his investigators and also some member families. One of the families we visited was a young couple that had 3 young kids, who had some of the most humble circumstances ever seen. They basically all live in a small wooden barn with a hard dirt floor, that has no running water and only one small bulb to give them light. The walls and ceiling inside were all rusting out, and they didn’t seem like they had much to eat. Despite their living conditions, this small member family of five was completely happy. They had their family together and they had the gospel, and they knew they didn’t need much more. What a lesson it was to me to see what truly brings happiness: Our families and the gospel. The amazing thing to me is that the parents have been saving up for some time now to make the trip down to Trujillo to be sealed there in the temple as a family. They have plans to leave next week. It was also really a humbling experience for me at the end of the visit when they asked if we could offer a prayer to dedicate their home, and they asked if I would offer it. I agreed, and we all knelt down in the cold dirt to bless their home to be a place where the spirit could reside, and a place where they could raise their eternal family. The spirit was so strong, and you could feel the sense of gratitude to the Lord that this humble family had for their home. I will never forget that experience.
If you need another reminder that material possessions don’t directly make you happy, just take a look at the group of kids we found this week who, while taking a white plastic box from a trash pile and sledding down the dirt hill together, had absolutely the time of their lives. Some kids these days complain because they don’t have the newest iPhone or Xbox, but these cute kids were completely content and happy with their makeshift trash sled, and I imagine they were there for hours just having a good time. Sometimes I think we are way too caught up in the unimportant things in life, and don’t focus on what really makes us happy.
On Saturday Genesis had her baptism! It was a really great experience to be able to baptize her a member of the church and to see the cute smile on her face after she came up out of the water. She has been a great example for me and especially for her family, who are now becoming active again in the church thanks to her. Baptisms are always the best.
The past few weeks I have started another read through in the Book of Mormon, I’ve been reading it with a “filter” in mind that comes from 1 Nefi 6:5-6:
“Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world. Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men.”
Every single thing that we read in the Book of Mormon has its purpose. We should be constantly asking ourselves as we read “Now why is this here?” or “Why would they want me to know this?” We know that the plates that the Book of Mormon prophets wrote on weren’t very big, and they took a long time to write. So, we know every part of the book has its purpose. We need to be constantly reading and looking for those purposes and applying them to our lives!
Hasta la próxima!
Avanza Su Verdad!
Elder Bailey
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