#13 Best of Times and Worst of Times

Where do I start... might as well be with the story. 

       My companion that has become my good friend has been in Villalba (My area) for 3 transfers (4 and a half months) We had developed a solid relationship and were finding success. We had transfers and were expecting changes. Elder Weeks took the call and we found out that he was staying and that I was leaving. We had been gathered at the Ordoñez house, and I almost started crying at hearing the news. All of that week we had been telling people that he was most likely leaving. 

       

 The majority of the day on Sunday I spent saying goodbye to these people who I had grown to love and I felt like I was saying goodbye to my family. We went to the Encalada family and as I was walking out the door I looked back and just started balling like a baby. Then so did Patricio and Cecilia.  

     

    We had another few visits to the Lobaco family, the Bota family, and we finished with the Ordoñez family. Ismael is the young man we baptised a few weeks ago. We had a great time talking and laughing. I came out without shedding a tear, but then they said they would walk us out. As I was walking down the stairs I remembered when we had first obtained permission for Isma to get baptised. Then I lost it. Ismael, Victor (Isma`s dad) and I started balling. I have grown to love these people so much in such little time. 

         I felt like I had been robbed of my time, but then Ismael and I were crying and hugging and he said that after a year of missionaries that I was the one to finally get him baptised... Although I wish I had more time there I feel like I was able to be a good tool in the Lord´s hands. Even if the rest of my mission was garbage it would be worth the years of preparation, and the 2 years away from my family knowing that I was able to meet these great people and feel their love and the love of God. 

     I´m now in Talavera with a new companion... I´m pretending that I don´t speak English, but he seems like a good hard worker. Well the Church is true and I´ll write more about my new area next week. Hopefully get some funny stories in there. 

#12 GOTTA LOVE THE YOUNG GUYS!

Patricio, Javi, Danni, and Isma! We had a Stake conference, so we took a pic in front of the temple... Where are their smiles? I wish I knew... Haha but I love them so much!

 Hmm... Here's the stories... "Young guys" then about my good friend Carmen. Yeah... that should be a good lineup.

                                                     Young Guys Pt. 1 

     On Thursday we had just gotten failed for the 3rd time. We thought it was going to be a lesson packed day, but there were clearly other plans for us. I was feeling a little down, but I still always say hi to everyone. I said hi to this younger (150 year old) man. He stops and asked me who I was. I told him that I was a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ. My name was Elder Bailey. He asked me if I had ever met Jesus. I'm sure my response surprised him. I told him that I had. He said that he was much older than me and surely knew more. He said that he hasn't seen him. Haha he started yelling at me. I think it was just that he didn't hear very well, or at least that's what I like to think. I shared that I hadn't seen God face to face, but I did know if my heart that Christ loves me and that he loves you too, and that's why I'm here. I gave him a smile, and he said that he couldn't be convinced. We left him with our card, and told him to call us if he ever wanted to talk. Although we had been canceled on a lot it was good to just laugh a little, but it was also good to remind me of my testimony. 

                                                      Young Guys Pt. 2 

      The next day we were contacting. We play this game where we pick who the other person has to contact. So I went to go talk to these Jehovah Witnesses. They are a little harder, but most of them are good people with a similar goal that we have. They had just finished talking to this other old guy... uh.. I mean young guy.. Spaniards just live forever! This man told us not to listen to the Testigos and that we should just believe in ourselves. It was funny because he said that we shouldn't talk to the Jehovah Witnesses right in front of them. He wanted to tell us about his philosophy, but we were in a rush to go to a lesson. For me it was interesting to see how these people had lost their faith in God due to adversities. We'll be meeting with this Maximo (Young guy) later, but I'm sure he'll have some interesting things to tell us. 

       The last person I want to talk about is Carmen! She's an Ecuadorian women. She has a great heart and reminds me of my mom! We get along really well, and we had a lesson about eternal families. We brought a member with us to the lesson. He had just done the work for his dad, and is baptising him in the temple this week! His testimony was so powerful, and the Spirit was clearly there. Carmen loves this aspect of the church and is considering baptism for herself. I'm excited to see where she goes, and I know that the Gospel truly blesses families for eternity!

I know the church is true, and that is brings true joy into people's lives! 

Elder Terry Bailey

The second picture is of a letter opener I bought at a market the other day... I'm not hinting at anything... but my address is in the pic too if you ever get ridiculously bored.

#11 THE HUNT

Throwback to MTC buddy!

Outline: It's gettin' hot in here! THE HUNT! Together forever. 

It's gettin' hot in here!

This week was fantastic! It's gettin' hot in here. There is a recent convert family that we are teaching. Everyone knows I'm Mexican and they always want Mexican food. I'm pretty sure they all pretend to like me just so they can get me to make them food, but it works. I started making burritos! I told them what to buy, and they bought these peppers. We put them in a separate plate, so people could choose to put it in. Come to find out they are a little less hot then habaneros, but they're hotter than jalapeños. Me being a prideful Mexican thought I Could take the heat.... so I put in 10 big pieces in my mouth and ate them up. But just so you understand they lady ate 1, and literally started crying! I ate the ten and the heat come! My face turned bright red and then drank coke, but it wouldn't go away! They made a video and everyone make fun of me! Wow it was rough... even for a 1/2 Mexican... I my half American took over. 

 And burritos! 

NOW for the HUNT! 

That same night we had the ward Family home evening. We had just finished the lesson and we started playing Spanish BIG BOOTY. I had just gotten knocked out of being the boss when I went to the lounge to sit down and cry about my loss when I hear a girl yell RAT!! It ran into the room where we were playing. We then started preparing to get it back outside from where it came. They built a table wall to make sure it didn't get to the other side of the building. Most people went behind the wall, but not me... I'm brave. We pushed the rat out of its hiding place, and then I heard this awful yell... come to find out it was my voice yelling, and I realized that I had then gotten on top of a table... that was embarrassing. I was kicked out of the room... Well I then hid on top of another chair while they hunted and got the rat outside...Success! PS before I start my serious story I ate cow heart with some investigators on Saturday... random, but it was quite an experience. 

Together Forever 

I've had some great times in Spain with some great people, but what really makes it worth it is talking about God and how He blesses families. We got to meet with a recent convert family. Giovanni and Miriam. Giovanni used to smoke and drink a lot before he got baptised, but the Gospel got rid of those addictions which is a true miracle. We knew that they were having relationship troubles, and we always thought is was Giovanni because he's well... you kinda need to know him, but as we talked we found out that their main problem is that Miriam has a hard time forgiving him for what he used to do. A couple of days later we had a lesson with them about forgiveness. The Spirit was obviously there. She started crying, and said she had a change of heart, and will diligently work to become better. Giovanni intends to help as much as he can. They have a great family and I know that the Lord blesses families! the church is true! 

ELDER TERRY BAILEY

And...he has not lost his talent...in capturing really cool photos!

#10 MILAGO DE DIOS (Miracle of God)

PS look at that sky and tell me that there's no God!

I'll be honest this letter isn't gonna be super funny.... Mostly because I can't think of any good lies... uh I mean stories to tell. jk all the stories I tell are true, but this week just had some growing points for me. 1. Milagro 2. Angel 3. Marathon

"When one door closes another door opens." Tuesday we had a great lesson planned for a Romanian lady we're teaching! She lived in the US for 12 years, so we'd give lessons in English. We got to the church and she said that she appreciated what we had done for her, but she was done. BOOM! I felt like I had been dumped by my girlfriend! My comp was kinda mad, but I was just sad. We decided that we had to forget about it, and get back to work! We hit the streets and found a few people with great potential! Then we went to go on another lesson. The guy said that he'd for sure be there, but he wasn't. We then started walking and found Carmen!! She's our investigator that had gone to Ecuador for a month. We saw her bringing back the bags, so we helped her. She informed us that she had given away a Book of Mormon the her cousin! It was exciting! 

     My friend Angel came to a lesson with us. He's a member that used to be gay. He's repented and he talked about how God was able to help him be better. He is still attracted to men, but he knows that acting upon it would be against the will of God. That hit me really hard because I know that sometimes we judge people like that. He taught me that God can help us overcome any trial, and can make us strong. 

    Now for marathon! Right outside of our flat there were people gathered together to run a marathon. I saw them and reflected my fair well talk. I was having a hard week, and I was feeling sick, but I saw the determination those people had to do something hard. This gave me the strength to do the same, and just lose myself in the work. 

     I know that God lives and loves us. I know he knows us. He works in mysterious ways, but that's because he knows more than us. As we follow Him we can be made Strong. 

Terry Bailey

PS look at that sky and tell me that there's no God! 

Another pic of when our table mysteriously broke