Wherein Lane Catches a Stupid Mouse!

 November 25, 2024

Not too much crazy happened this week! First week of the transfer with Elder Fort! It went honestly pretty good! There's still some things that are annoying or suck about trios but I think it'll be alright!

One thing is that we have stupid mice in our house! I caught the first one on Thursday with my crazy reflexes, and then Friday Elder Grillo killed one. Then we thaught that was all of them, but then on Sunday we saw more!! So we're going to buy some poison today!

We have another friend with a baptism date! She's super awesome, like 70 years old, and speaks mostly quechua! But she has a bunch of faith, and like has come to church for the last 3 weeks! Prays a lot! She's one of the most ready for baptism people I've ever met! That's for the 8th of December which were excited for!

Our goal for November which was 3 prolly isn't gonna happen, but that's ok cuz December gonna be great!

Speaking of December, there was a little Christmas tree left here in a box, and I finally got around to setting it up on Wednesday! So that makes the room a little happier!

We had a great missionary night this week! Best we've ever had, with 11 members! And we had hot chocolate, panetón, a great spiritual video, and afterwards a little game! It was awesome!

Then we had English class on saturday, only 2 people showed up, and I let Elder Fort teach this one! Next week is about the human body and so I'm excited for that lesson!

That's basically all the main things this week! I think we might go on a hike this morning, if we do there'll peolly be pics on the Google fotos!

 Spiritual section:

 Elder Fort gave a talk on Sunday about how we need to keep our spiritual fires lit to stay safe and protected from the wolves (Satan and his followers) It was based on a talk from general conference in 1992 from Joseph B. Wirthlin! It's really good and if you get a chance this week to read it you should!!

#iwillservethelord

Sorry about the super short email! Maybe next week will be longer?? Who knows!! 

Until next time folks

 - Élder Bailey  

Wherein Lane Has His First Baptism

 November 18, 2024

Hey fellas! How are y'all doin! How's the cold weather treating you??

Well this week here in Perú was amazing! Honestly not much happened, but the stuff that did happen was amazing as always!

Last pday we didnt really do much! Drove to Urubamba, ate some Chifa (just chinese food), and chilled at the church there until 5! Also got my first haircut in Perú. Dude was mad chill, the cut was nice, and only 12 soles, which I think is a pretty good deal!

Basically the rest of the week nothing happened that was too special! We worked hard, and got all of our key indicators (goals for the week) finished by thursday! This was good and bad, because obviously its great that we finished our goals early in the week, but my comp kinda took that as though our week was completed! But nooo buddy! So i made us go out and try and do a little more work, but yea that was a bummer.

Also it rained for like 4 straight days here, and stopped right before the baptism! What a miracle! And then continued after it naturally. And if you remember we have a hole in the roof, so the kitchen was like completely flooded! We could basically start fishing for dinner now hehe! 

Had a great missionary night had some good discussions with the members and somehow they got on the topic of how they need to be better examples and show up on time to church, and to be more inviting to new people! Basically chastized themselves which is good they recognize where the need to improve!

Then on saturday we had the baptism of Luciano!! Love this kid, hes amazing! Hes 13 and only his mom is a member. The rest of his family is catholic, and they have been pressuring him trying to not get him to be baptized and sayin stuff about the church and all these things! Very proud because he was able to ignore all that and make one of the best decisions of him life! That would be hard tho if all your family was agint you.

After the baptism and cake and what not (his mom threw a big party!!) We had English class. 3 people stayed after the baptism for that which is the most people we've had at English class, and they kinda just decided to make it a vocab class and asked me random words to translate for 2 hours! And then after that we had a FHE with a family and so we ended up staying at the church for like 8 hours that day.

Sunday was good but seemed kinda lazy, which was partly my fault. There was some hurt feelings of a member from our branch president and so that was dumb. Luis keeps coming to church which is awesome so idk what going on with him!! I'm hoping for the best and that he'll get baptised.

Anyways kinda interesting week.

Oh crap forgot to say we had transfers and I'm staying here in Calca!!! Yayayayay. Élder Grillo is too, but we're getting another, Élder Fort, so it's gonna be a trio. Honestly not looking forward to it. Trios are dumb in my opinion, but I just need to have a good attitude about it.

 Spiritual section:

My spiritual though comes from "Act in All Dilligence" from Pres. Henry B. Eyring.(2010) Basically I encourage everyone, (espescially fellow missionaries, or people with callings in church) to read and study this talk! Its amazing!

And i think it applied to me and my companion this week! Basically he talks about how after the savior was crucified, he said "It is finnished" and then proceeded for three solid days, to go preach more and help people gain their salvation in the spirit world! What a powerful testimony! This week after we completed all of our goals wednesday night, we might have thought our work was done, but no! We still worked hard and were able to give good lessons and find people afterwards! And have a baptism!!

#putyourshouldertothewheel

Good week this week! Really crazy that first transfer here in Perú is done! Only 13 more and im finished with the mish!! 

7 days more

 - Élder Bailey  

Wherein Lane Got Sick and Slept for 18 Hours!

 November 11, 2024

"My Agency Was Taken Away From Me"

Hey guys another good week here in Peru! Hopefully yours was good as well! Officially starting the last week of my first trabsfer here in Peru!! How crazy is that! We find out on saturday if Im staying here in Calca or hesding somewhere new! Honestly im down for both! Calca is freaking awesome, and i would love to stay cuz I am starting to know the people here and what not, but also somewhere knew could be fun as well!

This week was pretty slow as far as the work goes, but super awesome nonetheless. Yea basically 2 of our baptisms fell through, the other was postponed, and our promising friend Jesús hasn't gone to church and is starting to have mega doubts! But basically besides that and the other probably 20 lessons that fell through this week im chillin! I've been eating cookie dough, enjoying the almost perfect weather, loving the people, and sleeping a good amount, food is fantastic still, and I get to walk like 5 miles a day in the most beautiful part of Perú!

Ohh yea, I forgot, on Tuesday I woke up very very sick, destroyed the toilet one too many times, and threw up more nasty crap than I thought could physically fit in my body! Not the best of days, and I had no energy and slept like 18+ hours! Our pensionista made me a nice soup, and I'm sure my companion enjoyed getting some extra sleep too, so really that day wasnt too bad either! And the next morning I was completely fine and ready to go to work! 

Other than that... umm... we had missionary night, solid 2 people showed up! But we watched a good video and talked for a lil. Also got to call Maelynn and Sadie cuz it was their birthdays this week. English class was good as always! (Except that no one showed up!!) We were gonna learn days, months, and the time, but instead, we learned ping-pong! The quechua is coming along, (not really) I know numbers and how to have a very very basic inteoduction conversation. And for some reason, I'm doing Dutch now during lunch. Probably should focus on Spanish, but sometimes it gets boring, and so the Dutch and Quechua break it up!

Ok last story! Freaking on Saturday we got a call from the president and I didn't hear/understand him through the phone, but then my comp was like "is that ok with you?" And I just always say yea, and so apparently I was agreeing to giving a talk!

I feel like it's kinda silly to ask someone to give a talk on Saturday before, because I felt like he cheated me of my agency to procrastine, by doing it for me! Anyways I still procrastinated until late that night where I spent one hour, and wrote what I'd consider a pretty decent talk! Then I gave it on Sunday and people liked it!

 Spiritual section:

I dont really know what to put this week to be honest! It was a spiritual week, but like nothing too crazy happened and i cant pinpoint something exact to share!

I guess its just important to know that you can have a spiritual week without a bunch of specific experiences. As long as you strive to live with and invite always the Holy Spirit, then your life will be a lot better and be filled with tiny miracles (like the 4 donuts this week) as long as you look for them!!

I guess that's my message this week, as we fulfill our baptismal covenant, we are promised to have the Spirit with us abundantly! Try this week to just have the companionship of the holy spirit with you as much as possible (that means no contention Miles and Emerson) and then look for how many opportunities you will have to serve a friend, love your enemies, and shine your light! And then, as a result, you will receive numerous blessings and miracles throughout the week and have the spirit with you even more often, what an awesome cycle! 

And then of course, send me an email next week so I can see how it went!

#lettheholyspiritguide

Anyways, pretty short and unneventful week. Let me know how your week was!!! I love getting emails from you guys, it makes Pdays that much less boring!! praying for you guys a lot!

(If you could pray for Luciano and Luis that would be great!!)

Until next monday

 - Élder Bailey