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| Hermanas Bott and Bailey |
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
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