October 2, 2017
To Mom:
Stop mom, you're literally making me tear up, but yes, as you already know, I'm fine.
We had a crazy time, but all is good now. I've been in the California Riverside mission for about 4 days now and I love it.
 |
| Landen with his new Mission Presidents, the Hammons |
The people are great and generally super nice. Its super weird contacting people in English, I feel awkward sometimes, but it all works out well cause the Spirit speaks through your mouth and all that good stuff.
I'm not going to tell ya'll everything about what happened because honestly that would just take like 10 hours and my fingers don't have the strength to type that much. But I will share a brief outline and a few cool stories.
So we got hit by Hurricane Irma the first week of September, it did a little bit of damage but was overall harmless, so the next week we were able to go out and work just like normal. I got my new comp, Elder Banda, one week after the transfer was suppose to start. We got working together and hit it off. We had a great time together, he is super cool and we hit an all time record of new investigators, and most all of them had some seriously real potential. We also progressed our current investigators super well, basically we just had a really good week together.
The next Tuesday, like the 18th by now, we were told to pack a bag with clothes and food for 3 days, and drive to the mission office cause another hurricane was coming and we were going to weather it all together in the mission office (sisters in the mission home). We packed our bags, loaded our food, and took off. Got there, got set up, and waited out the hurricane together as a mission there. The circumstances there weren't perfect, and included rationed food and water, sleeping on a tile floor, and pooping in a bucket. But I'm not going to focus on the bad stuff cause that's boring and super lame, especially with all the miracles that happened. All I will say is that we were there for longer than the 3 days they told us we might be.
Thursday after the storm passed we went outside, just in that same neighborhood real close to the office, to do service. We had a great time and the people were very appreciative of even the little help we were able to offer. Friday we did service as well, but we had a more coordinated service project in which we all went to help clean up a destroyed psychiatric facility. They were also super grateful and loving about everything. Then Friday night, they told us we were being evacuated! That was the last thing we wanted to hear, but we also knew (cause president told us) that the decision came straight from the quorum of the 12 and the 1st presidency. So if it came from the prophets of this church, then it came from God, and we were all able to accept that God's plan is prolly what's best for us. We were up until like 2 am that night having a testimony meeting and packing our bags and what not.
Then we went in full evac mode - which meant chasing down every plane we could trying to get people off the Island. So we got up at 5 am on Saturday to drive all of the sisters to the airport.
Driving around that island after all that destruction was sad. Literally I don't know how to describe it other that with the word Destroyed. [flipping Maria absolutely shreked us]. Looking around our beloved mission was sad. We were leaving behind all of our friends, investigators, and members in an Island without power food or water and full of absolute destruction. We all felt broken inside. But we also felt a sense of dis-belonging. We would see ginormous trees knocked on their sides covering the highways and just feel strongly, that we weren't suppose to be there.
But as bad as it was, we at least as a mission were very blessed with countless miracles, most of which are in my journal, but I'm just going to share one with ya'll:
So on Saturday, we came back from the airport and had missed breakfast, so we made ourselves a sandwich. Then for lunch we had another sandwich, then we went to work. We went to work in the psychiatric facility hauling off trees and branches and what not. The same thing we had been doing for three days.
But this day for some reason was just a little harder. It might have been cause I only got three hours of sleep, or maybe because I had only eaten 2 pb sandwiches and nothing else in the past 24 hours, or maybe because I was super dehydrated too, but for some reason I was exhausted that day, and after about 3 hours of working outside getting sunburned by the scorching sun, I was about to pass out.
I was dragging a pretty big branch by myself over to our pile that was at the end of a big field. I was about half way across this field when I suddenly felt my branch that I was dragging lurch forward a little bit and get lighter, as if someone started pushing it from behind. I was confused because I thought I was the only person in the field at that specific time. So I turned around to see who was helping me, and saw nobody there. I was confused but I kept walking and kept dragging the branch to the pile when it happened again and got even lighter. I turned around to see nobody there again, and finally I understood. Christ promises us in the scriptures that when we do what is right, he will make our burdens light. I know that there were angels there with us that day doing service with us. Bearing us up, lightening our loads, and pushing our branches from behind with out us seeing them. I know they were there on the roof of the mission office the night of the storm, literally re-routing the fall of trees so as not to harm our building. We were more protected, and more blessed as a mission than we probably deserved to be and I know that these blessings came as answers to prayers that you guys gave, that members and non-members all over the world uttered when they heard Puerto Rico was getting hit. God answered these prayers and kept us safe, and now continues to answer prayers as we all adjust to the new mission life, especially without all of our stuff.
Thanks to everyone for their prayers and faith on behalf of Puerto Rico, keep them up cause they need all the help they can get. I love you all,
Elder Bailey
To Dad:
Yeah, I sent mom a big email about the whole PR thing, but as far as new mission things: I'm in an area called Moreno Valley, Its super cool; and it has a whole Spanish ward, not just a Spanish branch. I'm in a trio right now with Edler Loveridge from Salem, Utah and Elder Rivas from Mexico City. It's super fun and this mission is literally spoiling me. I kid you not - I went from sleeping on a tile floor for a week with just a sheet and a pillow, to a queen size tempurpedic mattress in a members house that we stay in. I haven't met the member yet cause he went to Utah for conference but he seems pretty cool. I only made it out with one backpack and my proselyting bag, so like I don't have much of anything. But people have been super nice and we are getting donations so I'm doing great. If you wouldn't mind sending me a jacket though (not suit jacket, a real jacket, it's fetching cold here!) That would be much appreciated!! Oh, and maybe a camera too if you want to see pics of the California desert! (**Editor's note: Thanks to a kind aunt of his for already stepping in and getting those items for him. Our family rocks!)
Tell Gramps congrats on the Elk, that thing's huge!!
ps: Here is my new address: 10680 HarryKeoth Drive; Rancho Belago, CA. 92555.
Love Ya'll,
Landen
(P.S. This is the nice elk that his Grandpa Bailey got this week that he was talking about):
