03 - MTC 3

So it's been an exciting week.  Last Monday our district got to go up to the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake and get our VISAs!!!  We also just had a district in our zone leave for Argentina and we got a new one in yesterday. 

The days are getting colder and hopefully by October before we leave there may be some snow!  I'm not going to see any of that for the next two years.

So the classes have been hard, but I'm learning still.  My Spanish is getting much more fluent, although I'm not sure I can keep up with the dialog of a native.

We had a bunch of good speakers for our devotionals.  Last Tuesday, we had Elder Don Clarke of the Seventy come in and address us in the Marriott Center.  He talked a lot about taking every opportunity to teach the gospel that you find. We actually placed a Book of Mormon with a potential investigator while up in Salt Lake!  He also gave an interesting quote:  "about 80% of the fish are in 10% of the water."  There is also another talk that I would recommend everyone look up and listen to.  It is by Elder Bednar called "The 20 Mark Note."

Until next week,

Elder Bailey

02 - MTC 2.5

An announcement: on Monday, our district will be going up to the
Mexican consulate in Salt Lake to get our visas!!! We will be going
straight to Cancun after the MTC! For some reason, all of the
exciting things happen on Thursday after I send the e-mails.

Well, everything else is going well here at the MTC. I love it here
and I can't wait to get out in the field.

Love you,
Elder Bailey

02 - MTC 2

Hey there,

Can't believe it's been only two weeks. It feels like I've been in the MTC for longer than that.  That's probably because I've adjusted to the routine here.

So a week ago, I went into the temple on P-day and afterwards had lunch in the main MTC cafeteria, and guess who I ran into. My friend Mike was on the main campus and is going to Denmark.

I have a great district here at the MTC. We have 6 missionaries total and we are all going to the Cancun Mexico mission, so I will be seeing them a lot. In the photo starting from the left, there is handsome me, my comp Elder Mitchell (he's a stud), Elder Roundy, Elder Collins (only one not from Utah, he's from Oregon), Elder Judd our district leader, and finally Elder Burger. My comp is from Spanish Fork, so he's kind of local, but he's amazing to work with.

So studying wise, it's been going great. I've learned so much here in the MTC and the Spanish is coming through. The amount of studying we have to do is huge. These are all of the books they gave us to study and read through. But it is still fun work.

So one of the important things that we learn here is the idea of teaching people, not lessons. Teaching the gospel to an investigator isn't all about filling them up with knowledge. It is about listening to the spirit and knowing the needs of the investigator and teaching them what they need with love. The ability to love is a great quality for missionary work.

Thanks everyone for your support.

Elder Bailey

P. S. DearElder works great.  Christmas comes with every envelope. (In the MTC, Christmas is getting mail. All the missionaries are crazy about getting mail.)

01 - MTC 1

Hello out there! One week down in the MTC and plenty more until I go out in the field! The work is hard, but there is a lot that I've learned already. It is a relief to put aside the world and focus more on the spiritual matters.

My district is great. Every one of us is going to Cancun, so I'm going to be seeing them a lot over the next two years. I apologize that I don't have any pics yet, I'm still adjusting to the schedule. I should have plenty to send next Thursday.

I'm in the Wyview campus, where they have all of the Spanish/Russian/Greek/Madagascar missionaries, so I haven't seen anyone else except for Gabe Castleton (and Chris). Also, the best way to get letters to me is through DearElder. When you send letters to me by e-mail, I can't get them until Thursday, but when you send them through DearElder, they print them out and put it in the mailbox so I can get them whenever I check. So have everyone send them through DearElder please.

That's kind of all that I have right now, but the MTC is a very interesting experience. As soon as you go into class, they start teaching you Spanish right away, but I actually do have more of a head start than most of the others in my district. I'm picking it up quickly. The teaching is actually a lot easier than I thought, the only real roadblock is the Spanish. But I'm still working hard anyway. This is a great work that I'm doing and I love it!

A thought that I would like to share is that our Heavenly Father is always blessing and guiding us. At the time we may not notice, but looking back, we can see all of the moments that the Lord's hand is there blessing and preparing each one of us for the work that he would have us do.

Thank you for everything that you have done for me, I really do appreciate it.

Until later,

Elder Bailey

MTC