Discover How Much Your Heart Can Hold

My Dearly Beloved Family, Today the internet was (and is) down in Nasca for the whole day. 

3rd world problems.... 

I take so much for granted, and sometimes God just has to remind me. This email is going to be super fast and super scattered, but my heart is full and I feel incredibly blessed this week and today. God is good, and patience and faith are the formula to lasting happiness and joy. It is just carry on, carry on, carry on! And it is a joyous

journey.if we make it that way through gratitude and using the atonement:) Anyway. On Monday, we went to this ruins place called Cahuachi and it was sooo windy but was really cool because according to like history it could have totally been Zarahemla.... very cool. Also that night we had planned a Family Home Evening with some less actives and a ton of members came and it was a huge success! We are really working on strengthening the branch and the members. 

On Tuesday, we had a lot of member support again! Three members came with us

to visit a family of inactive sisters who just really need a lot of support. It was awesome to see the branch working and the blessings flowing. Wednesday, I had exchanges with Hermana Sintay and it was really good! She is an

amazing missionary, and I continue learning more than anyone else on the exchanges

through their examples. 

Thursday was the best day of the week. We started proselyting in the afternoon and I just felt weird and down.... I don't know what it was, but we were both feeling it. Then, we decided to go and visit a recent convert who is about 80 named Fabiana. She can't read, so we read the Book of Mormon to her and try to help her understand. She is really smart, just never had the opportunity to get an education because she lived in a little pueblo and then worked her whole life. But it frustrates her to not be able to understand the scriptures and things very well.... Her faith is amazing and she literally wants it more than anything. But it is hard for her. Well we read in 1 Nephi 11 when he asks Nephi if he understands the nature of God and he says I don't understand everything, but I know God loves us. After that, she prayed to close the lesson and it was the most sincere prayer begging for light and understanding I have ever heard in my whole life. She has so much faith in God, and she was just pleading with him to understand, and she just said, "I am your daughter!" and i just started bawling. I felt it so strong, what she by faith understands. That she is a daughter of god! and that He WILL care for us. 3 Nephi 13-26-33, Doctrine and Covenants 50:40-41, Moses 1:13 After that lesson, we prayed as a companionship and went to our next appointment and were able to set a baptismal date! Susana, who lost her husband, is preparing to be baptized the 18th of April. Then we found a new investigator, and the spirit of our day just completely changed. Thanks to the faith of Fabiana :)

 I was reading this week in the bible dictionary about temples,  and it says the temple and the home are the holiest places

 in the world. Doctrine and Covenants 136:31, we are tried in all things to be fit for the kingdom. The Spirit is so important and so delicate,.... it comes in the still and quiet moments, and we need to learn to live and thrive in those moments to be able to feel and live by the spirit. I am so thankful for this gospel, for this day, and for the blessings that God has given me. I am so thankful for my family, and for the Holy Ghost. God lives and He loves us, and we are His children. The temple is a holy house where we can feel the love of our Father and taste our potential. 

Christ lives, and He died for every single one of our sins, sorrows, and sufferings. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Kingdom of God on this earth, and only by and through the teachings of the  Book of Mormon can we make it back to Him who created us. I am so filled with love for my Savior and for my family and for the people of Peru. 

Thank you for everything, I love you all!!! -- 

*Hermana Bailey*

Perfect Imperfection

Hermanas Bott and Bailey

Buenos Dias my incredibly beloved familia whom I cherish and adore!!

How the heck are you? Sounds like there is a lot of crazy close calls going on.... I am so grateful for the blessing of the holy ghost and the blessings that come when we follow the promptings of it. I am grateful for covenants and the protection God offers his faithful servants. And I am thankful for a family that are faithful examples to me, and are worthy of the protection of the Lord. Also, side note, guardian angels are totally real. It is a promise of the family history that when we do vicarious ordinances or work in our family history, those people convert into guardian angels. They are there :) and the Lord protects those who are true.

Anyway. 

I love you all dearly.

Anyway.

Last Monday I spent the day traveling to Lima with Hermana Bott but it was by far the best travel day ever. I love her dearly, it was way cool to be able to REALLY talk for the first time in a whole YEAR and see everything that has changed and all that will change and how amazing the mission and the gospel and the atonement of Christ really is. We are so different, but still so the same. I am so grateful for true friends, and so thankful for this mission and the atonement. The plan of our Heavenly Father is perfect imperfection. His plan was always that we break.... the fall of adam and broken commandments. The atonement of Christ and broken bands of death and sin. The fall of us and our broken hearts, broken lives, and broken worthiness. We had to break to become whole, to be fixed and to grow. We had to break to come unto Christ. We had to break to learn and to grow. Satan wanted to change the plan, he wanted perfection. But that was never the plan. There is something very profound in a plan of perfect imperfection.... God loves broken things. The important part is that we apply the atonement and repentance to repair what breaks. 

Tuesday was concilio and as always the spirit was very strong. President and Sister Douglas just bring it with them... they remind me a lot of my mom and dad. And I just respect and love them a TON. One of the big themes I understood from concilio was consecration and becoming a new creature in Christ... building consecration and faith and really leaving it all behind to walk the path of discipleship. Because THAT is where the miracles come. And we so desperately need miracles every day. In the mission and in our lives. And we so desperately need to RECOGNIZE the miracles that there are. There are so very many. We are so very blessed, especially when we live a consecrated life and work to increase our faith. Which is hard sometimes.... but so very possible. Especially when we are doing the will of the Lord.  

 

Fun facts... me, Hermana Bott, Hermana Bond, and Hermana Rush were all in concilio. Reunited after one year!! It was awesome.

Funner fact.... I found out ( from Hermana Rush who is serving in my first ward) that Manuel Arcaya (a convert in San Juan) is now the Sunday School President and working towards getting sealed in the temple. I shed tears of joy :)

Wednesday... we finally (FINALLY) got back to our area in Nasca and it ended up being kind of a rough day.... we walked alllll day and we were sooooo tired and a tad bus sick and no one was home and everything was falling through... so we took a pause, stood under a tree, and said a prayer. Then, we went to teach a recent rescue who is about 80 years old and can't read, so we are helping her read and understand the Book of Mormon. We read chapter 8 of First Nephi and she understood all of it! We drew a picture of Lehi's dream while we were reading and she totally explained the literal and symbolic meaning of all of it and it was amazing. Truly :) Tender mercies of the lord. 

On Thursday we had Concilio de Zona.... which is when we come back and relay everything from concilio. It usually stresses me out to an extreme because I am still just really learning how to be in front of people... not one of my favorite things, ahahah, but having to teach this every month has really, really helped me. And this time the Spirit was so strong that it was easy. Hermana Douglas taught all about condensation and the dew point.... that humidity is our integrity and temperature is our faith, and when they are equal, the dew point happens. And the dew point is what brings the dews of heaven. It was super powerful, because we ae really needing a faith and miracle boost in the mission right now. But I know we are headed for it. Everyone is being humbled right now, and that is usually about when the miracles come haha. 

ON Friday, at the very end of the day, we saw a miracle :) We found a new investigator and she is great! Her name is Marina and we are way excited to start teaching her. We had been talking to EVERYONE all day and the grace came :) 

On Saturday, we had interviews with President in Ica. It was amazing :) He is seriously awesome. We talked a lot about the atonement in my interview, and I am so grateful for what I have learned and felt about the atonement in my mission. We also had a short training on goals and I FINALLY really understood what it is to put a goal of faith, as a missionary and also in real life. The faith is desire, work, and trust. Trust in God and the trust He has in us based on worthiness. It was a great day :)

Moroni 7:40-41

On Sunday, we had 5 less actives in church and almost all the recent converts and rescues! It was really a tender mercy. We weren't able to have any investigators, we are working really hard for that this week. Pray for us! Pray for the branch to explode with the spirit of missionary work.

A year ago, I remember walking around and teaching and wondering how I was ever going to do this for a year and a half. And now I just wonder how am I ever not going to do this? I love the mission so much. I love this work, I love this gospel. I love the Savior and I love the atonement. I finished the Book of Mormon again this morning. I know without a doubt in my heart that is true, and that it has power to change us. 

Should we not go forth in so great a cause?

OH remember how much I love you all :)

Thank you!

For absolutely everything.

Hermana Bailey

The Spirit of God and the Nasca Sun... Both Burn.

Hola my dearly beloved family whom I love!!! How is everything going? Wow I just love you all so much. Maybe a little too much :) Hahaha, well actually that probably isn't even possible.

Anyway,

I am rambling.

This week for P-day we played with water balloons and stuff and it was a really fun activity. I think it really helped us get closer as a zone too. It was hysterical and greatly appreciated because it was soooo dang hot. Seriously. It is always hot...but the sun and mountains are gorgeous, so I am OK with it :) That night we went to visit one of our investigators named Gustavo and we were talking to him about how his experience was in church the day before.  He was like "Hermanas, remember when you promised me that if I sacrificed and came to church, God would bless me to find work?" And we were like "uh..... yes?" And he said, I found work! I walked out of the church and was walking home and a man stopped me in the street and asked me if I wanted to work for him. The promise worked!" He just looked so happy and almost like shocked as he was telling us. It was awesome :) A huge testament of the blessings of church attendance and a big testimony builder to me because I am still like nervous sometimes to tell people if they come to church it will all somehow work out because they are all poor and need to work... but it is true. The blessings are real, and they always come.

On Wednesday I came up to Ica to do an exchange with Hermana Villena, Hermana Bott's companion. When I was in Ica we lived together for a transfer so I know her really well and it was a really successful exchange. Also, I love Ica and I got to see a ton of people I worked with when I was here and the Galindo family, so it is always awesome to come up to Ica :) I'm here right now actually... hahaha. Also with Hermana Villena we were able to talk a lot about teaching and teaching in the way the Savior teaches and it was really cool. We had a couple really cool experiences and made some really good goals. I learn more in exchanges than anywhere else... I just love seeing how everyone teaches. 

On Thursday we had a lesson with Basilia, one of our investigators, and her prayer was amazing. One of her road blocks is that she doesn't want to do anything without her husband, and he is always busy. But her prayer was so sincere and so powerful that I really think we are going to be able to see progress with him this week. Then after the lesson with her, we found a new investigator who is catholic but has a ton of questions and a deep testimony. Although there are like 80 little santitos like the Virgin Mary and the other ones and such, and they freak me out when we are teaching her. Yay catholic nations! Hahaha and after that we had a lesson with a less active and his mom and two of the young men and the District President came with us, and it was awesome. But the two young men I found out after aren't even members because they don't have parent permission.... and they are amazing. They are 14 and 15, they remind me of Judd and come faithfully every week. It breaks my heart, seriously. Also, I liked having them because there were a few drunks out and they were acting all tough and "protecting" us and it was hilarious. Hahaha and I made them contact  a lady to practice for their missions and they were so excited. I love the youth.

On Friday we went to Marcona to do family history! Marcona is an area about 1 more hour south of Nasca. It is right on the beach and it is super pretty. The saints down there are really faithful, and it is always worth the 1 hour van ride with the miners and mamitas to get to Marcona and teach family history :)

Holy crud. Saturday was the most difficult fast I have ever done. It was the hottest day of the week and every single house offered us Inca cola. TEMPTATION. But it was actually one of the most meaningful fasts I have ever had. That night, I was reading in preach my gospel and it says something like the central purpose of this life is to put our life in harmony with the will of the Father through repentance. And that just hit me really hard.... that is literally the purpose of our life. To just get it all in line with the Father. 

Then, on Sunday morning... we walked around all morning to pick up everyone who was going to go to church and NOBODY COULD. It was just like,  "Noooo not again!!!!!" It was a little discouraging, but the bright spot was this group of 3 less active sisters came and the whole branch was soooo excited to see them. We have been working a ton with them. The older sister is pregnant and is ashamed to come to church. She still wasn't ready Sunday, but we are working really hard with them. They are amazing :)

We had actually a lot of eternal investigators yesterday, and it just made me sad. People who can't progress due to someone else. I am so grateful for the atonement and the knowledge that someday all will be right. 

The gospel is true.

A mission is the best thing anyone could do.

Christ lives, and He loves us :)

And I love you! Have a great week!!!

Hermana Bailey