Wherein Lane Gets a New Companion

 September 23, 2024

OK I'll try to get this one done on Pday hehe.(it's 11:08, and I need to go to bed) Basically this week was kinda interesting. On Tuesday we got a new companion!!!! His name is Elder Rodriguez! He's from Texas and he's pretty chill!

But I'm back on the air mattress now! So that is what it is. The food has been good! I eat donuts, Ramen noodles, cookie dough, pasta, and milk. And that's about it! I think I'm in for a real culture shock when I get to Peru and realize that they eat decently healthy food there.

The teaching is slow as ever here... I'm trying not to worry about it too much, cuz we legit are trying hard and putting in effort and just people aren't seeming to be interested! Anyways... I don't wanna complain about my problems, so that's that. 

Good things is that with the new companion we have been doing a lot better, and way more consistent comp studies. So that is good because sometimes personal study can get kinda boring. Also I'm almost done with my bags of cereal I bought a little bit ago, so idk what I'm gonna do once those are gone.

We did do a little service this week, and it was good because I like doing service. But it was weeding . I don't know if I had the options if I'd rather go out and weed just to have something to do, or not weed and be bored and feel lazy. So it was good to get out.

I'm hoping this week if we knuckle down, buckle down, that we can get some good work done! I think, hope, and pray it'll be good.

Just barely over 2 weeks until I go to Peru... I don't know how I'm feeling about that yet, because I feel so excited and ready to finally go to my mission! But also I'm a little nervous still! Gonna be good and I know I'm not gonna be going through it alone!

Also these Mexican people gave the other elders some super spicy like homegrown habanero peppers, and I was really freaking dying!! Like I thought habaneros weren't supposed to be that bad, but it was freaking terrible. I drank half a gallon of milk in 3 minutes!!

Glad to hear everyone at home is doing good!! 

Congrats to Spencer for getting his mission call to Poland! He's gonna be an awesome missionary.

Also congrats to Lincoln, he gave his farewell talk on Sunday, and he also is gonna be a great missionary!!

And thanks so much to all of the missionaries that are out serving right now, who are such great examples to me!

And thanks to my friends and family for being awesome and what not!!

 Spiritual section:

Learned a lot about patience and how to deal with people in christ like ways this week. This talk, "The Powerful, Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Christ" by elder renlund is super amazing and I've heard it a bunch but learned lots of good new stuff from it. We also had a district council all about being patient and enduring to the end, and it was just about at the right time, cuz I've been having to be patient with a fee things recently!! But as long as you honestly give it your best effort and really really try your best, that that is all that needs to be done, God will help us in our endevors!!

 

Sorry for the kinda late email. Anyways feel free to reach out!!! I love hearing from you guys! Or send me a letter if you want to before I leave!! 

"2307W. Main st. , #316

Bozeman, MT 59718"

Thanks for all the prayers. Anyways goodbye peeps have a great next week!  

#praisetotheman

Love you all again!!

 - Élder Bailey  

Wherein Lane Gets His Visa!

 Sep. 17, 2024

Oh my goodness i forgot to click send on this bad boy... my moms gonna be mad 

OK yall how is life going for everyone?? This week has for sure been interesting, hopefully I can keep it short for you guys. 

Basically we didn't do much teaching this week. It was really slow and kinda lame but that's all good. We had a lesson with one family who has been coming back to church, and they had a lot of kinda tricky questions, but hopefully they can have some faith and it'll all work out.

The dinners have been great!! We get a lot of member dinners, and the food has always been fantastic!! On Sunday we got a steak dinner, and it was a massive streak, and he cooked it perfectly how I like it, rare!!

OK guys I got some good news!!!!! I'll just tell the whole days story I guess... So we started Thursday by going to zone conference in billings, and we had a good time and had some good talks and what not, and then afterwards we went to Chick-fil-A and we got some good taka. Then president called us, which has been a common occurance so I didn't think anything of it, but he was talking to elder marrot and said that he was going home tomorrow!! Like what the, you can't take my boy away!! Anyways, after that president asked us him to pass the phone from me. He was like, "elder Bailey I've got some news for you!". I was like basically either someone snitched on me for doing something stupid, or I just got my visa. Turns out my visa got approved and I get to go to Peru!!! Woooo woooooo yeaahhahhh!!  Super sick!! I accidentally dropped my frosted lemonade and it shot like 15 feet away all over the floor. Anyways that's that.

I get to finish off the transfer here and then I'll head to Peru on October 9th!! It's kinda surreal to know for sure that I am going to Peru now!! I am definitely not ready tho, its gonna be a completely new place and culture and I dont know a single thing about Spanish and I'm cooked!! But what's gonna happen is gonna happen, so nothing to worry about!!

So basically the very next day we took Élder Marrott to the airport... My own trainer left me!! He basically busted his leg up really bad and had to go home for surgery... So wish him luck and give him prayers and what not!! Now it's just been me and elder Johnson who were both still in training, so I guess we both just pass and we don't need any more training!! Sweetness!! Also I don't have to sleep on the air mattress anymore!!! That's awesome!!!

One day we went to an apartment complex and knocked on 70 doors! I think 18 answered which is pretty good, and we gave out like 5 books of Mormons!! So that's cool... also like 6 of the people who answered only spoke Spanish so I was able to cook up a little, and sadly we only had one Spanish book of Mormon with us, but we could have given 3 of those away... always be prepared you guys!! Anyways that was a fun couple of hours.

Then we went to the BigSky branch that we are over, and that is the smallest church meeting I have ever gone to. It was (including us) 17 people!! So it was kinda cool, and the church building was tiny, all of the people's houses were bigger than it. But everyone there is also multi millionaire borderland billionaire rich!! So that's cool!

 Spiritual section: 

This week was a lot of upsides and downs, but I saw a bunch of mini miracles and it'd be great to just see God's hand in my life, and how he blesses us for our effort, because I'm certainly not a very good missionary and have a lot of work to do, but He's gonna help me through. So we good

Sorry for being late. Feel free to reach out!!! I love hearing from you guys! Or send me a letter if you want before I go to Peru!! 

"2307W. Main st. , #316

Bozeman, MT 59718"

 Anyways goodbye peeps have a great next week!  

#thereisagreenhillfaraway

Love you all!!

 - Élder Bailey 

Forgot to put pictures for the last couple weeks:

Wherein Lane is Spiritually AND Physically Fed!

 September 10, 2024

First off, yesterday was kinda busy, (im just lazy) and so thats why im sending this on tuesday  but amyways lets get into it.

Well another week has indeed gone by. Can't tell if it's going fast or slow!!! Often times it feels like a day takes a 100 hours and it's never going to end, but at the same time it feels like not to long ago that I was writing the last email!! But all in all it's been a good week.

As far as teaching is going... it's still deadly slow!! Like nobody! We have a few people we set up times with to meet, and then they proceeded to not answer their door! Then we would try and text a bunch of people and they would either have some excuse, or also just not answer. And then we would try and just go knock random people's doors, and they would either tell us to leave, or not want to talk to us, or also just not answer.

So that has been pretty dumb, but it is what it is.

Good thing is that this week was better for my spanish! I was able to go around with the Spanish elders who live at ours same apartment complex a few times this week!! Sunday was super awesome because I got to go to our ward, and then to the Spanish branch as well! They made me say the sacrament prayer, and even though my accent isn't the worst, I'm sure I sounded like this little white kid who didn't know what he was doing. The good news is that I can understand basically everything that the people were saying, and I even raised my hand and shared a thought in elders quorum and everyone was super chill!

The food here had been pretty fantastic... not quite sure how I still haven't managed to gain any weight, but or is what it is.

The members feed us almost every single night here! We just take this calendar with us to church on Sundays and leave it in the relief society room, and they just fill it up! It's awesome because then we have a guaranteed lesson each day, so we get to be spiritually fed, by its arguably more awesome because the people here make the best food, and we are physically fed too! 

Comps and everyone are doing pretty good, Élder Marrott got his MRI results and apparently he tore a tendon and fractured and chipped his patella. Big RIP. He might have to go home for surgery, but hopefully he waits at least until the end of the transfer.

 Spiritual section:

Yesterday was president Nelson's 100th birthday! If you haven't watched the celebration then I would recommend that! Shows how great of a man our prophet is, besides him being the prophet. Anyways they talked about the 99+1 challenge, and how we need to look out for the one. This is very important for missionary work so that was good. Anyways I'd watch that if you haven't already. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/broadcasts/president-nelsons-100th-birthday-celebration?lang=eng

Welp, shorter letter today, just don't for much to share i guess. feel free to reach out!!! I love hearing from you guys! Or send me a letter I'd you really really want to!! 

"2307W. Main st. , #316

Bozeman, MT 59718"

 Anyways goodbye peeps have a great next week!  

#allcreaturesofourgodandking

Love you all!!

 - Élder Bailey 

Wherein Lane Flies to Montana!

 September 2, 2024

Hey buddies!!! Finally made it here to the field after a long time!!! Basically, I'll start on the 26th last Monday... that was my last day of MTC and it was so good, our classes were good and fun, and we had 2 testimony meetings, one in English and one in Spanish! Then later that day I was able to give some priesthood blessings to a hermana in my district along with my companion! Then he was able to give me one! Basically, that was super awesome and the spirit was super strong, and I thought I wouldn't know what to say, but I kinda just said it!! Then later that night we had a party in our dorm and ate a bunch of junk food and stayed up till like 11:30. Then I realized that I needed to start packing, so I did that super fast, and then wrote some emails until like 2:00! By then I just gave up on sleeping because I had to be at the travel office by 3:30! So I just sat on the couch! Then at 3:50ish we left and took 3 trains/busses to the airport and then I was just sitting there for like 3 hours until my flight left! There were 28 of us going to Montana, so there were a good amount of missionaries at the Airport! Mostly I just tried to sleep a little. I also got Panda Express which was good because I hadn't had good food in a month.

Then we flew for less than 1 1/2 hours and got to Billings! Our mission president the Bresslers were there waiting for us and then we went and had some food, and some interviews, and some classes, and some more food, and then we got to go sleepover at the APs house. Finally got some sleep after like 40ish hours which was nice!!!

The next day, we went to the church and got our assignments and companions, and some Chick-fil-A which was soo goood!!

I got assigned to Bozeman Montana, and my comps are Elder Marrott and Elder Johnson! They're both chill and elder Johnson was at this area last transfer.

Before heading to Bozeman from Billings tho me and élder Marrott had to take a trip to get him an MRI because he busted up his leg! Then we drove 2 hours over to Bozeman and got to our apartment which has one bedroom with 2 twin beds. Sounds nice except there are three of us, so we had to do a Walmart run and get an air mattress that I am staying on for the next 6 weeks 

Basically, for the last couple of days, we've been driving around knocking on doors trying to find some nonmembers and what not, but no one has answered their door and we haven't really done much other missionary work, and so it's been kinda discouraging, but it's all good!

Yesterday was a fast Sunday and I was thirsty all day! But Sacrament meeting was good, and I randomly saw Brother Lafferty from my home ward in Ephraim which was weird but cool! Then we went and studied(napped) for like 4 hours and then we drove around and tried to knock some more doors, with no answer. Eventually, we had a break-the-fast dinner at the YSA and so that made me happy! Also we bought Monopoly and have played it 8 times in like 3 or 4 days!! So that's good!

Basically, the missionary work is going kinda slow, but it's OK because just being a missionary is awesome! Like I've been waiting my whole life for this and now I'm actually here doing it!!! Kinda surreal!! The Spanish isn't going too good, I have talked to one person in Spanish for like 2 sentences the whole time! So hopefully I won't forget everything by the time I get to Peru! Speaking of which, no news on the Visa, so I'm just here waiting!! It's kinda driving me nuts but I just gotta trust in the Lord's timing!!

 Spiritual section:

Random story, but on the second day, we were driving around and knocking on some people's doors, and the first 3 or so people didn't answer, and as we were leaving the third guy's house, Google maps was being weird, and drove us around for like 5 minutes before randomly taking us back down the street of the house we just knocked on, then I jokingly was like "well I guess it's divine intervention maybe we gotta go knock some more", and so we got out of the car and went to his neighbor's house, and they didn't answer, so then I was like well let's just go the next one then, and he was like OK, so we went, to the next one, and they didn't immediately answer, but after the 2nd knock this guy opened the door and didn't seem too interested, but he said he was Christian, and I was like oh bet, can we share a quick message about Jesus, and he was like sure. So I shared 2Nephi26:24 and he said he liked it and we gave him the BoM and left.

Anyways, just kinda cool, and it felt good to give away a Book of Mormon!

Yea ok ok... i think that sums up the last almost 2 weeks!!!!!+ :) 

Anyway, feel free to reach out!!! I love hearing from you guys! Anyways goodbye peeps!!

#highonthemountaintop

Love you all!!

 - Élder Bailey