Week 59

Holaaa cholitos!! Ya ha pasado una semana??

Hows everyone?? Not much time to write today, also not much to report on. Luckily I was able to snag a lot of pictures this week. I Really cant believe that another quick week has passed! My man Elder Quispe and I are chuggin along in our area right now, even though our investigators seem to be dropping like flies. Just got to keep on working and keep the faith!
Today was a pretty sweet P-day. We headed up to Tumbes to play a little zone on zone soccer on the professional field. Unfortunetly the Zona Tumbes took an L despite the well-fought battle. After soccer, we spent the day with my good friend Elder Randall and his comp, Elder Hardwick, from Texas (You already know I had to snag a pic together wearing some of his famous cowboy boots). We went together up to Aguas Verdes, which is a huge market on the border of Peru and Ecuador that I believe I have mentioned before. We bought some sweet soccer jerseys, and grabbed some lunch. Not a bad P-day. I never get tired of seeing and spending time with one of my best friends, Elder Randall, while on the mission. What a blessing!!
Transfers are coming next week! I feel like some big changes could be coming... We will see. Prepárense! 

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Love these words of Christ. They seemed to hit me hard as I read them this week. Let us always love one another and show Christ that we are His disciples!

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey

Week 58

This week was filled with looking for new people to teach. Down here in South America there seems to be lots of people who listen to our messages, but very few who take it seriously and progress towards baptism. You can have a handful of investigators that all look great one week, and then the next they all decide to go south on you. That’s just the way it goes. Unfortunately that’s what has been happening the past two weeks here. We had so many awesome people that we were teaching that all decided they don’y want to listen any more, or that we just can’t find. So you could say we’re in a little bit of a “rebuilding season” right now, trying to find those who are prepared to receive us. 

We do, however, have on investigator named Lucero who has some promise. She’s 25 and lives alone with her little 4 year-old son. She actually was the one who found us, as we were teaching her neighbor and asked if she could listen too. She turned out to be a lot more interested then her neighbor, and since then we have taught 3 or 4 really spiritual lessons. Lucero seems to be really lonely and is having a really hard time since her boyfriend left her. She also has told us how she feels really disconnected from God and feels really guilty for some of the things she has done in her life. We shared with her the plan of salvation, and how Christ’s infinite atonement is the central part of God’s plan. We told her how it doesn’t matter what trials we are passing through, how much pain we feel, or what things we have done wrong, Christ’s open arms are always extended towards us and his atoning sacrifice will always help lift us up. She seemed to be really touched by our words and couldn’t take her eyes off of the picture of the Savior that was on the pamphlet that we gave her. After a little silence, I asked her she felt. Holding back the tears she looked up and said, “Like there is hope.” The spirit was so strong and I knew at that moment she was feeling the love of Christ. Since that lesson I have kept thinking about the words Lucero replied. One of the biggest feelings that the gospel brings to our lives, it is hope. Hope for something more, hope for a better life, hope for new beginnings, etc. I’m so grateful for this gospel and the hope that it brings to my life.

Another cool person we came across this week was a kid named Cristofer. We had taught Cristofer’s mom the week before and on Thursday we had our return visit scheduled with her. In the first lesson she hadn’t really shown any interest and reluctantly accepted a return visit, so I was really hesitant to go back and teach her again. However I felt like we needed to go, so we went. She ended up not being there, but we found her 15 year-old son, Cristofer. He agreed to listen to our message and was really interested in it. He knew a lot about Jesus and the Bible and loved the idea of modern day prophets. He agreed to think and pray about what we taught him to see if it’s true. He looks like he might have some potential.

Sunday night I had a pretty cool experience. As we were heading back to our room at the end of the day, I was feeling a little bit down due to our slow progress we’d had during the week but even more just due to all the “bad” in the world. Sunday nights are always a little rough tp be out an the streets because of all the parties, drunk people, etc, but this Sunday seemed to be extra crazy. I was walking and just wishing that I could stand up on a wall like a prophet and teach to everyone the good word. When we got back to the room, to help boost my spirits I randomly opened up the Book of Mormon. Interestingly, I opened right up to Alma 29, and started reading:

1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

4 I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.

Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.

6 Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?

I totally felt like this was speaking to me. It gave me some comfort to know that a missionary and prophet in the Book of Mormon had had some of the same feeling and desires that I was feeling at that moment. But Alma also teaches some important doctrine here to missionaries. Although sometimes we want to be that angel with a trumpet “declaring repentance” to all the ends of the earth, “changing the lives of all” we need to remember that the Lord has given each one of his children the gift of agency to choose evil or to choose good. We have to remember that he is a just God, and will force no man to heaven. We just have to do our part in the stewardship that the Lord has given us as missionaries, and invite others to come to repentance. If we do that, the Lord will always be content with us. I love the Book of Mormon and am grateful that I was able to receive that counsel from it on Sunday.

Que tengan una semana fantastica! Los amo!!

Avanza Su Verdad

Elder Bailey

Week 56

Hey!
So not a whole lot of time today, but I just wanted to share a little miracle I had this week:

Saturday morning while studying, we got a call from a foreign number. I answered and heard, "Hey is this Elder Bailey in the Peru Piura Mission?" I said it was, and then asked the guy what was up. He told me he was an Elder serving in the Chile Antofagasta mission, and that he had some good news for me. I was pretty confused, not having any idea what good news a missionary from Chile could possibly have for me. He then asked me if I was the missionary that had found and taught Javier Farfan in Piura, Peru. (If you dont remember Javier, he was me and Elder Randall's "golden investigator" that we had found and taught a few months ago.) When the Elder mentioned Javier, I got really anxious considering that I hadnt heard anything about him in months and the Elders in Piura had also lost contact with him. After replying to the Elder that I had in fact taught Javier, he said the following, 

"Wow. Thank you Elder Bailey for all your work. We're happy to tell you that his baptism is today. He wanted us to call you to thank you for finding him and for helping him change his life."


I was left without words. Ever since I was transferred from Piura I had been praying hard for Javier that he might one day be baptized, even though I knew I would probably never see or hear from him again. I have never in my life seen anyone as prepared to recieve the gospel as was Javier. We were the first missionaries to ever teach Javier, and in just a month or two he had read and studied almost the entire Book of Mormon and knew it was all true. We had taught him all the lessons and even taught him thoroughly about the temple and the blessings we recieve there. We had worked so hard with him towards his baptism, but he just couldnt overcome some problems. There was nothing more that I wanted for Javier to be baptized... However I knew there was something special about him, and I knew that he would one day be baptized.

Turns out that Javier had followed through with his plans to move to Chile that he once had mentioned to us, and had found the church there (that's why the Elders in Piura weren't able to find him). The Elders were able to help him overcome his problems, make new commitments, and he was baptized a member of the church on Saturday. I honestly can't explain the pure joy I feel to know that Javier was finally baptized and that his story didn't end as a mystery for me. "Javs" was definitely someone prepared by the hand of the Lord and I have no doubt that he will be a strong member of this church and an asset to his new ward in Chile. This was a miracle for me this week and a huge highlight of my mission. Im so grateful that the Lord was able to guide me and Elder Randall to Javier, and that we were able to play a part in his conversion to the Lord.

Avanza Su Verdad!
Elder Bailey

Week 55

This week was really good! Things are going really well with my new comp Elder Quispe. He’s the man and a really great missionary. We work well together and both have strong desires to work hard and be obedient. This week we focused a lot on finding new people and adding to our teaching pool.

The highlight of the week was finding a 19 year-old kid named Juan. After knocking on his door and explaining that we had a message about Christ, he quickly let us in to listen. Anyone who has ever been a missionary or has done any kind of missionary work will tell you that it’s not very often that you find someone that understands the message of the restoration with perfect clarity in the first lesson. However, this was 100% the case with Juan. He listened carefully to everything we taught about Christs restored Church on the Earth, and by the end of the lesson he seemed to be deeply impacted by our message. When we asked him if he had any questions about what we had taught, he said no, but quietly thanked us and said, “Wow. To be honest I didn’t know about any of this…” We explained to him that there are lots of people that haven’t heard of it, and for that reason we have left our homes and families for two years to tell everyone all about it. It’s such a special opportunity to be a missionary and to be able to bring this great news to people for the first time. I have a good feeling about Juan and hope to see him progress. He seems to me like someone special.

On Wednesday we did some service by helping our pensionista, Hermana Jenny, hand-make a dessert called “Natillas de arroz,” which is basically a type of caramel that you eat with bread or cookies. It took quite a bit of time and hard work to hand-grind rice and sugar and then melt it all together in a pot over an open fire, but it was pretty fun to make. The caramel didn’t turn out too pretty, but Jenny seemed to be grateful for our help.

On Saturday we went on visits with our ward leaders to an area called “La Eantera”, a place where literally hundreds of inactive members live.  We thought it would be good to help out the ward recover some strength considering the declining number of church attendance here. One of the visits we made was to an old farmer named “Juan el Bautista”  (In english his name would literally be “John the Baptist”). Juan was baptized in the Tumbes river in the year 1984, and was one of the first members in all of Tumbes, Peru. He and his family were the pioneers in creating a small branch here in La Cruz, which would later be what is now our ward. It was really cool to hear his story and to learn a little more about the history of the church In this area. Hopefully we can help him and his big family of about 40-80 members out to church again. 

Saturday night while contacting in a little park we got a call from our ward mission leader, Luis Tito, saying he had cornered a big rat in his house and needed some help to kill it. considering the rat problems we had in the past, we were happy to help him out. When we got over to his house he had the guy cornered under his fridge. We couldn’t get him to come out so we decided to heat up some water to throw under the fridge to force him out. It worked, and the rat shot out like a rocket from under the fridge and then for about 15 seconds we were all scrambling around like a bunch of fools trying to stomp on him. It was hilarious. Unfortunately the little bugger won the battle and got away buy hiding inside one of the couches. After shaking the couches for a good 10 minutes he wasn’t coming out. Finally we gave up and resulted to putting out some rat poison to finish the job. One of these days I’ll finally get ahold of one of those sneaky little guys…

Well thats it for this week. The work is moving along little by little here in La Cruz. But its by those little steps of progress we’re hoping to see miracles. We’ve just got to keep working hard and trusting in the Lord! 

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey

2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”

Week 54

Wow, so this week was an absolute blur. Right after emailing home last Monday, I started feeling really, really crappy. We headed back to the room to rest and things just kept getting worse and worse. I spent the whole night with a high fever and chills and I was throwing up. It was definitely one of the most painful sicknesses I can remember having in my entire life. I seriously felt like I was going to die, haha. The next morning, things hadn’t really gotten any better, so we called the mission office and they thought it’d be best to head into Tumbes to get checked out. So we went to the hospital and after taking some blood samples and running some tests, the doctor came in to tell me that I had a pretty sever intestinal infection. Crazy, right? He said I probably had gotten it from something I ate. I have no doubt that it was the plate of Ceviche (typical Peruvian dish that consists of raw fish and onions) that I had eaten the day before. I’m definitely going to be cutting Ceviche out of the diet for the rest of the mish. Anyways, the doctor thought that it would be best to keep me overnight in the hospital while they hooked me up on an IV to get me some liquids and antibiotics. Everything went well, and I’m better now, but I have to say it was quite the unique experience to experience Peruvian healthcare, lol. I don’t have time to write all about it, but ask me about it when I’m home. So yeah, most of this week I was stuck in bed resting up. I’m grateful to be alive! Haha, kidding.

However, on Saturday I was feeling a little better and we were able to have Lucila’s baptism! Her baptism for sure was one of the most well-planned and organized baptisms that I’ve seen here in the mission. The members showed up, a member of the bishopric was present, the assigned talk-givers came through, and we ALMOST started on time! It was awesome. Lucila is the sweetest little girl ever, and is one of my favorite baptisms I’ve had. I’ve developed such a special bond with her and absolutely loved teaching her. She understands the gospel so well and in such a deep way for only being 9 years old. I’ve never seen anyone so excited to follow Jesus and be baptized. She has also set a good example for her non-member dad and her inactive mom. They both came to her baptism and showed up on Sunday for her confirmation. Lucila is definitely someone special. 

This week was transfers! I’ll be staying here in La Cruz for at least another 6 week and my new companion is Elder Quispe! He’s from Trujillo, Peru and is a stud. He was actually in my district back in Piura when I was a DL there, so I know him pretty well. We’re excited to get workin’ together. Hopefully we’ll see some baptisms this transfer. 

This week I was reading in Alma about one of my heroes of the Book of Mormon: Captain Moroni. In Chapter 48:17, we learn a little about his character:

"17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.”

I love this scripture. What a spiritual giant Moroni must have been. This verse always makes me reflect a little. If every person on earth today was “like unto” me, what kind of world would we live in? Or if every missionary was “like unto” me, what would the mission field look like? This way of thinking helps me to realize the things I am doing well, and also the many things I need to improve on. If every man or woman was like unto you, would the "very powers of hell” be shaken? Would the “devil never have power over the heart of the children of men”? How would this world be? 

Hasta a próxima semana! 

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey