Day 600

Salutations family and friends! 

Another week has gone by and I can't seem to keep up! Time is moving so fast! This week was great. Not super eventful but super good! As usual, I don't have a ton of time but I will run you through this week and some things that happened! 

The week started out on Tuesday in the Mission Home! We had good ole mission leadership council! It was a good time and we learned a lot! It took up most of the day though. It was good to see all of the mission buddies, especially the ones from my group. Out of the 14 leaders in the mission that were there, 7 of them are from the group that came to sweden with me. So that was super fun to see them all and get pics and stuff. It was super fun. MLC was about paying forward the knowledge and skills that we have to younger missionaries. We learned a lot that we were able to take with us to zone training.

Wednesday we were able to teach Hanna! She is doing so great!! She has honestly made a 180 in the last little while. When we got to her place on Wednesday, we had a lesson on prayer. It was really good and the spirit was strong! She even said the prayer at the end of the lesson! During the lesson she started crying and told us about how much the BoM has helped her. She said how she was listening to a general conference talk and in the talk they said that if you are ever feeling sad or down or mad or whatever, you can open up the BoM to any random page and you will read something that will help you and you will feel better. She said that she did that and that it really worked. It is just so cool to see the change that has taken place in Hanna. I honestly feel like we haven't even done much besides teach her the lessons. It really shows that true conversion happens when the missionaries aren't there. It happens when the person truly shows their faith and acts and reads and prays on their own. It's the relationship between the person and Heavenly Father that matters. Hanna came to church again yesterday and we are meeting her this week. She is definitely ready to be baptized!

On Wednesday evening, Elder Weaver and I were basically speedwalking to catch the tunnelbana (subway) and we had been speed walking for awhile when we heard a voice behind us say "are you guys trying to break a speed record or something? I've been trying to catch up to you for the last 5 minutes!" Haha we laughed and he then told us that his name was Andy and that he wanted to learn more about religion and our church. He said he is very interested and wants to know what religion is all about. He asked if we could meet sometime and discuss. We told him we were in a rush and we switched numbers and said we would call him. He then said "Listen guys, I'm not looking to become a mormon, I just want to know what you are all about. But hey, I guess it could be a side effect!" haha we laughed and then he just walked off. But since then we have met Andy twice now and he is an awesome guy! He is half swedish half american and was in the army for 27 years. He really understands us as missionaries because it is a lot like being a soldier. He asks lots of questions and really has the desire to learn. We are going to teach him again this week!

We are also teaching an 11 year old boy named William. He is half finnish and have peruvian or something I'm not sure but his mom and step dad are members and he basically just needs to hear the lessons. We taught him the restoration this week and at the end he told us that there is just 3% left until he is ready to be baptized haha. He is such a stud! He was at church yesterday and I was talking to him and he said "Elder Bailey, I went to bed at 12:30 last night and I was super tired this morning but I got up and came to church anyways. And now I'm going to go to primary." Of course he said it in swedish but I translated so you could understand ;) but it was super funny. I have a lot of respect for that kid! What an example of faith! Most of our investigators and some members can't even get up and come to church when they had a late night the night before. William is a stud and we are going to teach him this week!

Thursday we had Zone Training. It was really good and it was so good to see all the missionaries in our zone. Elder Weaver and I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare, but it turned out super good! The Lord definitely helped us deliver the message in the way our zone needed to hear it! We also focused on passing our knowledge and skills on to other missionaries so that we can help eachother be better. We also focused on skills and how we can be better at contacting and teaching. We taught about little things we can do to make our contacts better and our lessons better. It was great.

I don't have a lot of time left, and I wanted to write a lot about this, but if you are looking for some strength and inspiration, go to lds.org  and look up the video "staying spiritually fit". https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-01-006-staying-spiritually-fit?lang=eng I don't know how many of you have seen it but I just saw it for the first time a few weeks ago. It is definitely one of my favorites. It talks about how now is the time to prepare to meet God. Just as an athlete prepares daily for game day; when we work on our spirituality daily and give our all to the Lord, we strengthen our testimonies of Him and of His gospel.

I love you all and I want you to know that I know that this church is true. Thank you for all you do for me. Thank you for all the prayers and emails and letters. I truly appreciate you all. 

"Increased spiritual strength is a gift from God which He can give when we push in His service to our limits." -Henry B Eyring

Godspeed

äldste Bailey

Day 593

Tjena familj, släkt o vänner!

Things are rolling along here in the magical country of Sweden! I am doing really well and loving my mission so much! Elder Weaver and I are getting along sooo well! He is an absolute stud!! He is an amazing missionary and such a great guy. He is going to be an amazing zone leader and I am super pumped for this transfer with him!! We worked really hard this week and definitely saw the miracles blessing from the Lord.

I don't have a lot of time but I want to talk about a couple experiences that happened this week. The first one happened to Elder Liddle and I (I guess Michael Liddle now) before he left. It almost felt like we met one of the 3 nephites or an angel or something. It was when I was still sick and we had had a really hard day. I was feeling like garbage and my head hurt and my nose was runny and dry and yeah it sucked. And on top of all of that we had had a full day of contacting and a full day of getting shut down. Just rejection after rejection. We even ran for trains and buses and missed almost all of them. Wasn't my day. So towards the end of the day there was a bus we were supposed to take that was pulling up while we were like 100 yards away so we started sprinting. It started pulling away right as we got there so I tapped on the glass window as it was driving away so the driver could hear me. He stopped the bus and opened the door and got mad at us for running for the bus from behind and for tapping on the glass. So at that point I was just done. I am usually a pretty optimistic person when it comes to sharing the gospel and it takes a lot to get me down but at this point I was just done. So we sat down on the bus and I was just kinda angry slash sad slash tired slash I don't know haha. But just a few seconds after we sat down, I saw a guy up in the front of the bus turn his head around and look back at us. I was wondering why he was staring at us and then he walked back to us and sat down by us. He was a young swede probably around 25 or something. But there was something different about this guy. He smiled a lot and asked us if we were christians. We told him yeah and he got super happy. I'm telling you there was just a light in this guy's eye. He told us he was Christian too and started asking us about our beliefs and about what makes us different. It was crazy how interested he was in what we were telling him. He kept asking question after question. We started teaching him about the BoM when his stop came. He said he had to get off and we decided that we could get off there as well. We got off the bus and we started walking with him he put his arm around my shoulder and patted me on the back and looked into my eyes and gave me on of the most loving smile I've ever seen. He didn't say it but what I felt inside was "You are doing a great work. Keep going. It's going to be alright." It was so weird that I could feel the spirit so strong from this random guy. So we started walking with him and he didn't really tell us where he was going and we walked with him for about 10 min. It seemed like we were walking in circles. As we were teaching him, he continued to ask us question after question. He then asked us what chapters in the Book of Mormon mean the most to us. He wanted us to mark the chapters so he could read them. As we were walking, we were able to tell him where our church was and that he was welcome. Haha here is the weird part. Right as we were about to ask for his number he turns around and says, "Well, there's my bus.” You've got to keep in mind that we weren't even close to a bus stop. There was kind of a little intersection thing close by but no bus stop. Then he just raises up his hand to the bus and it stops, opens the door, he gets on, and then the bus pulls away.. Then Elder Liddle and I just looked at eachother wondering what just happened. Bus drivers in Stockholm don't do that. Then Elder Liddle said to me "I hope that guy comes to church." I then told him "Nah, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up. I bet that guy was an angel or one of the 3 nephites, haha". His name was Jonas by the way. I know that God sent him as a sort of angel to strengthen us and to pick us up when we were down. He gave me a lot of strength and showed me a lot of love when I needed it. And even if he was just a regular swede, he showed me that God will give us opportunities to share the gospel and bear our testimonies if we don't give up and give him all we have. I don't know what happened to Jonas or who he is but I love him and I am grateful for the love he showed me that day. I know that God puts people in our path to help us and cheer us on. We can also be those people for others. God will use us to answer other people's prayers. That is why it is so important to stay worthy of the spirit and ACT on the promptings we receive. You never know, you might make someone's day or change someone's life. 

Well, after that really long story, I definitely don't have a lot of time. We have found a few new people that we are teaching! One of them is named Milad. He was taught a little bit before by the missionaries and lost contact for awhile. So we called him up and he said he could meet that day. So we met him at the YSA center and it happened to be institute that night so all the Stockholm YSA's were there. So he was able to meet them and mingle with them. He is a 22 year old guy from Iran by the way haha. He really liked it and then we met up with him again the next day and taught him the Restoration. He is already christain and has already been baptized so it was hard for him to understand why he needed to be baptized again. So we focused on the apostacy and the restoration and priesthood authority. He liked it and understood. He agreed to set a baptismal date for the 24th of September! So we hope he will receive an answer by then and we are excited to teach him!! He is a stud and a super good guy!

Well, That's about all I have time to report on! There was a lot of other good stuff that happened this week that I wish I could write about! But alas, I have but a few minutes left. I want you all to know that I have a testimony of this church and the gospel, that I know it is true! I love you all and thank you for all you do for me!!

Godspeed my friends.

Love

äldste Bailey

Day 586 - Transfers!

Hello there friends and family and such! 

Hope everybody is doin well. I am doing great and livin the dream! I love Sweden so much and I love being a missionary with all my heart. I am so lucky to be serving the Lord in this beautiful country and helping amazing people everyday. As you probably noticed, transfers are coming up in a few days! My beloved companion Elder Liddle will be transferring to the great land of Orem Utah. He is heading home in a few days and it's super weird! He is all packed up and entering the last few days of his mission. Elder Liddle is a fantastic missionary and has always been around since I got to the mission. Weird to see him go. I am grateful for the time I spent with him and for all I learned from him. Seeing him leave made me realize how little time I have left and how grateful I am for that time. I love serving the Lord and I am going to spend every last second I can giving him everything I have. I want to be able to get off the plane with 0 regrets and to be able to tell my Heavenly Father that I gave Him everything. 

Replacing Elder Liddle as my new companion will be Elder Weaver! He is going to be a new zone leader and I know him super well and I love him! When I was up in Umeå, he was the district leader in Sundsvall and he did such a good job! He is an incredible missionary and I am excited to work with him! He comes from Ogden I think but yeah he went to Weber High and played basketball there! So sports night will be awesome! 

This week was super crazy with lots of appointments and splits and running around and preaching the good word! I will give you a quick update!

On Monday, we got permission to go to a professional soccer game! It was super super fun! It felt like I was in the FIFA video game haha.  It was originally going to be just us and the other Gubbängen Elders but word got out and it ended up being like 20 missionaries! It was so much fun. I never got the group picture but I will find out whose phone has it and send it next week! 

On Tuesday we were able to teach Hanna again. She is doing awesome! The lesson went so well. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ which talks about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. It honestly went so well. She had read 2 Nephi 31 before we came and she had a lot of questions about it which was awesome. We were able to answer those and then teach about the Gospel of Jesus Krist. The spirit was so strong and she was happy to tell us that she felt really good when she reads the Book of Mormon! That is a huge step for her! She also told us that she wants to be baptized! Just not right now. She says she needs a little more time until she feels completely ready which we can respect. She is doing so awesome though. The lesson went really well and I always love testifying of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel like it encompasses the most action and change and application of all the lessons. The spirit is always so powerful as we witness that as they follow the gospel of Christ, it will change their lives. Hanna is doing really well though. We are actually meeting her today! We are going to teach her about prayer!

On Wednesday I had the privilege of going on splits in my old area of Uppsala!! It was so weird to be back but it felt really good at the same time. It was weird to see that basically everything was the exact same. Besides the fact that everything was green and about every person was on their phone playing pokemon go haha. I was with Elder Pfost who is an incredible missionary. We basically contacted all day long! My favorite kinds of days! I was also sick this week so he was a trooper for putting up with a sick Elder Bailey. I also got to see one of my favorite people from Uppsala! Well two actually, Jose and Caroline! It was so good to see Jose. He has grown so much haha! We spent the evening at Caroline's and it was so awesome!! It felt to good to spend time with her and catch up with her and her family! Her daughter Kerstin is sooo big now! Crazy!

Caroline is doing awesome though and has also grown so much spiritually. She is the best!

On Thursday we had district meeting and lunch in Uppsala with the district up there and it was awesome! Then we traveled back to Stockholm and had dinner and sports night at the church!

Friday was District meeting for our district which was also good. We talked about receiving revelation through prayer and helping our investigators do the same. It was really good.

On Saturday we attended a baptism for the Elders in Jakobsberg! (Elder Blackburn and Dean). It was good to see good old Elder Blackburn. I love that kid so much. I think all we do is laugh when we are together hahaha we are just both really weird. But the baptism was awesome! It was a guy named Musi from Afghanistan! I interviewed him during the week and he was so ready! He was really happy afterwords and the spirit was strong!

We also got to meet Daniel on Saturday! He is doing really well and is progressing in his reading in the Book of Mormon! We taught him more about the Restoration and he knows it super well now! He is just a bro and an amazing member. We also had a push up contest after the lesson hahaha he is a beast ;)

Well I have to bounce! There is a little bit more that happened but that's about all the time I have! I love you all!! Keep working hard in all you do! Don't settle! Nothing worth it comes easy. This church is true and this work is true. Have a good week everyone!

Godspeed my friends.

äldste Bailey

Day 579

Tjena!

Hello family and friends! I'm going to be spitting this email off at the speed of light because of a shortage of time. But everything is going well in Gubbängen and I love it here. I love the ward and the members. They are such amazing people. I love all the missionaries I get to be in contact with and work with. And I love this city! I am so grateful to be serving my Savior in this beautiful country. I love my mission and I am so grateful for how it has changed me and for everything I have learned. I can truly say that a mission is the best decision I have ever made in my life. I have grown and come closer to my Savior in ways that I can't explain. I love Him and I know he has been with me every step of the way!

Well, this week we were basically on splits or in the computer room doing stake reports. Okay that was an overexaggeration but that's what it felt like sometimes. But on Tuesday we were able to meet with an investigator that I actually hadn't met until then but her name is Hanna. She is from Peru and grew up Catholic. She is married to Jorge who is a member but is kind of less active. We meet them with a member named Hector who translates for us. Hanna can't speak very much Swedish and can't speak any English. So Hector was translating from Swedish to Spanish for us. The whole time I was just thinking how cool it would be to have one of my buddies who can speak spanish teaching that lesson with me. Anyways, the lesson was really good and the spirit was definitley there. We basically focused on the Book of Mormon. She thinks it's a good book, but she has a hard time accepting it as scripture. She had a lot of questions about little details in the book and we did our best to answer them the best we could but let her know that it all comes down to asking God whether or not it is true. She said she has prayed about the church before but never specifically about the Book of Mormon. We challenged her to do that and bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Hanna is doing great and came to church on Sunday!

On Wednesday, we had a specialized zone training. Which means that President and Sister Beckstrand and the assistants were holding the training! It was really really good and was about Obedience. Our mission is not disobedient at all. In fact, the mission as improved sooo much over the last few years in terms of obedience and success. It is incredible. I am grateful to be a part of the change. Anyways, the training was awesome. The assistents focused a little bit on the spirit of the law vs the letter of the law and it was really interesting. Obedience is so key in everything we do and it is the first law of heaven. It is an act of faith. God loves us so much and wants us to return back to him. To help us do that, he has given us the commandments. It is up to us whether or not we want to follow them or not. But as we obey, we increase in faith, knowledge, wisdom, testimony, protection, and freedom. Our Heavenly Father knows us perfectly and knows exactly how we need to live our lives to acheive the greatest amount of happiness possible. That is why it is so important that we are obedient. Sister Harkness, a sister in my group, used to always tell us this quote and I can't even remember who said it but it has always stuck with me as a missionary. “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” This is so true and I have seen it in my work as a missionary and in my everyday life. Decide now to want to be obedient! I promise you that it will make a difference in your life and bring you closer to Jesus Christ.

Thursday we were able to teach Daniel again! We retaught him the first lesson and it was awesome. He is doing so well and he is so happy. We also read 1 Ne chapter 1 with him to help get him started on the BoM from the beginning. It was super good!

Well boys and girls, I have to head! It was good to write to ya! keep fighting the good fight! I love you all! Have a good week!

Love,

äldste Bailey

Day 573

Greetings!

Hello everybody!!! I guess I basically just said hello when I said "greetings" haha but whatever. I hope everyone is doing well! I want everyone to know that I am doing great and absolutely loving my mission! I also want everyone to know that I am sorry for all my low quality emails the past monthish. I just have had no time. And alas, I have but little time again this week. I am so sorry haha. Today was pretty crazy. And the reason I am emailing on Tuesday is that we had a multizone volleyball tournament yesterday! Elder Liddle and I actually put it together and it was awesome! I even stole the giant trophy from the church to give to the winning team. (for pictures and the satisfaction of winning only. It had to go back afterwords haha) We also put together a huge tournament and bracket and everything. I even bought a whistle the other day ;) Anyways I am wasting precious time writing about this but our team lost in the championship and I was sooo mad. Hahaha all the missionaries got to see my competitive side ;) 

This week was awesome! Daniel got..... BAPTIZED!! It was such a good day! He was so excited and was so happy! He almost baptized himself when he got in the water haha and Niko (guy who baptized him) was like woah man not yet haha. He was just so excited and the spirit was so strong! He is going to be an amazing member! 

I was also able to reunite with Elder Blackburn again and go to the temple with CAROLINE!! :) it was sooo much fun and the spirit was so strong in the temple. 

Well I have to bounce, I am so sorry guys that this is so short! I am doing well and working hard!! I love you all! Remember that the church is true!!

PS Elder Murtonen is a stud and this S/O goes to him! He is one of my mission heroes and I hope I can be like him one day!

Love,

Äldste Bailey