Wherein Landen Learns that The Prophet Is Coming!

August 27, 2018

First of All, for Miles:

Feliz feliz en tu Dia!!!

Amiguito, que Dios te Bendiga!!!

y que Reina la Paz en tu Vida!!!

y que Cumplas Mucho Mas!!!

Sounds like things are all good back home, Me alegre!

This week was super cool. It started out pretty normal, lots of opportunities to talk to people and help them get to know Christ better. Then it kinda hit a climax starting on Wednesday.  On Wednesday night we got a text from a member saying: "BTW, PRESIDENT NELSON IS COMING TO THE ISLAND ON SEPT. 2!"

     ...We were obviously excited. The next day we found out he was going to be meeting in a stadium in San Juan which was super cool cause it was gonna hold the whole Island. Turns out a little while afterward the First Presidency asked that the meeting be held in one of the stake centers on the island on Sunday.   So then on Saturday we got a text from the APs saying that the meeting had been changed, and that the prophet, together with Elder Renlund and his wife, would be giving the conference from the Caguas Stake Center.....That's OUR Chapel Building!  

    So after we got that text we were like, "uhhhh, the prophet of the whole world is coming to our Church on Sunday!" We were freaking out, and so was the whole ward, and the whole stake! I guess the plan was to then broadcast it from the chapel to the rest of the stake centers around the Island. 

     But then I guess all of the other stakes on the Island got super flamed and mad that they weren't going to get to see him in person (yeah, he's like a big celebrity or something)! So then because of complaints, after about a day of the plans being to have it in our stake center, they changed it back to happen in the Baseball stadium in San Juan.  

     So, the Prophet is not actually coming to our chapel, but he will still be coming to the Island and we will get to see him, so that's super cool! w= We're super excited about that. It is a whole stadium though, so I probably wont get to meet him or Elder Renlund in person, but its okay. 

     Cool story actually.  In April 2017 Conference Priesthood session, grandpa took me with him.  He introduced me to some people and the two people that stopped and talked with me for a substantial amount of time about my mission call to Puerto Rico and the importance of Missionary work were (the elder) now President Nelson, and Elder Renlund. So it's super-cool now that I am going to be able to see and Hear them talk in Puerto Rico! 

That's the Exciting news for this week, I Love you All!

Elder Bailey

Wherein Landen Becomes a Zone Leader.

August 20, 2018

     Thanks mother, pero, ahhhhhhhh wahhh wahh whooooo, canta, no Llores! (have Maelynn finish singing you that song, if she really got to know the Mex culture she'll know it. Life goes by fast, but as I believe you once told me "the faster the roller coaster the funner, especially with your hands in the air"! So just ride the ride and laugh at the weird pictures of us as kids.

     Maelynn told me about her talk as well - that's super cool. I actually met a missionary in my old ward that served there in Rama 18 in Idaho falls for a lot of his mission there, so that's pretty cool!

     I've also heard about those infamous Hillcrest coach over-nighter fundraisers. They sound fun. They always bring all of the bugs in the entire city to the stadium tho, so that must have sucked, but all around way to go to Sadie! 10 miles is a ton!!

     Also, I need to apologize for being such an awful son, I never wished you or dad Happy birthday, or dad happy father's day, so here's a big  "I LOVE YOU"  that I hope you can accept as compensation, and here's a little one too for if you need a little more "I love you". 

But I really do love you guys and everything you do for me! Y'alls are the Best!

     But I do have to correct you a little bit. I didn't get a new calling, I got a new assignment. My calling is still the same one President Monson gave me 18 months ago in that letter I received, "called to serve"! 

     Leadership positions, as well as areas, missions, companions etc. are all just assignments that are given in addition to that same calling that I was set apart for. But yeah, life is good. My comp is elder Wasson. He's really cool. We work really well together, we are teaching some super cool people. We actually had a baptism Saturday, but I still haven't gotten a hold of the pictures so that's why there aren't any. Angel Martinez got baptized by President Hernandez (the Stake President) on Saturday. He is a really cool investigator that was able to overcome a lot of addictions including some pretty hard drugs.  He has a super cool testimony of repentance and humility.  This week we are hoping to be able to have another baptism of Jean Paul and his sister Xioana.  They are some children of a less active member that have never been baptized, so please keep them in your prayers and I'll let you know how everything goes. Other than that everything is going great. Its not anything different being a ZL, everything is normal, just some extra stuff to do. Always glad to serve. Also congrats tho on your YW Medallion Mom! That's way cool!  When does Sadie get hers? Or did she already? I honestly don't know....torpecito.

        Love you Guys all so Much!

Elder Bailey

Wherein Landen Learns that Repentance is Stronger than Drugs!

August 13, 2018

     Wow! That Hillcrest coach is like famous. He whoops teams into super good shape and I'm pretty sure he has a couple of state championships under his belt. That's crazy that he switched from Hillcrest! But Sadie should like him a lot ... if she survives his workouts! 

     Ahh - the good old Boise trip, that's a fun park. Saw the pics of Fountain Green too! Looks super good there!

     As far as the new area and companion goes, things are super good! Elder Wasson is an awesome missionary. We get along well and we have been able to see some miracles together already. We saw two big miracles this week that I want to share with you guys!

      The first is about an investigator that they were already teaching when I got here. His name is Angel. He has had a pretty rough past. He was involved in a lot of bad things, including drugs and what not - bad stuff, but he also really wants to get baptized. So what we decided to do this week was go and visit him with the Stake president (who had known him when he was involved in the drugs and what not), so that the Stake president could let us know what he thought about his repentance.  He has really changed a lot and the stake president saw that as well.  He completely gave up smoking, coffee, and multiple drugs. He has been clean for a while now.  He has truly repented and is very happy because of it. Repentance is always possible! And it works! And best of all it brings us Happiness! True happiness that will not go away with a hangover or a withdrawl, but will last into the eternities! (Mosiah 2:41)  Anyways, Angel will be getting baptized on Saturday by the stake president.  (pic to come!)

       The other miracle story is of an investigator that we found this week, named Juan. Juan is a little older man that we shared a message with after we met him on the street. We went back for our return appointment to see if he really had any interest, we didn't honestly have too much hope (which was bad and we have to repent of).  But we shared and taught about the Book of Mormon and invited him to be baptized. He told us how he had already been baptized before (like most people tell us) - but we continued and explained true authority and the necessity to do it again.  And he was pretty resistant.
        Then in the middle of my companion explaining about the priesthood and the true church of Christ, he just randomly said "Esta bien, Cuando es?" ("OK. When is it?")
I was quite confused and I replied:"Cuando es Que?" ("When is what?")
... to which he quickly responded "Mi bautizmo, cuando es mi Bautizmo?" ("My baptism. When is my baptism?")  So I said "Oh, el 15 de septiembre" ("Oh. The 15th of September".)  And he just said "Esta bien."  ("Ok").  So that was a really cool miracle and experience to see someone's heart get touched and accept the gospel path.

      We really can't do this on our own. We can't do it at all, as a matter of fact, without the help of God. He prepares people and helps them on the Gospel path in their right time and right place. We just get the great blessing of watching Gods work first hand every day, for which I am very grateful! 

Love you all!

Elder Bailey

Wherein Landen is Transferred to Caguas!

August 6, 2018

     Yeah, the scabies are basically gone. I'm not contagious anymore at least, so I can go out and work.  Sounds like life continues to be very good back home, here everything is great as well. 
     This week we were able to take one of our investigators on a tour of the chapel with her member friends to help make her feel more comfortable when she comes to church, then on Sunday she was actually able to make it to church! 
     We did it following a little advice that our president gave us in the last zone conference that we had.  He told us that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing multiple times expecting a different result. For the majority of my mission it has seemed to be a struggle to get investigators to come to church, especially in this area. So me and my comp decided, instead of just committing the investigators to come and reminding them by phone, (which hadn't been working), what if we try something new and bring them with a member to the church for a lesson? Then we can show them the whole chapel and teach them about the sacrament in the sacramental room (I don't actually know what the proper way to say "salon Sacramental" is in English. Awkward...) and so we decided, well, the old idea hasn't been working, so it would be insanity according to president to just keep trying it, so we tried something new! And it actually worked! She came to church, met all of the members and had a really good time! This was Tania btw, I think I told y'all about her last week too. She's pretty cool. 

    In other news, I'll never actually get to teach Tania , or any of the other investigators that we have here ever again, because we got transfer calls yesterday and they are sending me to to opposite end of the island to a pueblo called Caguas. My new companion is Elder Wasson. He used to be my district leader, and I am super excited to work with him.  I've heard a lot of good things about him and the ward, although aparentamente la obra alli a estado un poco bajo recientemente, no se mucho pero les cuento la semana q viene!

   That's basically it, Love you guys all super much!

Elder Bailey