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