Week 79

Hey ya'll!

Great first week in Los Pinos!! Honestly I am loving it here in this area. Things are fresh and new, and here we have a incredibly solid ward. In just the first few days here, I think I got more member help than I've had in the past 4 areas that I've had in the mission. Our ward mission leader, Walter, is an RM that just got back from Arequipa and he is such a stud. He's always right there with us and ready to go to work. Also, my companion Elder Morgan is the man. He's super on top of things and is ready to work hard in our area and with the zone this transfer. We have a bunch of awesome things planned for our zone for the next few weeks. Let's go!!

Right now, we currently have two investigators who look like they should get in the water pretty soon. One, named Rosa, is an older lady who has been quite the eternal investigator through the years. When we went to teach her on Wednesday, I was blown away that she was not a member. She seemed to already know just about everything we had to teach her. It has been just recently that she has decided that it is her time to be baptized. We're pretty excited for her. Right now she has her date for the 9th of February. The other, named Arturo, has also been investigating the church for some time now, and like Rosa, he feels like he's ready to finally be a member. His goal right now is for the 16th. It was pretty great to arrive here to this area and to see that we have some progressing investigators. There seems to be a lot of potential here!

This week we had "consejo de lideres" (leaders council). As normal, President Vega and us leaders went over our numbers for the last transfer, set new goals, and discussed what is going on in the mission. The mission seems to be down a little bit in our baptisms, but we were able to set some goals and make some new plans to get us rollin' again. During the council, a few elders complained that due to a lot of the rule changes that President Vega brought to the mission, a lot of missionaries feel like the mission isn't "fun" anymore, and that things "just aren't the same". I stood up and did my best to explain my point of view that we as a mission need to trust in President Vega, and trust that he is called by the Lord to lead this mission at this time, and that he has the Priesthood keys to receive revelation for us. Even if we don't personally agree with something that they are doing, we ALWAYS need to trust in our church leaders. We need to trust that they have been called by revelation to lead and guide us. Trusting in the Lord means trusting in the people that He sends to lead us! Overall, leaders council was a good time. Its always a good time to go and to see all the mission buddies there, including Elder Randall, who recently got his new assignment to work in the office as the health secretary of the mission. He's doing big things!

On Friday we had our ward missionary night! Elder Morgan and I filled up a few hundred water balloons and some big buckets of water and we had a giant water carnival. We had apple bobbing, tug of war, and of course, the huge water balloon fight at the end. We had a pretty great turn out and had quite a few investigators show up. It was mostly our job as the missionaries to get people wet, but at the end everyone took advantage of the opportunity to peg the elders with some balloons and got us pretty wet. It was a good time. Again, super awesome to be in a ward that helps out with our activities!

This week I was reading the story of Jacob and Sherem, the anti-Christ in Jacob chapter 7. I love what Jacob says in verse 5:

5 And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.  

Despite all the cunning words from Sherem that Jacob heard, he knew 100% where his faith was, and had his testimony to fall back on and he "could not be shaken". I just love that. Our goal should always be to have the faith and the testimony strong enough so that we "cannot be shaken" by what is in the world today, and to always know where we stand!

Avanza Su verdad!

Elder Bailey

Week 78 - Cambios!

Tenemos cambios! After a good run in Tumbes (7 and a half months), I have finally been transferred! I have been shipped back down to Piura in a sector called Castilla, in the ward “Los Pinos”. My new companion is Elder Morgan from St. George, and he is a really cool dude. He is in the same group as my last comp, Elder Westergard. so we both have some experience in the mission and we’re both ready to work. Something interesting about him is that his mom is from the Philippines, and if you know anything about the culture there, you know that they don’t use toilet paper. Elder Morgan told me that there’s a phrase that says to “never shake a Philippino man with your left hand”, because that’s what they use to clean themselves after they use the bathroom. So, yeah, kinda interesting. You can bet that I’ll be making sure that he washes those hands real good, lol. But overall I’m super excited to be here with him. I’m ready to see what this chapter of my mission brings. 

Although I’m pumped to be here in Piura, I’m I’m really sad to have left my home in Tumbes. I learned so much in my time there and met so many great people. The past two transfers that I had up there were such a blast living with Elder Thiel, Elder Schouten, and Elder Westergard. There were definitely a lot of memories made. I was also devastated to have to abandon my castle of milk cartons that I had been building for the last 4 1/2 months, haha. Tumbes will always have a special place in my heart.

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey

Week 77

Not a whole lot that happened this week, but just wanted to share this little story I heard the other day:

 A True Story of a Carpenter

"Mr. Chris Myler, an elderly carpenter who was ready to retire, he told his employers of his plans to leave the house building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoyed his extended family.

He would miss the pay-check each week but he wanted to retire. The employer was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor.

The carpenter agreed and started working on the last project of his life.

Since, it was his last project, he worked half-heartedly. He said goodbye to overtime. He did not consider to find the best cement mixture. He did not consider having a swimming pool in this project. He did not use quality wood for doors. The furniture was not of good quality.

The employer called the carpenter in his office. And gave the keys of this newly built house to the carpenter, saying,”This is my gift to you for your such a commendable service over 50 years.”

The carpenter was shocked what a shame. If he had only known he was building his own house, he would done it all so differently.

So, it is with us.

We built our lives, a day at a time often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock we realize we have to live in the house we have built.

If we could do it over, we could do it much differently. But you cannot go back, you are a carpenter and every day you hammer a nail, place a board or erect a wall.

Someone once said,”Life is a do-it-yourself project.” Your attitude and the choices you make today help build the house you live in tomorrow.

Therefore, build wisely!"

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey

Week 76

This week was a good one! We were able to see lots of miracles here in our area.  Things are looking good!

We were finally able to find quite a few new people to teach that look like they’ve got some good potential.  It really felt like we were guided right to some of them.  For example, on Tuesday we had quite a few appointments that fell through, so we just started wandering to a place that we had never before been to, contacting and knocking doors.  To be honest, it felt weird to me to be in an unknown place like where we were, but we felt like we needed to keep going.  Well, we kept going, and we just happened to stumble upon the house of the guy that we go to for our haircuts.  His name is Ifrain and he is from Venezuela, and has been living here in Peru for a few months now.  We had mentioned some of our beliefs with him before during some of our haircuts, but we were never able to get an appointment with him at his house.  Well, it seemed as if we were guided by the spirit right to his house, and we were able to teach he and his wife a powerful lesson on the Restoration.  They liked the message and are excited for us to come back.   I’m grateful for the gift of the spirit and for how it’s always willing to guide us in our lives.

On Friday morning, we were hit with quite the big surprise.  Around 10:00 a.m. during our studies, we got a call from President 

Vega telling us that he was outside our room, and wanted us to come down and open the door for him.  We hustled down to open the door, and found President and Sister Vega there, wanting to come in to do a "surprise room inspection”.  It definitely caught us a little off guard, but we let them in for the inspection.  Our room was pretty clean at that moment, but definitely we could have touched a few things up if we knew Mr. President was coming.  President Vega, being the military guy that he is, burned us pretty hard for some of the things in the room like the dusty floor, unorganized supplies closet, and our less-than perfect bathroom.  He hit us pretty hard for some of those things, but it’s not like he wasn’t telling the truth.  We really could have had the room in better shape.  It wasn’t the most fun thing in the world to receive that kind of criticism, but all we could do was just nod our heads, accept it, and be better. :)  After our room check, President had us come with them to do surprise visits the other rooms in the zone.  The rest of the zone didn’t do so hot either, and it looks like at least 3 areas are going to be changing rooms.  So, you could say that the room inspections in Tumbes went well, lol.  Having these out of the blue room inspections really made me think of the parable of the 10 virgins.  Always gotta be preparing ourselves to be 100% ready when the time comes so that we will be comfortable in His presence!

On Saturday we went to one of the coolest baptisms I’ve ever been to.  The Elders in Zorritos had a baptism of an 18-year-old Venezuelan kid named Victor, and had it in the ocean!  When I was in La Cruz, that was always something I had wanted to do, but never got the chance.  The elders had been teaching Victor for quite a while, and finally got him in the water.  A few weeks ago I got to meet Victor and have gotten to know him pretty well.  He’s living here in Peru by himself, trying to get some money for his family back in Venezuela.  He’s a really cool kid.  The baptism was super awesome, even though right after the ordinance both Elder Pincock and Victor both got a “second baptism” when a huge wave both took them under the water. It was pretty funny.  Overall, such a cool baptismal experience.

On Sunday we saw lots of miracles at church!  After lots of tough weeks of attendance, we finally saw lots of improvement in our ward, as well as in investigators that came.  As we walked into the building, we saw several investigators there waiting for us, as well as the chapel looked a lot more full.  It was a huge miracle for us considering the past few transfers of challenges at church.  (Maybe it was the fact that we now start at 10:00 as compared to 8:00).  We also were able to talk with a younger girl that we are teaching named Maricielo, who told us that her parents gave her permission to be baptized on the 19th!  We were super pumped about that.  Just a great Sunday for us.

As a mission, we are reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days to start the new year.  Every time I read over the Book of Mormon, I always get something new out of it.  (Fun fact:  I’ve now read the Book of Mormon more times through in Spanish than I have in English!)

Los Amo!

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey