Week 41

Hey what’s goin on? 

I can’t believe how fast the weeks have been passing! I feel like this week was just a blur. Things are going good here in our area. Slowly but surely we are starting to see some changes. Just got to keep relying on the Lord.

Tuesday afternoon we did our usual “grind hour”, which is knocking doors after lunch during the hottest part of the day when the sun just beats on you. After only knocking about 2 or 3 doors, an older guy named Luis invited us in to talk. From the looks of him, he didn’t really seem to me like someone who would accept. I was super tired, too, and had to fight to keep my eyes open when Elder Randall was teaching. However, at the end of the lessonLuis started to show some signs that he was actually listening and interested. Then he said something that caught me off guard. After a quiet pause he said, “I’m going to read your book and pray about it. If I get an answer from God I want to be baptized!” Me and Elder Randall both looked at each other and smiled. It was super cool to see someone who really took our challenge to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it seriously. He accepted to be baptized on June 6th if he receives an answer. Hopefully he comes through and does his part to find one.

Tuesday night we had a lesson with the Facundo family. I don’t know if you remember, but a few months back we baptized a little 11 year old girl named Duani. Well, Duani is part of the Facundo family, which consists of the mom, Maritza, and her seven kids. All of them are baptized members of the church, but have been pretty inactive until Duani as baptized a few months ago. Lately, we have been teaching Duani as one of our recent converts, but now we’ve switched our attention to strengthening the whole family. Despite being members, the mom and some of her kids have some big doubts about the church. On Tuesday we really didn’t even teach them a lesson. It was more of a big Q and A. We were there for over an hour answering all their questions and doubts. We talked about everything ranging from prophets and apostles to commandments, agency, and the atonement. It was pretty crazy, but I think it was really good for them. At the end, we all came to the conclusion that they need to strengthen their testimonies of the Book of Mormon. We explained to them how it truly answers all the questions of the soul, and can help them with all of their doubts. They accepted our challenge to read one chapter from the Book of Mormon each day, and to continually pray to see if it is true.

On Thursday we got invited by the Jibaja family to a “niche de hogar”, or family home evening. If there is one area where the church is actually stronger here in Peru, it would definitely be in their family home evenings. It seems to me like everyone here really puts a big emphasis in having one every Monday. I really feel like that is something that can be strengthened in our wards and stakes back home. Anyways, we shoed up to their house on Thursday night, and the Jibaja family had invited some of their non-member friends also. Everything turned out super awesome. The lesson that Jonny (the dad) gave was on how the family can be together forever. We watched one of those super cheesy church movies from the 80’s but it was actually really good. The topic was really good for this family of non-members, as they had lost an 8 year-old child to cancer a few years back. They seemed to be really touched by the message. After the lesson, we played a bunch of games, ate pizza and pollo a la brasa, and had a good time. It was really cool to see how powerful and effective member missionary work can be. The Jibaja family are great examples of going outside yourself to invite others to come unto Christ. 

This week we worked closely with the Diaz family. It’s always a HUGE test of patience with them, as it's almost impossible to sit the whole fam down and teach a lesson. However, we finally were able to start teaching the Dad, Enrique, and he has shown some genuine interest. We watched a few mormon messages with him about finding God in our lives and how the gospel can strengthen our families and our marriages. He expressed to us his desire to change his life and create a stronger bond with his family. We shared with him the power of the atonement, and the real joy and happiness that the gospel brings through faith, repentance, and baptism. We invited him to be baptized, but he told us that he wants to learn a little bit more first. Our goal is to start with Enrique, the head of the house, and hopefully the rest of the family will follow. We’ll see what happens.

On Saturday we were finally able to sit down and have a talk with Javier. Everything went great! We were able to fully teach him the word of wisdom, and also about repentance. We read the entire chapter of Alma 36 with him, which is where Alma shares his conversion story with his son, Helaman. We shared with him how we can always come back to the Lord and we will be supported with our trials and afflictions. In verse 27 it says, “And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.” We told him how if he puts his trust in the Lord and comes unto him, the Lord will lift him up and help him with his personal struggles. Javier committed to live the word of wisdom, and we established a new baptismal date for the 19th of May. I’m so glad the Lord has been able to keep him in our hands. He is the man.

To end, I just want to share one of my favorite scriptures of all time that I have been thinking about and sharing a lot lately. It’s found in James 1:22, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves”. I just love that. Like I have mentioned before, I have met thousands of people here on my mission who, when I ask them if they have faith in Christ, they say yes but they do absolutely nothing to show their faith. As we see in the following chapter, “For as the body without the spirit is dead,  so faith without works is dead also.” To be true followers of Christ, we always need to show our faith through our works, which is righteously keeping his commandments and living his gospel. We cannot receive salvation by our faith alone. My challenge to us is that we can all be “doers” of the word of Christ, not just “hearers”. 

Well kids, that’s about it for this week. Everything is going good here en el Norte. The sad thing is, it’s looking like this could be my last week with Elder Randall. :( I guess all good things must come to an end. We’re for sure going to make the most of this last week together. The work continues…

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey

*Interesting note: There is a pack of about 5-6 dogs that follow us around every day. Not really sure why. We’ve become a little gang. Guess they want to share this message too. 

Week 40

Hey!

So I don’t have a ton of time today, so this is just going to be a quick update.

This week we finally found our guy Alison.  A few weeks ago, he came up to us one day when we were passing by his house and he wanted us to come visit him.  When we went to visit him, we taught him the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  He was super interested and said he would read the book.  However, we tried for about two and a half weeks to visit him but we couldn’t ever find him.  On Friday, we decided we would try one more time to find him in his house.  I was fed up with him for not following through with our appointments, and was ready to drop him.  When we got to his house, he was actually there.  He told us he had read the Book of Mormon and knew it was legit.  He told us that he felt it was all true.  It was awesome. He accepted a baptismal date for the 26th of May.  I am so glad we tried one more time to visit him.  Alison is the man.  He is definitely someone who has been prepared to hear the gospel.

Remember Javier from last week?  Well the story isn’t over yet.  So on Thursday, we were heading from one appointment to another, when we quickly passed by Javier’s house.  As we passed by, we heard a familiar voice yell, “Elders!“.  We stopped for a second and walked back to his house.  A few seconds later, a tired-looking Javier hobbled out from his house.  As he got closer and started to talk to us, we could clearly tell he was drunk.  It was super sad to see.  Turns out that the week before, one of his buddies offered him just “una cervesita” or “one little beer.”  Before that, he hadn’t had any kind of alcohol in over a year.  I guess he figured that “one little beer” wouldn’t hurt (we hadn’t gotten around to teaching the Word of Wisdom) and one thing led to another and he got super drunk.  Now he’s been drinking again.  He told us that he felt so unworthy to talk to us that he wouldn’t come to the door when we’d knock, and even told his sister to tell us he was going back to Venezuela.  He told us that he feels super bad, but wants to start things over again.  We told him that we are here to help him, and that through Christ, all things are possible.  We set an appointment to visit him on Tuesday.  We will see how things go.  It was really tough to find him like that and to hear what happened but now I feel he is moving in the right direction after talking to us.

Well I have to go!  Sorry for the short letter.  I’ll try to do better next week. Love you all. The work continues.

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey  #TakeNote

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

- Thomas Jefferson

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